Anatoli Podtšekajev, 1924. EAM 2.2.249

Residential building in Tartu Tamme district

The architect Anatoli Podtšekajev, born in 1879 in the town of Opochka in the Pskov region, has left a unique mark on Tartu’s architectural history. Podtšekajev began his architectural studies at the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute. After the closure of the institute in 1905 and a subsequent break of a few years, Podtšekajev continued his studies at the Riga Polytechnic Institute, from which he graduated in 1910. Studying in two different schools and two different cities is probably the reason for the architect’s somewhat searching style, which seemed old-fashioned at the time. The architect moved to Tartu in the early 1920s, where he soon took up the post of city architect. Podtšekajev designed a number of residential buildings in the Tamme district, but buildings designed with his participation can also be found in other areas of Tartu. The four-apartment house in Tammelinn, which belonged to Mihkel Puusepp, is a building with a peculiar layout. On the ground floor, there are two two-room apartments with separate kitchens, a storage room and a hallway. On the upper floor, there are two one-bedroom apartments. Each apartment has a toilet. An interesting feature of the project is the two adjacent staircases in the middle of the building, one accessible from the street and the other from the courtyard. Consequently, there are two separate entrances to each apartment, one leading to the entrance hall and the other to the kitchen. Architectural historian Robert Treufeldt has thoroughly researched the life and work of architect Anatoli Podtšekajev.

• 1920s
• Anatoli Podtšekajev