The Lost Shtetl Jewish Museum

Concept

The concept behind The Lost Shtetl Jewish Museum is based on a destroyed village of Šeduva and its culture, which vanished overnight in August 1941. 664 Jews from the village were executed in the nearby forests. Along with human lives, Šeduva's long and rich history was also lost. The museum was built to commemorate the lost lives and culture, which represented not only Jewish but also European culture.

The museum consists of minimalist, abstract ‘houses’ with hip roofs. Together, they form a cluster of buildings—a dreamscape of a village, a shtetl.

According to the Head Designer, Professor Rainer Mahlamäki, what struck him on his first visit to the site was the open sky, the vast agricultural landscape, the adjacent cemetery, the quiet sound of the wind, and the grey houses of the countryside. The future museum had to take root in this environment, and the architecture of the building had to be integrated into the cultural environment of Lithuania and the Šeduva region.

The architecture of the museum does not emphasize the horrors of the Holocaust and World War II. Instead, its architecture, handcrafted details, natural light, and views seek to convey tranquillity and beauty. This museum lacks the pathos and roughness of materials characteristic of many monuments and buildings dealing with Judaism and its dark moments. The adjacent cemetery tells of the site's older history before the Holocaust.

At the heart of the museum is the exhibition, the script for which was ready in draft form before the design of the building began. The architect's task was to create a setting for an exhibition that tells the story of one Lithuanian shtetl, Šeduva. The narrative exhibition is based on the so-called black box concept. Despite this, the interior architecture exceptionally mirrors the shape of the hip roof in each gallery, creating a small but spacious canopy for the exhibition displays.

Contemporary society emphasizes sustainable values and sustainable construction. The museum's materials, structures, and details are designed to withstand the test of time. The materials are recyclable and easy to repair if necessary. The large park surrounding the museum has preserved old trees, but many new ones have also been planted to act as carbon dioxide reservoirs. The park is rich in biodiversity, and butterflies, bumblebees, and other insects appeared there soon after construction. The Lost Shtetl has begun to take root, both mentally and physically, in the landscape of Šeduva and Lithuania.

Interior Architecture

Individual houses, each only the size of a single-family house, are connected to each other by narrow, short passageways, creating a group of houses. The idea behind this is not only to revive the concept of a village, but also has a practical reason: the possibility of expanding the museum while preserving its original composition. The concept allows for the village to grow, as demonstrated by the fact that even before the museum was completed, a new exhibition gallery was added to the complex.

The building site is on a gentle slope. This starting point has led to a solution that has already proven successful in previous museums designed by Lahdelma & Mahlamäki architects, where the exhibition spaces are located below the entrance level. Visitors enter the main lobby, from which they descend to the exhibition spaces.

The entrance hall opens to a spacious, cultivated landscape across a flower meadow. The dialogue between the interior and exterior spaces enhances the sense of tranquillity, integrates the building into the landscape, and prepares visitors for the exhibition tour. The main lobby has an intimate atmosphere, a cozy living room-like space with open service counters and a small café. The library next to the main lobby is the museum's multipurpose common gathering space. The main lobby also connects to a multipurpose hall designed for conferences, temporary exhibitions, music performances, and other events. The multipurpose hall can also be accessed directly from the parking area. In addition, the lobby is connected to a children’s gallery, which has an outdoor terrace. The purpose of this gallery can also be changed in the future as needed.

The architectural and functional concept of the galleries is reflected in their roof design. The upper part of the gallery echoes the shape of the outer shell. Skylights in the roof ridge allow natural light to enter the space in a controlled manner. The upper part of the gallery creates a sense of open space, while the lower part is characterized by the intensity of the exhibition. The galleries on the entrance floor follow the same principle, but they offer carefully considered views of the open landscape outside. This also applies to the staff facilities on the first floor, which have a view of the historic cemetery. The design of the spaces has been guided by the principle of general applicability and long-term usability: the gallery spaces allow for the renewal of exhibitions even decades later.

The museum's research-based exhibitions tell the story of life in the shtetls – in Šeduva, Lithuania, and more broadly in Eastern Europe. Hundreds of objects and photographs are on display, as well as specially commissioned films and interviews. During the exhibition tour, museum visitors can learn about the diverse life of the shtetls and Jewish culture. The exhibition space on the lower floor, which tells the story of the Holocaust, contains a narrow and high, canyon-like dark space, the so-called Canyon of Holocaust. In contrast, the exhibition ends in a narrow, tall, white space, the so-called Canyon of Hope, which faces the cemetery and the open fields of the countryside. The Lost Shtetl Museum tells the story of a lost culture, but it also creates hope for a bright future.

Exterior Architecture

The museum's facades are made of marine aluminium, a durable and recyclable material with a long life span. The aluminium sheets, reminiscent of wooden shingles, are arranged to form a scale-like surface that lives and reflects light according to the cycle of the day and the seasons. Up close, the surface of the sheets reveals a dotted texture pressed into it. The surface appears smooth at times, while at other times its texture becomes more prominent. It appears sometimes white, sometimes silver-grey, sometimes muted and sometimes vibrant. The chosen material blends the building into the landscape and the sky. This choice was also a reference to the weathered rural buildings typical of the Lithuanian countryside. The directions of the roof ridges and their varying steepness create a deliberate, sculptural randomness.

