'Hill of Freedom', is a recent KCAP competition entry, which showcases our approaches to urban generation that combines local and global cultural expertise. Located about four kilometres from the old centre of Vilnius, Lithuania, it entails an expansive c. 35.000 m² housing development that fluidly combines housing with a lush embrace of nature. Containing 400 apartments, shops and a sports school, the project is a nexus between Viršuliškės and Karoliniškės neighbourhoods, which are divided by a highway that directly approaches the site from Vilnius' centre.

Three clusters of buildings, the tallest standing at 71 m, make up the block. The urban strategy set out to establish a clear urban centre that reinforces and strengthens the pattern of blocks and streets—which is starting to emerge throughout the neighbourhood. Along the site's southern border, a natural landscape with undulating topography includes winding paths, natural play areas and intensive planting aimed at improving biodiversity. This zone creates a natural border that softens and protects from the road infrastructure, with its noise and pollution.

Drawing from a checkerboard pattern concept, the buildings as an ensemble establish a firm perimeter, with porous accessibility, creating a cityscape skyline when seen from afar. Inspired by the uniformity of the nearby, repetitive, nondescript mid-twentieth-century housing towers; the site's layout emphasises openness and accessibility. The design strategically positions buildings to echo the area's scale and simplistic materiality

Elevated green walkways, which are open to the community, interlace the entire housing complex while interconnected roofs serve as an innovative ‘fifth’ façade, allowing for vista views. Personal greenhouses sit atop three of the lower buildings, for urban farming. The project is particularly notable due to its repurposing of an existing tower on site, atop of which new floors have been added; a design solution that is rarely utilised in Lithuania.

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