Open today 11–18
Collection’s diary

Georg Winterhalter, 1848. EAM 2.3.5

Estonian Knighthood House

The Estonian Knighthood House in Toompea was the only Neo-Renaissance building in Tallinn at the time of its construction. The building was originally designed by the architect of the Estonian Governorate, Christoph August Gabler, and construction began in 1845. However, Gabler’s classical architectural style did not meet the wishes of the knighthood. After a temporary pause in construction while the necessary building permits were obtained, and the completion of the major works in 1847, the Knighthood commissioned a new façade design from the young architect Georg Winterhalter from St Petersburg. The Neo-Renaissance façade is covered with a varied decoration. The walls are articulated by plasterwork and the windows are surrounded by a rich structural frame, the softness of the building’s rounded corners is counterbalanced by a heavy cantilevered cornice.
The Estonian Knighthood was abolished in 1920 and the building became the property of the state. The building has housed the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1920-1940), the National Library of Estonia (1948-1992), the Art Museum of Estonia (1993-?) and the Estonian Academy of Arts (2009-2016).
Drawings of the façade of the Estonian Knighthood House are among the oldest in the museum’s collection. Text: Anna-Liiza Izbaš

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Anli Tensing, 1984. EAM 5.9.2

That Blue Rain

The delicate minimalist drawing was completed for the architectural exhibition at the Tallinn Matkamaja (hiking house, currently named as Hopner House) in 1985. The work was awarded the prize of the ESSR Ministry of Culture for “poeticised depiction of new districts”. The exhibition itself was a landmark of its time. For the first time, architects were able to show their free creative work alongside their building projects and planning schemes in a exhibition – they could submit architectural drawings, fantasy projects, graphics, models, architectural designs (see Arhitektuurikroonika ’85. Tallinn “Valgus” 1987). Several works from the exhibition at the time belong to the museum’s collection, as well the exhibition’s guest book. Anli Tensing’s (Tummi, 1957-2006) prize-winning work, together with a few dozen other works, unfortunately ended up in an attic of an Old Town building, where it was found in 2022. Text: Anne Lass

Herbert Johanson, 1920-1922. EAM 2.11.8

The furniture designs of the Parliament building

In 1922, the most important state building of the newly independent Republic of Estonia – the new modern Parliament building (architects Herbert Johanson, Eugen Habermann 1920-1922) – is completed in Toompea. “It is a simple, yet self-conscious and distinctive building, which gracefully combines the individual sense of design of the authors and the fit with its medieval surroundings, while remaining modern.” This is how art critic Hanno Kompus characterised the Parliament building in his introduction to the book “20 Years of Building in Estonia: 1918-1938 “. Herbert Johanson’s designs were also used to create the unique furniture of the Parliament building, which repeats the geometric shapes of the building’s interiors and the Art Deco zigzag motif. The furniture was produced by the Luther factory, for whom it was the first major public commission (see Jüri Kermik. A. M. Luther 1877-1940. Innovation of form from material. Tallinn, 2002). The high quality of Lutermas’ work is demonstrated by the fact that most of the 100-year-old furniture is still in use today.

The museum has more than 30 furniture designs for the Parliament building, ranging from the podium in the sitting room to the coat racks. The original drawings come from the archives of the former Ministry of Roads and were transferred to the museum in 1992. Text: Anne Lass

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Ain Padrik, 1983, 1984. EAM 55.1.3 ja 55.1.4

House for a Romantic – House for a Physicist

At the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, architecture and especially residential building was starting to look at historical examples, and a relationship with the client or with the location of the building was deemed to be important. Designing a house provided a chance to experiment with the limits of freedom of expression and set an intriguing assignment to interpret the client through architecture. The romantic’s house followed the example of the Arts and Crafts movement in 19th-century England. This movement cherished handicraft and often employed motifs from medieval architecture: romantic towers and complex roof landscapes. The physicist’s house with its more clearly defined volumes proceeds from the wishes of the client. The physicist did not ask for large windows, preferring a lot of wall space and dimly lit interior. A thorough working project was also finished in addition to this sensitive perspective view. Construction received a building permit, but the physicist’s house was never completed. Ain Padrik donated the drawings to the museum in 2016. Text: Sandra Mälk

Valve Pormeister, design 1958, completed 1960. MEA 33.1.22

Flower Pavilion at Pirita Road in Tallinn

Architect Valve Pormeister, who graduated university in garden- and park design, claimed that nature was an intrinsic component of her, which was why she often put landscape first in her works. The Flower Pavilion melts into the landscape with a sensitivity characteristic of the architect’s signature. In addition to organic architecture, the building, which step-by-step ascends a hillside, also represents Finnish-influenced cornice architecture. This approach was rare and reviving (i.e. Nordic) in Soviet Estonian society at the time, as the rigidity of the early 1950s still echoed. The detail-rich interior sketches demonstrate the architect’s great enthusiasm for designing flower exhibitions – an activity she also practiced afterward. Text: Sandra Mälk

Edgar Velbri, design 1932, constructed. MEA 14.1.46

Johannes Orro’s dwelling at Raudtee Street in Tallinn

Bustling Nõmme had already grown from a holiday village to a reasonably-sized town (possessing town privileges from 1926–1940, after which it became a district of Tallinn) when café-owner Major Johannes Orro presented the design for his new building to the town government in 1932. True to the era of thriving small businesses, the ground floor of the residential building in the Kivimäe neighbourhood housed a bakery – an unquestionably successful venture, given its close proximity to the railway station. The design was drafted by young architect and Tallinn Technical University student Edgar Velbri, who was fascinated by old-fashioned architecture; probably a result of his summer internships at the Estonian National Museum, during which he surveyed Estonian farm structures. The hipped roofs, romantic shutters, and vertical siding characteristic of Estonian agricultural architecture later carried over into the architect’s personal style. Complementing such features with his talent for creating functional floorplan solutions, Velbri gained great public favour and demand, and his cosy structures gained their own nickname: “Velbri houses”. This single-page ink drawing on tracing paper is a typical 1930s residential design project, which was submitted for official approval along with an explanatory letter. Text: Sandra Mälk

Tiit Kaljundi, architectural competition 1975, perspective drawing 1984, unrealised. MEA K-53

Dr Spock’s residence

Tiit Kaljundi’s relationship with Soviet Estonia’s official architectural scene was conflicted, as one may have expected from an avant-garde artist. The ruling power saw monotonous mass apartment blocks as a simple opportunity to ease the deficit of dwelling-spaces. For Kaljundi, however, it was a situation that dampened creativity and encouraged a superficial attitude towards the residential environment, to which he responded with a starkly opposite project – the post-modernist villa. The design, which was originally entered in the magazine Japan Architect’s “House for a Superstar” competition in 1975, was dedicated to famous American doctor Benjamin Spock, whose childrearing book was widely read in Estonia at the time. This version was drafted for an exhibition highlighting the “Tallinn School” of architects, which was held in Finland in 1984. Kaljundi’s protest against the Soviet Union’s rigid, anonymous building culture is obvious. By creating an analogy between construction-stages and life-stages, he clearly expresses the opinion that man and architecture are not separable. The house and the concrete-sidewalked property around it symbolised the various stages of life. Kaljundi’s drawing presents the structure from an axonometric perspective, which enables its imagination in a three-dimensional scale on a two-dimensional surface. Text: Sandra Mälk