In 2016, Sweden’s Royal Institute of Art intended to move to an empty industrial building on the outskirts of Stockholm – Tomteboda, a building owned by the Swedish postoperator PostNord Sverige, the largest building in the country. Tatiana Letier Pinto, a Brazilian architect at the university, decided to dig deeper. Using avisual mapping approach to heritage, Pinto traced the history, memory, and stakeholders of the Stockholm building. Ultimately, the interconnected maze led her to the Blackstone and then presidential candidate of the United States, Donald Trump. According to Tatiana, building’s history, its political and financial co-dependence once again reminds us that Architecture can not only be seen as an object, it’s way beyond that; it’s something that can be used for profit, for political gain, for ideologies and for propaganda. And considering that, architects need to have social responsibility – they must dig into the political significance of buildings in order to be socially responsible.

Tatiana, in collaboration with Lithuanian architect and multimedia journalist Benas Gerdžiūnas, used similarvisual mapping approach to heritage technique for the Vilnius Concert and Sports Palace at "Mapping Heritage" – a workshop on expanding narratives of the built environment.  The case of the Concert  and Sports Palace in Vilnius is different in many ways. Instead of controversial financial links, the building embodies layers of trauma – from the Holocaust to the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, a tragic accident, and the subsequent decay in the tumultuous post-independence years continued with the non ending swirling upshots of the intertwining and contradicting storylines of heritagial and commercial interests. According to T. Pinto, although the fate of the Vilnius’ Concert and Sports Hall has already been decided, the future of historic buildings is constantly shaped by public debates – the proposals can be change or be cancelled as any building may be refurbished or demolished. It’s a never-ending debate and we all are just adding another chapter to the story.

In the micro-exhibition “Mapping Heritage” we invite you to go deeper into the visual mapping approach to heritage by Tatiana, the Tomteboda research and mapping process of the Vilnius Concert and Sports Palace.  Exhibition is open until January 11th at the cultural centre Sodas 2123 and virtually.

About “Building Narratives”

In the micro-exhibition series, we present works developed within Architektūros fondas programme "Building Narratives" in 2019–2020. Creatives of the  “Building Narratives” programme explored the relations between architecture and narrative, when buildings aren’t shaped by mortar and concrete anymore – crucial and sometimes the most important ingredient is narrative. Whether it is purely a PR product or an organic construct it creates perceptions and shapes the way we see and understand our environment. Hearing, reading or assembling a narrative from smaller pieces helps us to determine if something is good, useful and even beautiful. At the same time, changing narrative has the power to change perceptions of our environment. Bad can become good, ugly-beautiful, all without any changes in physical structure.

As a new narrative has the power to transform architecture on its own, it becomes extremely important to understand how different ways of talking about architecture can shape its future. Therefore Architektūros fondas was seeking to discover personal narratives and encourage the creatives to get involved in this affair. Programme merged the ongoing projects of Architektūros fondas and their methods, while looking for common ground among podcasts and publications platform Aikštėje and Future Architecture platform creatives.

Creatives of the Future Architecture platform within the "Building Narratives" programme: Goda Verikaitė, Povilas Jankūnas, Sonja Lakič, Tatiana Letier Pinto, Benas Gerdžiūnas, Un-War Space Lab, Will Jennings. Curators of programme: Andrius Ropolas, Indrė Ruseckaitė, Justinas Dūdėnas, Sandra Šlepikaitė. Curators of micro exhibitions: Indrė Ruseckaitė ir Justinas Dūdėnas

"Building Narratives" is also a part of the Future Architecture platform and European Architecture programme 2020, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. Architektūros fondas' strategic partner is Lithuanian Council for Culture. Partner – Kaunas 2022 programmes "Modernism for Future" and "All as One".