Let’s build a new town!

A large and truly unique shopping mall should be a prominent element and symbol of the new town. 

Five years ago I started playing with the idea of developing a brand new town outside Vilnius. I worked with the idea over a period of two years, and I also invited others to provide input on how the new town could best be developed. We came as far as to issue a sketch project and a draft description (our 2007 concept description follows attached; please note that dates and more remain unchanged), and we entered into a principle agreement with the owners of a large land area at the highway between Minsk and Vilnius, 10 km from Vilnius city centre and 5 km from Lithuania's international airport. The land covers an area of 260 hectares, which is about the same size as the centre of Vilnius between the parliament and the railway station. 

I gave the project the temporary name 'Aqua City', as I wanted to introduce water as a key element. 

My vision was to create this as a “city of its own”; green, safe, energy efficient, environment friendly, and well prepared for pedestrians, bicyclists, playing children, with very limited car traffic within the area.

The concept would be that people’s living places, jobs, schools, shopping, sports, entertainment etc. all would be located within the very same area, all activities within walking distance from each other. This would mean less polluting car traffic both on internal and external road systems.

The main focus would be neighbourhood and community building – with the final goal to create a warmer society where young and old, rich and poor, disabled people, and people with different skin colours and backgrounds could live and work together in true harmony.

The new town should function as a leading “flag-project” for Lithuania - contributing to increased investments and activity within many sectors, return of emigrants, increased travel and tourism, and exceptionally strong branding and marketing of Lithuania vs. world markets.

The plan was that Aqua City should be developed with the application of technology and methods that are highly relevant to our time, be it with regard to environmental friendliness, efficient energy sources, waste treatment, limited use of cars, low pollution levels, etc. 

This should be the town where many of Lithuania's and the world’s best brains could unfold; within research, development, business, advanced technological production, top education of future generations, etc. Aqua City should be a leading contributor to the making and development of Lithuania as a knowledge society - with strong focus on education, science and different other intellectual activities.

More particularly, the idea for the project was to create a diverse and forward-looking city with:

• Housing for up to 20 000 inhabitants (village, villas, town houses, low risers, high risers)
• A separate business quarter with office buildings, specialised shops, and some manufacturing
• Shopping mall, design outlet, various other shops
• Hotels, restaurants, street cafés, etc.
• Large international conference centre, a meeting point for experts from many fields and nations
• Culture and sport facilities, indoor and outdoor
• Schools, kindergartens and other facilities for children activities
• Universities and colleges, within economy, management, technology
• Scientific institutions, within technology, energy, etc.
• A modern clinic, including  laboratories and research departments
• A tolerance garden, multi-religious and multi-cultural, a forest room for contemplation and more
• Special roads, lanes and squares for pedestrians, bicyclists and small electric vehicles
• A park and large green areas for horse riding, leisure activities and more 

The idea was that Aqua City should be a joint project between:

• The authorities of Lithuania (infrastructure, schools, environmental friendly transport, etc)
• Institutions and companies within research, teaching, health care, culture, sport etc.
• Firms and individuals from various business areas participating as investors and developers 

Aqua City would also be the city Lithuanians living abroad could return to and work in teams with people and entities from here to create a truly unique and forward-looking project that Lithuania could be proud of for many generations to come, and an excellent basis for teamwork between many trades and professions.

Aqua City should be developed as a strong, common, international project, and later become the place to live and work, for Lithuanians and many others from all corners of the world.  

When the economic crisis in the world started in 2007 we found it best to put the project aside for a while. But now, when it seems that the world economy again is improving, it might be time to start looking into it again. One has to expect that the planning and preparation process will take three to five years, and that the construction time will be going on over several years. 

So, dear readers, I would be very interested in your response, especially from those of you who would like to participate in the planning of a project I believe can give Lithuania a significant push forward, create new dynamics, new optimism, new jobs, and become a tremendously strong  symbol for a country that again should demonstrate its very best of abilities to its own people and the rest of the world.

This is a project that would make me and many others continue staying in Lithuania, and it is a project that would bring thousands of smart Lithuanians back from the foreign countries they today live in!

Aage Myhre

The residential village should incorporate all the best qualities of former times villages, with focus

on human dimensions and outdoor areas created for a good social life.

Is the idea of a Lithuanian New Town realistic? 

Many nations around the world are in full swing developing similar cities, so it’s not a question of inventing the wheel if we now get started also here in Lithuania. Still, as far as I know, Aqua City would be the first New Town development in Eastern Europe!

Most of the world’s new towns of today are extraordinarily dynamic, often with very much focus on research, experiments and developments within technology and sciences of different kinds. I have myself been visiting and observing some of them, from the time of my studies in France in the 1980s to Cape Town’s Canal Walk and India’s Navi Mumbai. The latter is the world’s largest new city, where as much as 20 million people are supposed to be living when it is completed!

All our Scandinavian neighbouring countries are at this very moment building several amazing new towns.  

Still I believe Lithuania can find its own variant, quite different from what other countries are doing. I fully believe it is very realistic that Lithuania can build its own new city that will represent:

• New optimism, new work places, new initiatives, new energy, more creativity
• A visionary model for new urban developments in Lithuania and internationally
• An outstanding engine for Lithuania’s economy and Lithuania as a knowledge society

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_town