The Design Foundation is a research initiative dedicated to Lithuanian design history, aimed also at promoting, actualizing, and disseminating design culture.
The public non-governmental organisation "Design Foundation" was established in 2016 by three design researchers: Karolina Jakaitė, Šarūnas Šlektavičius ir Gintautė Žemaitytė.
Why did we undertake such an initiative? The reason for this was the fact that in Lithuania most of the archives of former design institutions of the second half of the 20th century were lost, including projects by Lithuanian designers as well as publications and documents of the Soviet period, previously stored in libraries.
One of our goals was to (re)create the “archive” of Lithuanian design history, compiled not from material objects, but rather from stories and recollections by documenting the interviews with prominent personalities of the 1960s and 1970s – architects and designers who were in those times called artists-constructors. The video interviews were filmed at the photography and video studio of the Vilnius Academy of Arts.
In 2017–2022, the curators of the projects of the Design Foundation were Karolina Jakaitė and Šarūnas Šlektavičius.
In 2016–2021, we filmed over 20 video interviews. We posted the edited stories of thematic sections online, presented them at exhibitions and in the “Design Foundation” dissemination projects.
During the course of the project we are researching and analyzing the selected period’s design cases, archival documentation and photographs. We have undertaken various projects to actualize the history of design: organizing exhibitions, lectures, creative workshops, compiling publications, and presenting new design objects created in collaboration with contemporary designers.
The ongoing project “Design Foundation Interview” was supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.
Partners: Vilnius Academy of Arts, Central State Archives of Lithuania, National Gallery of Art, Lithuanian Design Forum.
Team members (at different stages): Laima Bezginaitė, Benas Buivydas, Goda Dapšytė, Karolis Milaševičius, Goda Šuminaitė, Gintautė Žemaitytė, Gintautas Trimakas.
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In 2023, the Design Foundation and the entire design community suddenly lost Šarūnas Šlektavičius (1977–2023).
In 2024 the exhibition of the work of designer and architect Šarūnas Šlektavičius (1977–2023) PROCESSES was initiated by Goda Dapšytė-Šlektavičienė.
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In 2025, the main project of the Design Foundation is related to the research of the Tara bureau and the presentation of the new book “Tara: Then and Now, Here and There. Archives and Practices of the Experimental Design Bureau in Vilnius 1960s–1980s” (eds. Karolina Jakaitė and Deimantė Jasiulevičiūtė, Spector books, 2025).
