Sanctum forest retreat near Vilnius

Set in the forests beyond Vilnius, Sanctum is a retreat designed by the practice Arches. The approach is one of restraint: the buildings follow the natural terrain rather than reshaping it, and the architecture stays calm, quiet and tactile.

The programme brings together a main building with accommodation and shared spaces, a multipurpose room for up to fifty people, and independent cabins and wellness areas set deeper in the forest. The whole reads as a coherent ensemble rather than a single statement building.

Arūnas Liola and Greta Gulbinskė of Arches Studio note that design and construction took nearly four years, with completion in 2026. Cladding and roofing are in Kebony modified wood, amounting to more than fifty thousand linear metres, which gives the ensemble a unified envelope. The profiles used are 21 x 98 mm and 21 x 148 mm rectangular boards and 30 x 48 mm battens.