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EKA Urban Studies flrst studio / MMXVI
Crash course in
Tallinn
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Studio I typomoRphology
Crash Course in Tallinn
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Tutors: Andra Aaloe and Keiti Kljavin
Students:Elena BolkhovitinovaTom BrenneckeFruzsina CsalaAleksandra DorofeevaGüngör GüneşMáté HuleschNina StenerJolande KirschbaumAnastassija Malkova Kaarel OksJohannes PointnerMikko Toivanen
Map team: Anastassija and Güngör
Editing team: Tom and Elena
Layout team: Nina, Mikko and Jolande
Cover photo by Johannes PointnerImages by members of the studio and Maros krivy
Impressum
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Map Foreword
SPONTANEOUS WALK Introduction Stops
TRIGGER WORDS WALK Introduction Stops
TEMPORARY WALK Introduction Stops Betapromenaad Kalarand The Cultural Kilometer Kultuurikartel and EKKM Linnahall
GENIUS LOCI WALK Introduction Stops Genius Loci Skyscrapers of Tallinn CBD Reenacting the Industries Garages Worth Millions Haunted Heritage Kaasani Church Keldrimäe Modernism Dvigatel Workers’ Home Madame Blokhina’s Brothel Keskturg Densification of Keldrimäe
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FINAL WALK Introduction Stops Paper Skyscrapers The Change in Value of Garage-Scape Mobile Morphology Quest for Domination Liminal Space of CBD Modernist Living Mapping the Sacred Tree Tales Real Estate Market Where have all the kids gone? Nothing & a Bit of Something Soviet Shopormophology
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Crash course in Tallinn – a first studio of the Urban Studies MA programme at the Estonian Academy of Arts, was designed to be an ABC course for learning about the main actors and structures behind the development of Tallinn’s urban form. The majority of the course was spent outside of the classroom working with the immediate urban space – as a resource, a trigger for investiga-tions, and also as a stage to present gathered knowledge & insights.
The studio was built around the practice of urban tours – a wonderful and permissive format to learn and talk about one’s environment. We started off with few tour ‘games’ i.e. simple tasks to activate perceiving the environment surrounding us, and finding reflections of given litera-ture from the space itself. And then moved on to more thorough (and in times even classical) tour-making practices.
First one was the so-called Iden-tity walk, a tour about the formation and uphold of Estonian national identity. That tour followed sites in the city that are illustrating the endeavours, and also failures, of the
physical manifestations of the small nation’s own narratives. The second tour – a more thorough collective survey for students – looked into the developments of Tallinn’s seaside in the recent past. Students were to familiarise themselves with the actors and processes behind the rapid urban change within the controversial chain of developments in the area between Linnahall and the Noblessner quar-ter. This two-week process ended with a coherent tour called Tempo-rary city.
Then we were ready to move on. Firstly toward the South, on our three-day road trip of wider Estonia and Latvia (visiting Tartu and Valga/Valka, Cesis and Riga) to be able to position better our quasi-city-state Tallinn in the wider Estonian context, as well as to learn about distinctive themes common in urban formations in the Baltic region. And secondly, to move on to one single project-area for more elaborate dissection of the urban fabric in the second half of the semester.
The area we focused on consists of parts of Maakri and Keldrimäe subdistricts. The urban form of the
Foreword
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area is scattered, messy and diverse, giving us perfect incentive to learn about the actors and processes be-hind it. After two-week preliminary research, students compiled a col-lective public tour in search for the genius loci of the area on All Souls Day. Then, in the last leg of the stu-dio, students had a chance to concen-trate on their individual subjects of interest to develop personal projects for the final public grading festival on 7th December 2016 in situ.
The studio was clearly pro-cess-oriented, where active partici-pation in every lesson and task was crucial in order to receive a base understanding of the political, social, economic, cultural, ideological, historical etc processes shaping the physical environment firstmost in Tallinn but also in the region. One can say that a good set of methods to study urban formations were tried out and used: observations, inter-views, work with literature, compara-tive work with maps & other archive materials etc. A multitude of cases were studied, and bunch of fruitful discussions were held. And a won-derful array of possible outputs for engaging audience in presenting the
results of surveys were developed by the students. So all in all: it was full-on but also lots of fun.