Alongside metal, Siberian larch has been used in the recesses of the entrances and exits. Wood plays a particularly significant role in the so-called memorial wall in the entrance courtyard, which consists of mouth-blown glass pieces embedded in a wooden grid. The names of all 294 shtetls that existed in Lithuania before World War II are inscribed on the memorial wall.

The building's numerous roof surfaces have been kept free of various building services equipment and installations, such as safety ladders, snow guards, and lightning conductor cables. This principle has led to certain special solutions, for example, the ventilation machines are located in a separate gallery, from which the ducts are routed through the basement of the building to the upper floors. The roof surfaces are maintained using cranes brought to the site separately. Lightning conductors have been installed as metal strips in numerous corners of the complex in connection with the facade work. The design of the facades and exterior architecture has largely been about eliminating technical equipment and installations that detract from the architectural integrity.

Structures and Materials

The load-bearing structures of the building were cast on site using concrete. This solution was practically the only one possible within the framework of Lithuanian legislation governing public construction. The versatile technical equipment, the building's security classification, and Lithuanian building regulations also required time and effort in the design and construction work to keep the technical installations out of sight.

In addition to marine aluminium and wood, warm-toned light quartzite stone is visible in both the interior and exterior. Along with oak, quartzite is the main material used for the floors and has also been used in fixed furnishings alongside wood in various details, such as the handrails in the main lobby staircase. As a light-coloured and warm-toned material, quartzite acts as a mediator between the silver-grey metal and the reddish-brown wood. Inside, the surface of the stone has been polished, but outside, the stone's veins and small holes are more clearly visible. Black granite has been used as the stone material for the floors and some of the furniture in the exhibition spaces. The safety of visually impaired and physically disabled people has been considered, for example, by using inlaid black and light-coloured stone on the stairs of the building. The spaciousness and three-dimensionality of the open lobbies are emphasized by the materials used, as the different materials are visible through the glass surfaces from the inside out and vice versa. The choice of light and black stone is also symbolically linked to the museum's story, in the same way as the parallel between the white and black canyons.

A key quality objective in the museum's architecture has been precision in the execution of the work, such as the joints between materials and the seamless harmony between the fixed furnishings and spatial solutions. It is also worth noting that the interior lighting consists solely of fixtures customized for this building.

Museum Park

The museum's surroundings have been designed to serve as a memorial park. The guiding principle has been the idea of the last journey. The park features a series of landscapes that the Jews of Šeduva might have encountered on their way to the nearby forests, where they were executed: a birch alley, flowering meadows, wetlands, and an orchard. The park was designed by Enea Landscape Architecture.

The implementation of the extensive park area is linked to the Lithuanian rural building style, where buildings are usually surrounded by trees. Visitors are guided from the parking area and bus stop along different routes towards the main entrance by means of walls, paths, and vegetation. The presence of the cemetery has naturally determined not only the location and orientation of the building itself, but also the design of the park. The Lost Shtetl consists of three main functions: the cemetery, the museum building, and the park, which form a coherent whole. The presence of the cemetery is most strongly felt when approaching the main entrance.

At the start of the design work, a narrow plot was available, which was reserved almost exclusively for the museum building and parking area. Over the years, the museum area has been expanded, and in 2022, a landscape plan covering the entire area was launched. The park area has retained its existing trees and has also been planted with many new ones. Key elements of the landscape plan include wetland ponds and a wide variety of local meadow plants, flowers, and shrubs, which have already attracted a diverse range of insects to enrich the vitality of the park. A few larch shelters have been erected in the park, whose roofs are gradually taking on their own grey colour.

An Exceptionally International Project

Rainer Mahlamäki made his first trip to Šeduva in early May 2016. Shortly before that, the then director of the museum organization had been in touch to inquire about interest and readiness for ‘a small project with a tight schedule, as if to put a roof over the exhibitions.’ The reason for the contact was the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, designed by Lahdelma & Mahlamäki architects, which had opened in Warsaw, Poland, a couple of years earlier.

The architectural concept adapted to the exhibition design of The Lost Shtetl Museum and chosen as the starting point for the design was created in a relatively short time in May-June 2016, based on three or four alternative drafts. The draft plan with its scale models took its final form in the spring of 2017, one year after the start of the design process. This was followed by years of development work, during which the interior layout of the building took its final shape.

The construction project was a major international collaboration between designers, builders, and the client organization. It can rightly be described as a unique project. Design and construction have proceeded in parallel, which has enabled the interactive development of solutions between designers and builders, even during the construction phase.

Companies from the United States, Switzerland, Italy, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Estonia, Finland, and Lithuania have participated in the design and construction of the museum.

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Head Designer: Rainer Mahlamäki
Project Architect: Ilkka Syrjäkari

Executive Architect: Studija 2A

Landscape Design: Enea landscape architecture

Exhibition Design: Ralph Appelbaum Associates