Museum history

Estonian Museum of Architecture welcomes you in the historical building of the Rotermann Salt Storage – one of Tallinn’s most outstanding examples of industrial architecture. The Museum is worth a visit for specialists in the architecture and construction field, local and International travellers, as well as schoolchildren. The Museum is member of the International Confederation of Architectural Museums (ICAM) and has good relationships with both Nordic and European architectural institutions.

Like most architectural museums in the world, the Estonian Museum of Architecture focuses on collecting, researching, and displaying 20th-century and contemporary architecture. The Museum has an exhaustive archive of drawings and design projects from the 1920s–1930s as well as from the Soviet period, also a photo archive and a constantly-expanding collection of models. A representetive collection of models is displayed on the permanent exhibition titled “Space in Motion: A Century of Estonian Architecture”.

Active engagement with the issues surrounding contemporary architecture is important to the Museum, too. Our very quickly-changing era means an obligation to analyse and teach today’s living environment to the greater audience. The Museum’s exhibitions on local architectural history, international practice, as well as the most up-to-date architecture still in its conceptual phase are one way to teach individuals to notice that environment.

Explore Space! is the new permanent exhibition for children and young people inf the Museums vaulted cellar. It teaches how to experience space and grasp the essence of architecture. Explore Space! has been named the best permanent exhibition in 2019 in Estonia.

The Rotermann salt Storage offers also extraodinary space for seminars, conferences, birthday and edutainment events for children and room for receptions.