Eesti Arhitektuurimuuseum

: Residence in Paide

Residence in Paide

House in Paide

It was not overly common to commission house designs from a professional architect in the early 1920s, especially in towns and boroughs – designs were often made by building technicians and civil engineers. Compared to nowadays, the project seems unusually compact. One sheet would feature all the information about the house: views, floor plans, sections and every now and then a perspective view to please the client and show the general appearance of the future house. The house of Oskar Tedder who commissioned the project to acquire the building loan, was constructed on one of the main streets of Paide where the state handed out empty plots to establish a new garden city-like housing area. The project made in ink on the drafting cloth was added to the museum’s collection in 1992. Text: Sandra Mälk

: Shopping center in the Rotermann quarter. Competition work, 1989

Tiina Tallinn, Ell Väärtnõu, Arvi Aasmaa, engineer Rein Karilaid, 1989. EAM 5.1.21

Competition entry for the shopping centre at Mere Boulevard in Tallinn

Up until now the factory premises of the Rotermann Quarter had been closed off and an architectural competition was organised to find a way to better incorporate the area into the urban landscape. The quarter was to be the main commercial and service centre of Tallinn. The centre of the competition entry titled “Foorum” is a crescent market square – a modern interpretation of the historic forum in ancient Rome, together with all the surrounding market pavilions. The idea of market as a place of communication is further emphasised by a collage detail of lips as a means of communication. The competition entries were given to the museum in 1993 by the Tallinn City Office. Text: Sandra Mälk

: Interior design of Café Neitsitorn (Maiden Tower) in Tallinn. Aala Buldas

: Interior design of Café Neitsitorn (Maiden Tower) in Tallinn. Aala Buldas

Interior architect Aala Buldas, 1970–1980. EAM 4.7.17

Café Neitsitorn (Maiden Tower)

One of the most unique defensive towers of the Tallinn city wall, the quadrilateral Neitsitorn (Maiden Tower) was restored in the 1970s. The Maiden Tower together with Kiek in de Kök were defensive structures of crucial importance in the defense of medieval Tallinn. However, after the loss of the status of Tallinn as a fortress city, the centuries-long defense function of the wall towers changed, and in the 19th century the wall towers were rebuilt into dwellings, as did the Maiden Tower. The two-storey residential building became a home for renowned artists and writers, whose apartments had several studio rooms. In the early 1970s, field research on the Tallitorn (Stable Tower) and the Maiden Tower began in order to find a public function for the building. The work was encouraged by the forthcoming Olympic regatta. During the reconstruction of the Maiden Tower, about half of the structure was rebuilt almost as new. The building was given a new floor, underground utility rooms and an impressive glass wall on the Old Town side. The Café Neitsitorn was situated in the new premises, which opened its doors to the public in 1980 and immediately became a big hit. The authors of the tower’s reconstruction design were an architect Tiina Linna, an art historian Villem Raam, and the café’s interior design was made by Aala Buldas. In 2022, the drawings were donated to the museum by Eva Mölder from the restoration company Vana Tallinn. Text: Sandra Mälk

: Drawing of August Hanko’s residence, 1922. Karl Burman

Karl Burman senior, 1922. EAM 2.2.695

Hanko’s house in Tartu County

The drawing depicts a dwelling in a farm in Kambja owned by journalist and entrepreneur August Hanko. At the time, Karl Burman favoured National Romanticism and drew inspiration from traditional Estonian farm architecture, using poetic elements to mitigate its practical nature. Burman’s oeuvre includes repeated elements in the form of bay windows, porches and a high-hipped thatched roof. Small grid windows of different sizes and shapes are also common to his work. As is characteristic to the style, Burman avoided excess practicality in the arrangement of space, placing a spacious hall in the centre of the layout and the living quarters surrounding it. The project was never realised.

Text: Sandra Mälk

: Design of an apartment building in the Mustamäe II microdistrict. Tiiu Argus, 1966

Tiiu Argus, 1966. EAM 4.2.3

Five-storey apartment building in Mustamäe, Tallinn

The Mustamäe district, which was erected in Tallinn in the 1960s, was divided up into microdistricts that were designed to accommodate 6,000–10,000 residents. The monolithic form of the panel apartment blocks designed for the second microdistrict is based on the development of prefabricated panels, permitting the construction of buildings with five or more storeys, not just four storeys like before. In the context of the depreciated housing options at the time and before the microdistricts became dormitory suburbs, the first panel apartment blocks that dominated the landscape looked innovative. They were thought to display a community effect and bring neighbours closer together. This ink drawing was given to the museum by design office Eesti Projekt in 1992. Text: Sandra Mälk

: Visions of Tallinn Olympic Sailing Center

Mart Port, 1972–1973. EAM 52.4.2

Visions of Tallinn Olympic Sailing Center

Major design work preceded the sailing regatta of the 1980 Olympic Games in Tallinn. The Pirita estuary was redesigned to serve the public and sailors. As the local architects had little experience in creating a building complex that meets the requirements of the Olympic Games, the then city architect Dmitri Bruns decided to travel to Kiel, Germany, where the 1972 Olympic regatta was held, together with Mart Port, chief architect of the Estonian Project, and Urmo Kala, deputy chairman of the sports committee. There, with the kind assistance of the German colleagues the group got acquainted with the construction of the Olympic Sailing Center in Schilksee. The knowledge gained allowed us to announce an architectural competition in 1973 to find a project for the Pirita Sailing Center in which 12 works were submitted. The accompanying visualization comes from an album of Mart Port’s works and was probably part of a set of projects submitted to the competition but not awarded. The hotel has a hotel-bar-restaurant for athletes and guests at the forefront, and of course the Olympic light tower is centrally located in the complex. Like the Schilksee sailing center, the buildings have been built in stages. While in the lower picture the pier edge is used by holidaymakers, in the upper picture the tone is set by cars, which are probably influenced by Western magazines. The design features modern American cars, including the sporty-looking Dodge Challenger. The album was donated to the museum by Heldi Toom in 2014. Text: Sandra Mälk

: Version 3 of the reconstruction of Toompea Castle and Gardens. Alar Kotli

Alar Kotli, 1933–1936. EAM 2.11.15

Reconstruction of the Toompea Castle and the castle garden

The aspiration for representability that began in the second half of the 1930s made its way to architecture via state buildings, manifesting in the use of traditional forms and details. The Estonian government, which had centred around Toompea, reconstructed the southern wing of Toompea Castle and the Governor’s Garden in front of it, opting for a Neo-Baroque style that harmonised with the 18th-century Late Baroque look of the front of the castle. The supporting wall of the Governor’s Garden also received a fresh look. The Coloured copy in watercolour technique was added to the museum collection in 1991. Text: Sandra Mälk