Unlike elegant wooden summer villas, many masonry buildings of the inter-war period were characterized by pure modernist shapes. One of such quickly vanishing examples is the two-storey residential house of P. J. Krasauskas in Birštonas, built around 1938 according to the draft by then famous architect Bronius Elsbergas.
Located near the former Kaunas District Patient Fund sanatorium, the house was designed as a recreational villa. Each floor of the nearly square building has 6 rooms connected by a hall, while the key household facilities, such as laundry, kitchen, bathroom, firewood and product storage rooms, were located in the basement. On the north-eastern and south-western sides there are two semi-circular terraces with entrances leading to opposite premises. Horizontal division of building's facade is enhanced by strip windows with brown outlines going around the entire perimeter of building's white walls.
As the function of the building keeps changing even today, its inside has been rearranged as well. “Already in 1967 it served as a division of Lithuanian resort research laboratory. During the reconstruction it had offices and laboratories set up in the main building. The previous wooden board floors were replaced by geometrically composed tile floors.” Building's roof forms were damaged during the Soviet period, while under the roof there was an attic set up.
Viltė Migonytė