Modernist ideas, which were quite rapidly spreading in the bigger part of the Western world after the World War I, soon found their way to Lithuania as well. Architects studying abroad brought these ideas to their native land, and here they acquired a distinctive form, often called the Kaunas school of architecture. Each of the architects who worked here had a distinctive style, featuring different modern variations, in which historicist elements, search for the ‘national style’ or just attempts to convey the fundamental principles of modernism under local circumstances were manifesting.
It is mainly in Kaunas where the most interwar modernist buildings were built. The fact that the construction was carried out not by individual buildings but in entire complexes, allowed the interwar modernist architectural property development to form a unique architectural character of the city of Kaunas, which became the most significant part of its image and identity.

In 2015, Kaunas interwar architecture was celebrated and awarded the European Heritage Label.