GROUND FLOOR

Permanent exhibition 
ARCHITECTURAL MODELS FROM MUSEUM’S COLLECTION 
This permanent exhibition features the items from the Museum’s collection of models. The exhibition is designed to provide an overview of the 20th century Estonian architecture. The collection has been steadily growing during the last 15 years. Still the Museum has not acquired the models of all the important buildings as of yet. The Museum plans to keep updating the display with new models – so there will always be reason to come back for more.

The models have been created to serve different purposes – to present the project to the commissioner, to participate at an architectural competition or to display at exhibitions. The style and materials of the models have changed with the times and naturally all the model-makers have their own distinct handwriting. The models displayed together in the exhibition hall enable the viewer to observe these changes.

The oldest item on display is the model of the elevator (1893, building destroyed) for the Port of Tallinn that was made for the 1900 Paris World’s Fair. Few models have survived from the 1930s – here they are represented by a small-scale model of the so-called Chilehaus (Pärnu mnt. 36) in Tallinn. The most prominent item from the 1950s is the large-scale model of the Song Festival Ground (1958).

The Museum itself has commissioned a number of models for certain exhibitions. These models generally follow the architect’s original drawings with an occasional addition of some more recent extensions. Most of these models have been created by Peet Veimer, who has been the model-maker for generations of Estonian architects. He was also the author of the numerous models commissioned by the former great design institutes that have now been added to the Museum collection.

In the 1990s the museum commissioned a number of models featuring buildings with intricate façade design (Estonian Students Society Building, Drama Theatre, etc.) from the artist Kaarel Kurismaa. If you look at some of his models real quietly you might hear some curious sounds.

The traditional three-dimensional model has not lost its appeal in the computer era. The models continue to be the best means for explaining the architect’s ideas to the commissioner and testing out the new buildings in their actual context. The competition models form a whole category of their own since they have often been created with the aim of making the design more attractive. Architectural compositions are some of the most specific types of models displayed. Here they are represented by Leonhard Lapin’s conceptual design – “arhitektoon” of the New Town Hall for Tallinn (1992). Lapin’s another arhitektoon is on display at he 1st floor lobby of the Rotermann’s Salt Storage.

The largest model on display here is the model of the Tallinn city centre (commissioned by the Tallinn City Government) completed in 2000–2006. The model is designed for testing out the compatibility of new buildings with the existing ones. For the locals the model provides information on new buildings and for the visitors it could also serve as a guide for discovering Tallinn.

Surrounded by tiny houses we could become the Gullivers or recall our childhood pastime of making dollhouses of toy blocks. Or we could imagine ourselves to be professional urban planners. There’s nothing easier than making our city a more beautiful and comfortable place by mentally rearranging the houses on the model.

The large model of the City of Tallinn

EXHIBITIONS IN DRAWERS: 
Art Nouveau and National Romanticism in Estonia
Eliel Saarinen’s „Greater-Tallinn” project, 1913
Estonian Wooden Architecture
Functionalism in Estonia
Main Squares of Tallinn: Vabaduse and Viru
Estonian Independence Monuments 

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