Canteen of the Võsu Vacation Centre. Heili Härmson and Lennart Sasi, 1961. EAM 51.1.1

Heili Volberg-Raig 100 / Canteen in Võsu

On May 4, architect Heili Volberg-Raig celebrates her 100th birthday. We wish her much joy and health! Heili has donated great amount of filigree designs from her home archive to the museum. And since cafés and recreational facilities appear frequently in her work, we introduce a design for a modernist restaurant from 1961.

The Canteen of the Võsu Vacation Centre is one of the projects designed by Heili Volberg-Raig (then Härmson) as a long-time architect at the office of Eesti Projekt. She was helped by Lennart Sasi who was responsible for its engineering solutions. The canteen was in great demand in the popular Võsu summer resort, considering that the number of visitors could reach over 11,000 by the end of the season. At that time, Võsu Puhkekodu (Võsu Vacation Centre) was involved in the construction of several buildings necessary for the holiday. The new canteen was erected under the pine trees on the territory of the former Arnold Leihberg summer house, which is adjacent to the Võsu beach.

The canteen building, which was built on Mere Street, which runs parallel to the beach, was completed in 1964, offering shade and food for 300 visitors. No effort was made with the name of the canteen. Since there was already a canteen operating on the premises, the name Canteen No. 2 was hung above the door (see photos from the Virumaa Museum Võsu Canteen and Võsu Canteen No. 2 from the Estonian Health Museum). However, this building was much more modern than before, the building with spacious windows provided a view through the house directly to the seashore. The canteen had two halls, one of which was intended for families with children. According to the logical structure of the house, the cloakroom and kitchen were placed in the lower building blocks, leaving the spacious halls with a sloping roof in the center of the building.

After the restoration of independence, the illegally expropriated assets of the Võsu Holiday Centre were returned to their former owners or privatized, which began a new phase in the canteen era. The nightclub Seitsmes Taevas moved into the building. Unfortunately, in 2019, the building was demolished, having already been rebuilt from the original.

Text: Sandra Mälk

• 1960s
• Heili Volberg-Raig