These materials, methods, outcomes, descriptions etc of the in-tensive three-month working process are now organised by students into this booklet you are about to browse. Do enjoy! And warning: there are no excuses to not to try it all out at home!
Andra Aaloe and Keiti Kljavin, tutors of Crash course in Tallinn
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Spontaneous Walk
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McDonald’s
Three TowersMarket Pigeons
Viru Gate
Structures
New Building
Rotermanni
Flower Stands
Energia Kohvik
Souvenir Shop
Church
Pärnu mnt 10
Rotermanni 3
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Introduction
As the name says, this walk for us, students, was spontaneous and unknown. Most of us were not familiar with Tallinn at that time as we arrived not long before our studies started. Things were about to change when we plunged into urban fabric, thinking on our feet and holding the “speakers stone”. We had to make up stories unprompted and by this observed, experienced and examined places on our way which started our Crash-course in Tallinn.
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(full-time student in EKA Urban Studies MA)Aleksandra dorofeeva
Referring to the McDonald’s cafe, I went along with my personal story of coming to Tallinn for the first time and being warmly greeted there by a stranger. My experience demonstrated how identity of a place is mentally constructed with different narratives, showing for example how intimacy gives banal public place the layer of sacredness.
(full-time student in EKA Urban Studies MA)TOM brennecke
I addressed somehow a traditional, but a bit special souvenir shop. The shop sells puppets and other hand made goods from the region. The owner of the shop, an Ukrainian man, illustrated the shop with talking about his history in Estonia and how he ended up in Tallinn. It was a fugitive but surprisingly deep entrance into Estonian crafts and local shops.
(architecture and design theory student from Budapest, Hungary)Fruzsina Csala
I am an art and design theory student from Hungary spending my Erasmus semester at EKA. During our first walk I mentioned the concrete pigeons of Tallinn. These nice petite landmarks gently divide streets or function as barriers. For me these types of details make the city cosy and likeable.
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McDonald’s
Three TowersMarket Pigeons
Viru Gate
Structures
New Building
Rotermanni
Flower Stands
Energia Kohvik
Souvenir Shop
Church
Pärnu mnt 10
Rotermanni 3
(full-time student in EKA Urban Studies MA)Gungor Gunes
During the spontaneous walk, I addressed the gate of Old Town and the maintenance construction within its surroundings.
: : :
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(full-time student in EKA Urban Studies MA)Elena Bolkhovitinova
For an art historian like me, old towns are always places of interest with all the historical layers interwoven, creating something completely new. The area following the inner side of the city wall near Viru Gates is an interesting spot as it is a new woollen goods market meant mostly for tourists, but in the past this place was most likely a trade place for the local inhabitants.
(architecture student from Munich, Germany)Johannes Pointner
Close to the Viru Gate a strip of the medieval city wall is well presented and visible. The old structure of stones and mortar is at this part reinforced by ferroconcrete pillars which were obviously added in more recent times. The way of dealing with the old heritage and the contrast between both construction methods of different times was of interest for me.
(urbanism student from Weimar, Germany)Jolande Kirschbaum
I addressed the De la Gardie building on Viru street. The building was among the first new ones in Old Town after the occupation and is widely discussed because it breaks up the historical structure. Still, it tries to play with some features of the old town, e.g using the same type of stone in parts of its facade.
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(architecture student from Tampere, Finland)Mikko Toivanen
I led the group through the flower stands on Viru street. The colours and smells of the flowers in contrast to the slightly unpleasant busy street crowded by tourists create an ambivalent atmosphere which can be experienced in the busiest tourist season, in a certain time of the day.
McDonald
Three TowersMarket Pigeons
Viru Gate
Structures
New Building
Rotermanni
Flower Stands
Energia Kohvik
Souvenir Shop
Church
Pärnu mnt 10
Rotermanni 3
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(full-time student in EKA Urban Studies MA)Nina Stener
I led the group to Energia Kohvik, a special place that has survived the transition, a calm well decorated haven for Tallinners to enjoy their coffee without loud music and having to choose between macchiato, flat white or moccachino.
