Real Estate

House Hunting in Lithuania: Wood, Glass and a Private Lake Near Vilnius


Built on a hillside on the northwestern outskirts of Vilnius, Lithuania, this 4,844-square-foot house was designed in 2010 by the Lithuanian architect Tomas Lape for an executive, his journalist wife, and their two sons.

After the children grew up and moved out, the couple “decided to sell the house and travel the world,” said Giedre Simanoniene of Baltic Sotheby’s International Realty, the listing agent. “They love the house, but they’re just two people.”

Set on 2.4 acres in Buivydiskes, a growing suburb just outside Vilnius’s city limits, the angular home was conceived “to feel as if there’s no border between the inside and outside,” Ms. Simanoniene said. Its 23-foot ceilings and walls of windows complement natural materials like wood, stone and granite. “It’s a highly conceptual design, living with nature in a very modern house,” she said.

Behind the home, the landscaped grounds include a lake and an artificial pond. “The lake is fed by a stream, so it’s always fresh,” Ms. Simanoniene said. Next to the pond, the sellers added a separate building with a spa and sauna.

Since the home sits at the end of a cul-de-sac, “there are no neighbors, and you have total privacy,” she said. The gated driveway leads to a boxy garage clad in wood and aluminum. A hallway connects the garage to the kitchen, whose minimalist design contrasts sleek white fixtures with black Miele appliances. “The kitchen was designed so that all of the storage is hidden,” she said.

In the loftlike living room, three long sofas surround a handmade wood table beneath an amoeba-shaped light fixture. A broad bookcase conceals a small office at one end of the living room. A room-length fireplace sandwiches a fire pit between a glossy white bar top and polished-stone base.

Glass panels with plant-inspired etchings open from the kitchen to the high-ceilinged dining room. Just off the dining room, an oak staircase ascends to the second floor. The same wood enrobes part of the home’s exterior. “You have many of these details from outside coming inside,” Ms. Simanoniene said. A windowless wine room on the main level, decorated with hand-painted silk murals in grape motifs, maintains a natural chill from the home’s hillside position.

On the second floor, the oak-floored main bedroom includes a large dressing room and en suite bathroom. Two more bedrooms share a bathroom, and each has its own walkout to the grounds. The sellers converted a fourth bedroom to a gym.

Buivydiskes, about seven miles northwest of central Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital and largest city, has roots in a 12th-century manor built by Lithuanian nobles, Ms. Simanoniene said. Land was relatively inexpensive until 2016, when the national government and European partners completed part of the Western Bypass, a superhighway designed to relieve traffic and better link Vilnius to other Baltic capitals. The highway opened the door to development as well, including a plan for 180 apartments nearby.

Buivydiskes “is little-known, but very convenient for the city,” said Sandra Jakule, an agent at Asmeninis NT, in Vilnius. “It’s not very popular now, but land will become very expensive,” she said. “The largest shopping center in the Baltics is under construction right next to this place.”

Apartments make up most of the inventory in Vilnius’s city center, with some historic townhomes and a few detached houses, Ms. Jakule said. At the outset of the pandemic, apartment prices “took off like a train,” she said. “Demand is high and supply is low.”

Lithuania’s economic outlook has been more of a factor than Covid-19 in the city’s housing market, she said: “People are afraid of high inflation. They want their money to keep its value. So they’re investing in real estate, and developers can’t build fast enough.”



Sahred From Source link Real Estate

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *