EAA 100 / Karl Tarvas
EAM 40.5
The creative legacy of Karl Tarvas (Treumann, 1885–1975) significantly shaped the residential architecture of Tallinn’s suburbs in 1920–1940. During the interwar period, he devoted himself to the less prosperous course and to improving the living conditions of the tenants by designing wooden apartment buildings to can be built quickly, the most known which is characteristic of Tallinn houses. These buildings with a timber framework with stone staircases were built by smaller entrepeneurs with a help of favorable state construction loan. The owner usually lived on the spacious apartment on the first floor of the building and rented out remaining 2-3-room apartments. In the second half of the 1930s, Karl Tarvas designed stone apartment buildings according to the state’s plan to make Tallinn’s city center more representative. In the 1920s, before founding his office, Karl Tarvas worked as an architect in Harju County and took care of the construction of rural school buildings, departments and other public buildings. His three sons also chose the profession of architect, the most known of the three is Peeter Tarvas (1916–1987). More about Karl Tarvas’ studies at the Riga Polytechnic Institute in 1906–1915 and his latest work can be read from the articly by Sandra Mälk in the collection of the Riga Technical University (RTU Scientific Journal, 2021/5): https://hesihe-journals.rtu.lv/article/view/HESIHE.2021.004/2824
Karl Tarvas was one of the 15 architects who founded the Estonian Association of Architects in 1921, which is the predecessor of the Estonian Association of Architects.
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