(architecture and design theory student from Budapest, Hungary)
In our first walk, I led the group to the wooden church at the corner of Paadi and Ahtri streets. This church caught my attention few days before the walk as I passed it, because of its interesting location – it is in the middle of a wasteland, surrounded by parking lots and the harbour. It stands there like a last memory of a forgotten time.
(full-time student in EKA Urban Studies MA)Anastassija Malkova
At the Viru centre Narva maantee entrance we can have a glimpse of a house with three towers. Designed by one of the most colorful Estonian architects Vilen Künnapu, the house’s stupas are designed to catch the energy and transfer it to residents. According to the architect-professor, seaside has the ability to lose the energy, but antennas will be able to catch it.
MatE Hulesch
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(full-time student in EKA Urban Studies MA)Kaarel Oks
I took our group through the new Rotermanni quarter near the port. This area has in recent years gained popularity in news and architecture magazines. The buildings are varying but mostly keeping a kind of a balanced look between the old and the new. Rotermanni has some problems regarding pedestrian flow between the port and the city center which shows how mobility questions have to be addressed in good urban planning.
McDonald
Three TowersMarket Pigeons
Viru Gate
Structures
New Building
Rotermanni
Flower Stands
Energia Kohvik
Souvenir Shop
Church
Pärnu mnt 10
Rotermanni 3
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TriggerWordsWalk
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RhythmsScales
Scales
CreativityCapitalTemporary
Accessibility
FlowAccessibility
IdeologyAnarchy
TemporaryAccessibility
Utopia
CapitalRhythms
Religiosity
UtopiaDisguised
Utopia
DisguisedReligiosityTemporary
Accessibility
CreativityDisguised
FlowRhythms
ReligiosityAnarchy
ScalesAnarchy
IdeologyCapitalFlow
Disguised
Religiosity
Pikk 20 A. Weizenbergi 34
Ideology
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Introduction
As we consider diversity in the urban fabric as valuable and highly livable, there are tons of approaches to uncover the multilayered space. Given trigger words, such as rhythm, disguise, accessibility or even anarchy, refine the view of the observer to the observed space. Everyone of our class chose a trigger word, which can be basically every kind of a word, and scanned the given route for these words. Here, concrete words like disguise offer concrete city space whereas rhythm or accessibility relate more to a narrative, an abstract element or space. This segmentation of the city in these words offer the best possibility to exploit the space and to reveal the hidden. Depending on the word, a dip in the history and a glimpse to the future become part of the walk. In this process we annexed city towards a strong connection between word, observer and space. Even words became connected and created its own dynamic within the route. Capitalism and rhythm is especially a well-experienced but so far an undescribed one. The space of capitalism has its own rhythm and, therefore, creates broken or vexing relations. Formerly apparently unconnected spaces become connected. Once you start looking at the city in a context of a word, you will go on with that. It is becoming part of your walking and it might be helpful to apply different theories.
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ScalesThe city is defined by a set of distinguishable scales. Throughout the city, the scale can suggest the motives of construction. The old town of Tallinn is one of the oldest in the northern Europe and has remained more or less authentic to this time. The scale of the streets was determined by the pedestrian and equestrian measures and space was limited with the city wall. That influenced the building style of the streets concerning the width and shape. Moving out-side of the old town walls, the scale of the built environment becomes larger. The 20th century Tallinn is witnessing a scale that is more aimed at accom-modating cars and transport vehicles. The new center of the city is designed for commerce and so, the street level is taken inside the commercial centers. The exteriors are reaching into the sky and that creates a more modern city scale with less space for people and aimed for demonstrating wealth.
Kaarel
RhythmSThe urban life is full of different intertwined rhythms and each urban situa-tion is characterized by the singular composition these rhythms create. They are produced by social practices, natural phenomena, physiological/biological functions and movement of objects through space. Rhythms are always in relation to each other, creating polyrhythmic, eurhythmic and arrhythmic fields. In Tallinn these rhythms were scrutinised in three situations: in old town, where the rhythmic disruptions are caused by tourists and locals, in Pro Kapital shopping centre, where rhythms are synchronized to serve the means of consumption, and in Kadriorg, where the natural rhythms are subjected to man-made environments.
Mikko
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CreativityIndustrialization was based on the vast amount of natural resources. Today the engines of economic growth are knowledge, innovation and talent – the characteristics of creative class. According to Richard Florida’s creative capital thesis a community of creative and talented people is fundamental to urban development. The good infrastructure system is important to attract these people but positive lifestyle factors are also necessary such as artistic and cul-tural institutions. The former industrial “dangerous”, “closed”, “brown fields” have become “potential”, “cool”, “artistic” and “under heritage protection” part of the post-industrial cities. This shift symbolizes the economic change of Europe and North America. To represent Florida’s thesis and the economic shift of the western world I have chosen the Museum of Estonian Architecture situated in the former Rotermann Salt Storage, a building under the protec-tion of heritage.
Fruzsina
RhythmsScales
Scales
CreativityCapitalTemporary
Accessibility
FlowAccessibility
IdeologyAnarchy
TemporaryAccessibility
Utopia
CapitalRhythms
Religiosity
UtopiaDisguised
Utopia
DisguisedReligiosityTemporary
Accessibility
DisguisedFlow
RhythmsReligiosity
Anarchy
ScalesAnarchy
IdeologyCapitalFlow
Disguised
Religiosity
Ideology
Pikk 20 A. Weizenbergi 34
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Ideology
Accessibility
More or less every element of the city fabric is linked to ideology. Because of the overwhelming range of content in each of the three contributions to the walk a brief case study was presented. It was shown at Rotermanni Quarter, where neoliberalism as ideological concept has shaped the area, rejecting every real public space and dedicated solely to consumption. At a typical ex-ample of Estonian architecture of the inter war period on the corner of Karu and Aedvilja street the purpose was shown how the young republic attempted to present its independence and legitimacy through architectural style char-acterized by monumentality, traditionalism and symmetry. In the last stop KUMU another aspect of contemporary ideology was taken up: city-brand-ing as systematic competition between cities to attract investments, tourists, attention, etc.
Johannes
The concept of accessibility was addressed in three different locations dur-ing the walk. The first was in Rotermanni quarter where accessibility was emphasized in terms of urban design and social equality. The second point was the electric car charging station in front of the Ministry of Environment. There, accessibility was discussed in terms of accessibility to environmentally friendly solutions, i.e motorised vehicles The third point was in the intersec-tion of Narva maantee in Kadriorg, where the accessibility of pedestrian and non-motorised vehicles in the urban space were analysed.
Güngör
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Urban life is all about temporary: the flow of people, cars, events are endless and forever changing. Temporary can be viewed from different points in urban context, be it some construction works or a pop-up street food café and sometimes they can even escape our notice. Sometimes temporary can become permanent. My first spot is inside the parking lot near Foorum and is about the temporary nature of graffiti. Next spot is the building on Narva mnt 40, an example of how some temporary processes can become permanent: the renovation of this house continues for several years now. And, finally, the last spot is the hectic crossroad on Narva mnt – a perfect illustration of fast pace of urban life where nothing is truly permanent or temporary.
Elena
TemporaRy
RhythmsScales
Scales
CreativityCapitalTemporary
Accessibility
FlowAccessibility
IdeologyAnarchy
TemporaryAccessibility
Utopia
CapitalRhythms
Religiosity
UtopiaDisguised
Utopia
DisguisedReligiosityTemporary
Accessibility
CreativityDisguised
FlowRhythms
ReligiosityAnarchy
ScalesAnarchy
IdeologyCapitalFlow
Disguised
Religiosity
Ideology
Pikk 20 A. Weizenbergi 34
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The picture perfect society and dystopia – it´s opposite. Like in today’s sur-veillance society, exchanging hope for more security for increased distrust is one example. Space is in this case not neutral, but serves as the base of power exercise, e.g. through video surveillance. Like our exclusive society, demonstrated in the exclusion of undesirables in malls and other semi-public spaces, is leading to spatial injustice. Space is here again used and abused for power reasons. But there is some smell of Utopia around as well: free public transport in Tallinn – good for social inclusion and the city’s tax income, but failing in any environmental efforts. You can find those former failed visions of a better society on every street corner.
