Zaha Hadid Architects is moving forward with a set of low-rise towers in Vilnius, Lithuania. Titled the Vilnius Business Stadium, the scheme is comprised of two towers of eight and nine stories connected at street level by a courtyard atrium and two floors of public amenities.

The 258,000-square-foot scheme is defined by its sweeping form, with both the curvature of the facades and cantilevered balconies facing toward the city’s historic Gediminas Castle Tower. Described by the design team as “reinterpreting the dynamic geometries of the neighborhood’s existing civic architecture,” the center’s built form is complimented by 126,000 square feet of landscaped terraces, roof gardens, and plazas that open directly onto a Martha Schwartz-designed public square.

The central floors of each tower house office spaces of differing sizes and layouts. The floorplates connect to landscaped terraces and roof gardens, while glazed facades and external louvers control light levels in the timber-clad interiors. Both the louvers and balconies have been designed to align with the sun’s lower altitude between October and April while forming a barrier to the higher-angle sun during the summer months.

Other sustainability credentials noted by the design team include natural hybrid ventilation for most of the year, high-efficiency heat exchange and recovery systems, and double-insulated low-E glazing. The timber used for the interiors will also be from certified local sources, while the project’s procurement system intends to increase the volume of recycled and reusable products.

Construction on the scheme is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2023.

News of the scheme comes one week after Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center announced the launch of an exhibition tracing the artistic development and influence of Zaha Hadid. Earlier in 2023, the firm revealed its design for the Chengdu Science Fiction Museum in China.