Small towns with a big eye

12.04. – 21.05.2023

The Estonian Association of Architects presents the winning projects of the architectural competitions held in the years 2019-2022 within the framework of the “Good Public Space” program in the gallery floor of the Estonian Museum of Architecture. The Estonian Association of Architects (EAA)has been curating the “Good Public Space” program since 2014.

The program has three major goals – conceptualizing the public space of small Estonian towns as a common living environment through high-quality urban space projects; revitalizing the business and living environment at the local level and strengthening the local identity of the inhabitants of small towns and slowing down the shrinking of towns.

In total, more than 30 architectural competitions have been organized within the program, with the aim of building or reconstructing public and central urban spaces in small towns and centers of attraction in Estonia. All competition areas are selected by the local government based on the needs of the community, EAA has contributed with its competence to meet the needs of the local community in a broader sense, developing competition tasks that express the goals of this program in the best way, and conducted architectural competitions.

Since 2019, the program has been supported by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Finance, the competition prizes are given by local governments. Ten centers have been completed by spring 2023.

On the gallery floor of the Rotermann Salt Storage, the winning projects of architectural competitions held in 2019-2022 are on display. Some of them have been further designed with the funds of local governments in recent years, in order to be ready to implement them when new funding measures open up. In the spring of 2023, these measures will open with the support of the European Regional Development Fund.

Spatial design: Ra Martin Puhkan and Siim Tanel Tõnisson

Graphic designer: Anna Riin Velner