Jolande
Utopia
These three different locations represent different approaches to the term of flow. The first one at Rotermann Quarter is an example of the historical flow of the built environment, with the functional change of old industrial buildings. The second point is the huge crossroad at Narva mnt, which is a good location to talk about the flow of walking itself, as the junction unlinks us from this flow. At the third location at the entrance of Kadrioru Park we can examine the flow between the city and the nature by analyzing the structure of the park.
Máté
FLOW
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Estonia is known as one of the least religious countries in Europe, but even then, after regaining its independence, diverse religious movements started to flourish. Estonians’ mentality “believing without belonging” has changed the image of churches to be more publicly open. The churches of a post-secular country are becoming hubs of communication and networking. To illustrate this, we passed Jewish Synagogue – sacred place that contains beside preaching rooms also a restaurant, a stall, library, school and mikvah. Furthermore, even in strong religious communities, one can notice that the importance of strictly following traditions is not so central any more and more effort is put into strategies of economical and cultural survival.
Anastassija
Religiosity
RhythmsScales
Scales
CreativityCapitalTemporary
Accessibility
FlowAccessibility
IdeologyAnarchy
TemporaryAccessibility
Utopia
CapitalRhythms
Religiosity
UtopiaDisguised
Utopia
DisguisedReligiosityTemporary
Accessibility
CreativityDisguised
FlowRhythms
ReligiosityAnarchy
ScalesAnarchy
IdeologyCapitalFlow
Disguised
Religiosity
Pikk 20 A. Weizenbergi 34
Ideology
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Anarchy
For this trigger word, a strategy of digging into history was chosen to spot things that are hidden but still have some clues. For instance, at the corner of Narva mnt and Tuukri street stands a strategically placed building. If one pays attention to its architectural design, then she can spot a cruiser ship and that reveals her its original purpose – it was an apartment house built for Estoni-an Navy. Next to the building, on the crossroad of Narva mnt, an interesting fan-like street pattern is presented. It turned out there used to be a water canal connectingÜlemiste Lake to the port and passing Kadriorg on its way. That canal hindered the neighbourhood from normal development for 150 years. The last stop was in Kadrioru park, where I shed light on the history of a barrack complex on Lasnamäe plateau (disguised from the sight of people strolling in Kadriorg) of late XVIII century. These barracks were built for sev-en thousand people, but as a harsh architectural element, turned out to be extremely unsuccessful.
Aleksandra
DIsguised
It seems to me that three sorts of anarchy are existing in urbanism. The first is that people build without permission and with immediately available re-sources. This creates an architecture we know from townships or tree houses. Second is the aspect that people want to create an own utopia with it, where they fabricate their own way of living (i.e some of them like living in self-built houses more than in planned ones). The third kind of anarchy happens when there isn’t much forces of authority present. We can detect this behaviour in abandoned buildings that people break in and do graffiti, make fires in them or smash their windows. Anarchy can also be a tool for unfolding people’s creativity. All mentioned three types are connected and doesn’t function without the others.
Tom
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After regaining its independence in 1991, different governmental changes were made and new policies were implemented to make Estonian economy grow – fast. Mart Laar, the prime minister at the time, wrote an article titled The Estonian Miracle explaining the need for a new economic structure. With Laar’s “just do it”-policy in mind one can see how this strategy changed the urban landscape in central Tallinn. The new policy made it possible for foreign developers and investors to buy land in Tallinn without many restric-tions. The cityscape was influenced by this rapid distancing from the style of former Soviet planned economy and resulted in many new structures built for business – some call it Cowboy Capitalist Architecture.
