“Work on historic buildings is much more difficult than designing new ones,” says Christina Seilern, founder of London-based Studio Seilern Architects. “Everything you do is scrutinized in minute detail, and there’s always the fear of getting it wrong.” As she recounts the 13-year project to create 143,000 square feet of apartments, offices, and leisure facilities from an 18th-century hospital in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, one can see what she means. The architects’ bold approach to a sensitive setting required confidence and strong powers of persuasion, but the harmonious accord between restored structures and imaginative additions should put any doubts to bed.

The complex’s skylights are visible primarily at night. Photo © Roland Halbe, click to enlarge.