For the formal design of the Stasys Museum, IMPLMNT Architects drew inspiration from Eidrigevičius's visual universe, extracting recurring motifs such as the continuity of forms and the transformative interaction between objects. These ideas are materialized in textured concrete surfaces—with linear and dotted patterns—and in a spatial organization based on coded metaphors.
The strategic placement of the building creates a public space that serves as a bridge between Krantas and Respublika streets. In the southern section, a volume is integrated that evokes the memory of the old local cinema through a non-commercial screening room, responding to a long-standing demand from the community. This environment is complemented by areas for active and creative leisure that house outdoor exhibitions, cafes, and event spaces.
The project is one of the 40 selected for the EUmies / Mies van der Rohe Awards 2026.
Stasys Museum by IMPLMNT Architects. Photograph by Norbert Tukaj.
Project description by IMPLMNT Architects
Stasys Museum is located in Panevėžys, Lithuania, in the northern part of the city center. The main goal for the project was to enhance city development by creating a high-quality public environment that enriches the city center. It focuses on serving the public interest by improving the quality of life and promoting cultural awareness and artistic expression within a democratic, communal space. Additionally, the museum seeks to establish itself as a leader in public services through superior content and functionality.
To create the structure of the building, IMPLMNT architects sought inspiration not only in the context but also in the artworks of Stasys Eidrigevičius for whom the museum is dedicated. Stasys Eidrigevičius is a world famous interdisciplinary artist born in 1949 in Lithuania, Panevėžys district.
Therefore, the code for spatial result is a three-word key expressed by the artist in his open letter to the architects participating in the competition: simplicity, logic, and fantasy. Architects express fantasy through the elements that are foreseen both in the outside and inside of the building, and through this architects encode the "touch of Stasys Eidrigevičius" in the building.
Two main motives were noticed in the works of Stasys Eidrigevicius. The continuity [of lines or shapes] and the interaction of the objects with each other, their connection, transformation. On that basis the designed solutions are substantiated - on connections and surfaces. The artist uses metaphor as an instrument of artistic expression, and therefore moderately encoded metaphors are also used in the spaces of the designed building.
The orientation of the building is thought very carefully, such a layout on the plot naturally organizes a large public space on the south side of the plot. In this space there is a volume that has the function of a non-commercial cinema hall which is what the city's inhabitants would very much like to have. Before the museum in the plot there was a movie theater that eventually became a part of the image of the place.
Therefore people consider cinema a local value, and this function only complements the newly designed cultural object. The designed new public space acts as a bridge between the streets of Krantas and Respublika, at the same time creating a high-quality link between the western attraction centers and oxbow lake. The project's public space consists of two zones - active leisure in the North and the creative-urban in the South. Outdoor spaces include exposition, cafe, a zone for a different kind of events: outdoor cinema, concerts, performances, street art.
The functions of the building consists of the museum and exhibition halls spread over two floors, one floor is dedicated to education and administration, the small hall, currently functioning as an entrance space, which in the second phase will become a space dedicated to exhibitions related to the media. Responding to the shape and aesthetics of the building, the materiality of the facades is laconic. Two types of textured concrete [dotted and linear pattern] and glazed facade system were chosen.
