Peeter Tarvas, 1946. EAM 40.1.48

Fireplace in the architect’s house in Tallinn

Several designs of Peeter Tarvas’s cosy fireplace, in his house under construction in Maarjamäe, have been preserved. On this drawing the architect has depicted the fire chamber in the front view and from the sides, providing its cross-section from above in the bottom part of the drawing. The edges of the drawing show calculations about the number of tiles needed, revealing how many tiles are required for the living room, the hall and the private office. The architect has drawn himself standing next to the fireplace for scale. The watercoloured drawing holds now a place in Peeter Tarvas’s personal collection in the museum. The work was donated by Maria Tarvas in 2006. Text: Sandra Mälk

• 1940s
• Peeter Tarvas

Lidia Pettai, 1961. EAM 15.4.150

Seaside park in Tallinn

60 years ago, the opening of the Tallinn sea border was under discussion with the intention of turning it into a green area with port facilities. Back then, In the 1960s, and primarily at Finland’s initiative, plans were made to clear up all the areas surrounding the port with regard to the reopening of the Tallinn-Helsinki seaway and the construction of the passenger port. The seaside area – in the immediate proximity of Old Town – was partly in the military zone and opening it up to the city became a lively issue. Although, only a handful of buildings were fixed up during the Soviet era. New buildings were due to be constructed in the densely built-up industrial area together with the main park road that was in the direction of Mere Boulevard (No. 1), such as the beach café (7), the port building (3) and children’s playgrounds (8).  A team of architects worked with the design at the Eesti Tööstusprojekt. Kalju Vanaselja designed the buildings and H. Parmasto behind the schemes of coastal reinforcements. The plan was designed by architect Lidia Pettai, whose watercoloured work was given to the museum in 2012 by Reet Priilaht. Text: Sandra Mälk

• 1960s
• Lidia Pettai

Vaike Parker, 1971. EAM 45.1.8

Garden planning and landscaping sketch

The house located in Merivälja district in Tallinn was acquired by the Association of Journalists in the 1960s and soon transformed into the institution’s holiday home. A thorough design for the garden of the house was needed to organise bigger events. It was commissioned from the renowned landscape architect Vaike Parker. The sketch depicts architect’s first thoughts before drawing up a complete design – these thoughts have been sketched on delicate tracing paper using a soft pencil. Listed are the objects that complement the landscaping details, e.g. a water canal, a deck chair and a screen. In 2010, Vaike Parker

• 1970s
• landscape architect: Vaike Parker
• landscape architecture

Ignar Fjuk, 1982. EAM 5.4.61

Linnahall Square and the Merepargi Taimelinn (the Plant City of the Sea Park)

Tallinn Linnahall was built during the building frenzy which preceded the 1980 Olympics, but the surroundings were not developed as planned. The area between the power station and the commercial port was cleaned of the production residue from the factories and the concrete blocks that were laying around. At the same time, discussions became louder about granting people in the city access to the coastal zone, which had thus far belonged to the border zone and been managed by large factories. Ignar Fjuk designed a green park area to surround the Linnahall, which also included a place for architectural forms – gates and pavilions. He presented his vision in the group exhibition ofthe Tallinn School, which took place at the Tallinn Art Salon in 1983. This illustration made in ink and gouache was given to the museum as a gift by the author in 2002. Text: Sandra Mälk

• 1980s
• Ignar Fjuk

Marika Lõoke, 1981. MK 227

EMA 30 / Tiny tour of models: Extension to Tallinn Secondary School of Science

Tallinn Secondary School of Science (Tallinna Reaalkool) will be 140 years old this year. The school was founded in 1881, in the same year an all-Russian architectural competition was organized to obtain a schoolhouse project. The competition was won by Max Hoeppener (1848–1924), a Baltic German architect from Moscow. Hoeppener was assisted in the construction project by Carl Gustav Jacoby, a Tallinn city engineer at the time. The first building designed for a school building in Tallinn was completed in 1884.

A century later, in 1981, a competition was held for a vision of the extension of the school building. The location of the new addition was to be set on the current sports field. 13 works came to the competition. The first prize was given to the architects Vilen Künnapu and Ain Padrik for the project named “Kivirünta” (EAM 41.1.10), the second place went to Kullervo Kliimand’s work “Poiss” (“A Boy”). The third prize was shared by Kiira Soosaar, Siiri Kasemets and Jüri Karu’s competition work “Imelik” (“Strange”) and “Koolimaja” (“School House) by Marika Lõoke. In the magazine Ehituskunst, the editor of the magazine, architect Ado Eigi, describes it as follows: “ In addition to the attractively playful, postmodernist façades maintained at a good professional level and the expressive plan solution, the competition work “Koolimaja” (author Marika Lõoke) also suggested an interesting corner solution together with the M. Gorky named Library building (now Tallinn Central Library – A.L.).” A year later Marika Lõoke also received the 3rd prize at the competition for the new building of the Kreutzwald State Library. The library competition model belonging to the collection of the Museum of Architecture can be seen in the soon-to-open exhibition at the National Library. Together with several other models, the author donated them to the museum in 2017. See also “Architecture. Second-third, 1982–1983.” Text: Anne Lass

• 1980s
• Marika Lõoke