Neringa Forest Architecture Tours in June

Published on Saturday, 29 May 2021 07:58

In collaboration with Nida Culture and Tourism information Center “Agila” and Curonian Spit National Park NAC conducts Neringa Forest Architecture Tours. The tours will continue throughout the summer and autumn, the tour guides and specific themes of the tours will be announced monthly.

NFA Tours are one of the activities of the project Neringa Forest Architecture initiated as a three-year project part of NERINGA Lithuanian Capital of Culture 2021 programme in 2020 by Jurga Daubaraitė, Egija Inzule and Jonas Žukauskas. The project positions the Curonian forest as an experimental case study; an opportunity for participants to analyze the broader scope of forest-as-infrastructure including topics such as growth, transformation, policy making, management, technology, art and design in the Baltic-Scandinavian region.

Besides NFA Tours, the project organizes an international residency programme, initiates research projects, has built a timber archive, publishes books and podcasts, produces public art and architecture works as well as organizes a multifold of activities among them talks and workshops. 

Neringa Forest Architecture Tours are a series of guided tours, walking expeditions that are designed to cultivate inquiry and discussion about the unique juncture between ecological, political/managerial, recreational and industrial narratives associated with the Curonian woods, landscape and the built environment.  

Guided by forestry and national park experts, and architects living and working in the Curonian Spit, Neringa Forest Architecture Tours facilitate conversation as well as exploration and education. The excursions, while an opportunity to observe the unique qualities of the Neringa Forest, are also a chance to engage in critical dialogue with professionals while traversing shifting geographical landscapes. Discussions will focus on the Curonian forest and its distinct eco-socio-political features including the complex legal and managerial processes behind its picturesque façade: 

How were the forests of Neringa planted? Why does the Neringa Forest and its pathways look this way? Why do trees need to be cut down? How does the local (human and animal) community participate in the making of Neringa Forest? What state and civic agencies and institutions are responsible in shaping it? What architecture is envisaged but currently not built? What do people in Neringa desire most in terms of infrastructure and why can it not be realised?

Tours in June:

Saturday, 5 June 2021, 11 a.m.: During her tour Parnidis landscape reserve Gražina Žemaitienė will focus on one of the Great Dunes in Nida. The third so called Nida is surrounded by three dunes ‒ Angis, Urbas, Parnidis. Why the Parnidis dune still exists as sand dune and hasn’t been planted as the rest of the dunes? What stories are behind the Parnidis dune? Do we really improve the landscape with outdoors sculptures? Is everyone familiar with the five hills settlement?

Born in Šilutė, Žemaitienė studied at Kaunas University of Technology and moved to Neringa in 1989. Žemaitienė’s areas of work encompass the planning and realisation of landscape projects in the Curonian Spit and recreational objects in the forest as well as urban areas, and preventive work for visitors of the Curonian Spit.

Saturday, 12 June 2021, 11 a.m.: In his tour The Panidis mysteries the long-time Nida forester Gediminas Virgilijus Dikšas will tell about the shift and growth of Nida forests around Parnidis dune and the surroundings.

Dikšas was born in Biržai and grew up in Klaipėda. After graduating from Kaunas Agriculture Academy, he was assigned to work in Nida. Dikšas has been living in Nida for almost 50 years now - since the 1970s.

Saturday, 19 June 2021, 11 a.m.: In his tour The Forest as  Space architect and educator Anton Shramkov will explore the spatiality of the forest. The forest is understood here as a space with its laws and spatial compositions with immediate influence on us.Shramkov was born in Moscow and graduated in architecture from the Moscow Institute of Architecture. He worked as a lecturer in Russia and Sweden. He has been living in Preila since 2007.

Saturday, 26 June 2021, 11 a.m.: In his tour Places for meeting and dialogue architect and educator Anton Shramkov will overview and discuss about the typology of existing meeting places and spaces of public interest in Neringa. The tour will focus on the aspects of how and why we use public spaces and how we exploit them? 

Shramkov was born in Moscow and graduated in architecture from the Moscow Institute of Architecture. He worked as a lecturer in Russia and Sweden. He has been living in Preila since 2007.

The excursions are free of charge but with a limited number of places available. Registration is mandatory by email  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  or phone 860039972. 

NAC urges all visitors to be mindful and follow the current protective measures against the spreading of Covid-19. 

Neringa Forest Architecture is co-funded by NERINGA Lithuanian Capital of Culture 2021, Lithuanian Council for Culture and Nordic Culture Point.