Restoring historical mansion and creating slow living space

OUR BACKGROUND

Six years ago we’ve acquired unused building (barely with any windows and doors!) in a small village and turned it into co-working and co-living space in Lithuania. We called it Innovator’s Valley. Since then we’ve expanded and also adjusted former monastery for co-working and co-living lifestyle. Now, we’ve people coming to both of the buildings and having their events here. Apart from that, we also try to provide jobs for local community and help local youth by organizing month long camps to improve their employability. We’ve added the before and after picture of transformation of one of the rooms, also you can find out more here – www.inovatoriuslenis.lt. It took some time and energy (a lot of it) and is still taking, but we love what we do and aren’t planning to stop. SO!

We’re going ahead with the new project! The progress is done step by step, isn’t it? SO - what’s the plan you ask?

MANSION BACKGROUND

Kamariškės (the name of the mansion) historic manor estate was developed by 5 families – von Bercken, Lopacinskiai (1759-1870), Tiškevičiai (1870-1900), Stolypinai (1911-1927), the last landlord was a German called Mr. Richter, who in 1944 has moved to Germany with his wife Maria. Initially, the territory of the mansion covered 80 hectares of land - including the lake and forest of Kamariškės. Also, mansion was adorned by the oaks alley, which unfortunately has almost disappeared now. As the time passed by, affected by the natural conditions, being unsupervised and devastated by people the buildings had vanished. However - the charm and beauty of the mansion are still reminiscent today of two manor wings. Now manor estate occupies 8.6 hectares, as it was defined in 1992.

VISION: KAMARIŠKĖS MANSION – SLOW LIVING PLACE

The manor park is located at the Lithuanian-Latvian border. There is no internet or mobile connection - the nearest small village is almost 3km away.

We see this as an opportunity to create the first ever historic place in Lithuania for slow living, where people come to escape from rush, tension and devote precious time for themselves. The place is going to be

allowing you to freely choose what you want to do and with whom to be, in other words - no strings attached.

By decorating, developing and restoring the spaces, we want to combine history of the mansion and innovations and so create the slow living space for visitors.

STEP NO. 1 - THE RECONSTRUCTION

The work has already started without any investments – we gathered our friends and partners for a weekend to help clean the environment of the manor estate surroundings. As a result - in 2 days, 15 people collaborated and cleaned about 2 hectares of the territory.

However, we also need money to continue what we’ve started on that weekend. We are further planning to start reconstructing the buildings that have survived in the historical manor estate.First and foremost- cover the roofs of the historic manor wings to protect them from collapse as soon as possible.

SO WE ASK FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

For the preservation of historical manor wings we need 45K EUROS, which would help strengthen the manor structures, cover the roofs of two wings, install windows and overlays that would allow further handling of the buildings.

BUT!

The main challenge – we need to cover the roof of the two manor wings before this winter, since we’re afraid that another year without the roof can cause irreparable damage.

We’re very thankful for your support - every contribution counts!

Let’s do this together and see the mansion coming back to life again!