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Collection’s diary

Eliel Saarinen, 1913. EAM 1.1.8

“Suur-Tallinn” (Greater-Tallinn) master plan

In the early 20th century, Tallinn was transforming from a sleepy provincial resort town into a modern, mid-sized European city. Rapidly developing industry and population growth resulted in the need to give consideration to the city as a comprehensive system. Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen had already worked with plans for developing Budapest, Helsinki, and Canberra. Thus, his first-place prize in the 1912–1913 competition for a general plan of Tallinn was somewhat expected. Saarinen’s entry is monumental: the city centre would be stocked with six-storey stone buildings, while worker-class neighbourhoods would be reformed with row-houses. This year is the 150th anniversary of the birth of architect Eliel Saarinen. The drawings, which belonged to the Tallinn City Government for a long time, were recently given to the museum.
Text: Sandra Mälk

Erika Nõva, 1939. EAM 2.6.34

The competition project of physical culture centre “Siseõu”. II prize

Sports and physical culture become the keywords of modern life in the mid-1930s. Planning a representative sports building in Tallinn become on the agenda. A suitable location was found in the Falkpark (today Falgi Park) located at Toompuiestee. In November 1938, the architectural competition was announced. The plan was grandiose: the building had to hold a main hall (20×40 m) for gymnastics, basketball and volleyball, tennis, wrestling, weightlifting and other fields. The stands had seats for 4,500 spectators. Another large room group consisted of a swimming pool (14×25 m) and two saunas, and the third was a gymnasium. In addition to training, dressing and washrooms, office spaces and apartments for officials were also planned. The international competition ended in April 1939. Finnish architects Enn Muistre and Einar Teräsvirta won the first prize, the third prize went to Latvian architect Arturs Reinfelds. Erika Nõva, one of the first female architects in Estonia, received the second prize. The award committee highlighted Nõva’s urban-planningly successful solution “… because the semicircular forms relate architecturally well to multi-directional streets.” The solution of the main hall, the swimming pool and the central part of the building was called magnificent / Eesti Arhitektuur. Varamu arhitektuuri osakond nr 3, 1939/. Erika Nõva recalls: “This job started to bother me. I thought I don’t deserve it, but I couldn’t give up the thought either. Little by little, I began to observe related examples from foreign magazines and tried to sketch it according to the program. When I showed these sketches to Kotli and Soans /… /, they encouraged me to continue working.” / Erika Nõva. Minu töö ja elu. Tallinn, 2006, p. 61/. What follows is a long and cheerful description of the work-hours at night, the draftsman’s assistant Tsinovski (Nopski), the nerve-wracking moments when sending off the work at the post office of Nõmme station, the victory celebration at the “Ehitaja” office and later at Mustamäe’s home. Text: Anne Lass

Alvar Aalto, 1932. Maquette: Peet Veimer. EAM MK 47

Villa Tammekann in Tartu

February 3 is the 125th anniversary of the birth of the world-famous Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. The private residence of the University of Tartu professor August Tammekann at Kreutzwaldi st. 6 Tartu is the only completed building in Estonia designed by architect Aalto. The flat roofed, two-storey functionalist building was partially completed in 1933. According to the style’s principles, the building’s facade reflects the usage of the interior spaces. On the street side, a stairwell rises behind the vertical window, on the courtyard side, the central element is the wide ribbon window of the living room with a fireplace located at the bottom of the window. The flat roof of the house, which was not widespread at the time, caused a lot of discussion among the locals and was even considered as an anti-God phenomenon. The villa was rebuilt into an apartment building during the Soviet period. In 1994, the building was returned to Professor Tammekann’s offspring, in the 1998 University of Turku bought the building. The villa was restored according to Alvar Aalto’s project in 2000. Today, the Granö Centre of the universities of Turku and Tartu is located in the building.
The maquette of Villa Tammekann was made for the Estonian Architecture Museum exhibition “Aalto: three projects in Estonia” by Peet Veimer in 1998. Text: Anna-Liiza Izbaš

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

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

Architect Villem Tomiste, AB Kosmos 2004. Model: Paco Ulman. EAM MK 121

EMA 30 / Tiny tour of models: Villa in Hiiumaa

A futuristic-looking villa planned in the seaside village of Õngu on the west coast of Hiiumaa. The private house is characterised by an accentuated artificiality. There are no aligned walls or ceilings parallel to the floor. Variously shaped openings cut into the fractured surfaces, offer views of the surrounding unspoilt nature. The living and dining room on the second floor of the building, designed as a single flowing space, is open to the seafront reeds, with a wedge-shaped staircase leading to it from the terrace. This private house has not been built. The model was donated to the museum in 2005. Text: Anne Lass

 

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