East-East

The tradition & historical record

East-East is a multiplex architectural event jointly held by the Lithuanian and Japanese architects and students of architecture. ¹

The concept of the Lithuania-Japan architectural event was conceived and its implementation coordinated by Dainius Kamaitis, a Lithuanian diplomat and former ambassador to Japan. He paved the way for the bilateral exchange in architecture domain by approaching both sides with a proposal to establish links which had not existed before. The idea was successfully implemented in Kaunas in cooperation with the Kaunas City Municipality and the Kaunas Section of the Architects Association of Lithuania in 2002. As the event enjoyed a considerable acclaim on both sides, following new initiatives by D.Kamaitis, subsequent architectural forums were implemented in Vilnius, Tokyo and Kaunas, in 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2022, accordingly. All the events received full support from the Architects Association of Lithuania and Japan Institute of Architects. In 2019, the Government of Japan awarded D.Kamaitis with The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, in recognition to his contribution to strengthening and promoting friendly relations between Japan and Lithuania. ¹

The name East-East is derived from the concept that Lithuania is located in the east of Europe, while Japan lies in the east of Asia. It implies mutual understanding, close cooperation and harmony. ¹

The initial target of establishing the links between the Lithuanian and Japanese architects has been achieved already. The long-term objectives are to strengthen the ties and make the joint events into a tradition, in order to foster continuous interaction not only between architects, but between students of architecture as well. The students' exchange is recognized by both sides as bearing particular importance to developing the future relations. East-East spans almost a week and is built on three pillars: ¹

exhibition of architectural works public forum students workshop. ¹

The first event was held between July 30 and August 1, 2002, in Kaunas, at Mykolas Žilinskas Art Gallery. The Japanese delegation was led by the 1993 Pritzker Prize (often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture) winner Fumihiko Maki and included seven leading Japanese architects Taro Ashihara, Chiaki Arai, Tetsuo Furuichi, George Kunihiro, Koh Kitayama, Hidetoshi Ohno and Kengo Kuma. The keynote presentation by Fumihiko Maki who was awarded with the honorary membership of the Architects Association of Lithuania, aroused considerable public interest. On behalf of the host side, Linas Tuleikis, Chairman of the Kaunas Section of the Architects Association of Lithuania, gave a lecture on the contemporary Lithuanian architecture. ¹

Joint exhibition of works by the Lithuanian and Japanese architects kicked off at the very outset of the event. It was honoured by the very presence of Valdas Adamkus, President of Lithuania. Besides the works of the Japanese architects present at the event, those of Nobuaki Furuya, Kazuo Iwamura, Atsushi Kitagawara, Hiroshi Naito, Tadasu Ohe and Ken Yokogawa were exhibited as well. On the Lithuanian side of the exhibition, the works of Vilius Adomavičius, Audrius Ambrasas, Artūras Asauskas, Gintaras Čaikauskas, Darius Čiuta, Gediminas Jurevičius, (late) Algimantas Kančas, Audrys Karalius, Šarūnas Kiaunė, Kęstutis Kisielius, Sigitas Kuncevičius, Saulius Mikštas, Gintautas Natkevičius, Rolandas Palekas, Saulius Pamerneckis, Kęstutis Pempė, Ramūnas Raslavičius were presented. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “East-East”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

East-East is Japanese-Lithuanian architecture festival, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²