Nina
Capital
RhythmsScales
Scales
CreativityCapitalTemporary
Accessibility
FlowAccessibility
IdeologyAnarchy
TemporaryAccessibility
Utopia
CapitalRhythms
Religiosity
UtopiaDisguised
Utopia
DisguisedReligiosityTemporary
Accessibility
CreativityDisguised
FlowRhythms
ReligiosityAnarchy
ScalesAnarchy
IdeologyCapitalFlow
Disguised
Religiosity
Pikk 20 A. Weizenbergi 34
Ideology
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33
TemporaryWalk
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Promenaad
PromenaadPromenaad
Promenaad
Kalarand
Kalarand
Promenaad
Promenaad
Promenaad
KilometerKilometer
KilometerKKEKKMISFAG
ISFAG LinnahallLinnahall
Mere pst 20
Peetri 11
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LinnahallLinnahall
Mere pst 20
Introduction
In this walk focus was put on the recent trends of Tallinn’s urban development. The notion of the Temporary City became more and more popular over the last years all over the world. It questions the unilateral occupation with permanent urban elements. Moreover pop up culture not only goes beyond conservative architectural solutions by placing itself on sites where permanent solutions would fail but also engages with challenges that are facing short term uses and demand a high flexibility. By this means the Temporary City can be regarded as the suitable answer on the increasing dynamic and speed of contemporary urban life and seems to develop itself as an integral part of urban planning of our time. Pop up interventions often extend market interests into places and areas, like public space, that were formerly left out. Also as the cases of Tallinn will show those actions which are mostly driven by public interests are also intentionally used to contribute to the increasing of property values, often entitled as Gentrification.
In the course of this walk the single cases were investigated in detail to elaborate the different actors involved and their interests and agendas to uncover the social and political processes that form today’s physical space. Usually investment-driven development plans for new areas which were used for public purposes generate then public activism what then leads to a conflict in which both sides try to articulate and claim their rights to the space.
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Beetapromenaad
“Linnalabor´s goal is simple: to create really accessible public space, open Tallinn to the sea finally and literally, do something for real about seaside promenade instead on endless discussions and empty promises. Beetapromenaad is a space of possibilities, not planned or designed in detail, temporary, easy and cheap instead of making a long time project with finding finances for it etc. The permanent solution is up to the city government, it was not part of the proposed project and is not the point of it. Beetapromenaad is about testing, showing the (right) way, inspiring the people (users), owners (facilitators) and officials (builders).” – Elo Kiivet
The Central Tallinn seaside has long been underused, problematic and somewhat inaccessible to the public. In the Maritime Culture Year of 2016 Linnalabor (Estonian Urban Lab) together with landowners created a promenade from Kalasadam to Noblessner quarter. It is a simple footpath along the seaside, created by removing
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Promenaad
Promenaad
Promenaad
Kalarand
Kalarand
Promenaad
Promenaad
Promenaad
KilometerKilometer
KilometerKKEKKMISFAG
ISFAG Linnahall
Promenaad
Linnahall
Peetri 11
Mere pst 20
fences, opening up gates and fortifying the shore. The project was initiated by Estonian Urban Lab and Noblessner quarter. The initiative was one of the 20 winning entries to the idea contest of the Maritime Culture Year and was created in cooperation with the landowners, AS Tallinna Vesi and the Northern Tallinn City Administration.In summer 2015 Linnalabor opened a website meretallinn.ee to gather ideas for activating the central seaside of Tallinn. The “architects” of Beetapromenaad were Teele Pehk, an urbanist and a very proactive citizen of Tallinn, and Ivar Piirsalu, a social and cultural value driven real estate developer. During one public event organised by Linnalabor they proposed the idea of a having a promenade, addressing also the lack of seaside swimming beach and inaccessibility of the seaside by foot. After the initial spark, the idea had to be broadened. In the beginning of May 2016 Teele Pehk and Ivar Piirsalu met and talked with the representatives of the Sea Museum and Patarei and the head architect of Northern Tallinn district. Around this time Teele also had discussions
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with the head of Northern Tallinn’s district Raimond Kaljulaid who agreed to the vision of opening the city to the people right away. These talks were very value based, basically about how to make clear that aim of the project is noble and right – creating public space that reconnects citizens of Tallinn with the sea. After all parties agreed that they would allow it, the actions of individual parties were discussed.
Collaboration was at the very core of the project at every stage. One of the most important investments (beside money and counted numbers) was voluntary work. Connecting the dots was the phase where Anni Müüripeal and Sander Paling (architects, volunteers) took the lead. They were greatly inspired by a visit to the M&M shop in London to develop a selfie-prone icon that would connect the whole area into one. In constructing and erecting the B icons they had the help of volunteers who were largely architecture students from the Estonian Academy of Arts. By this stage the individual parties had made the physical openings, and the volunteers’ job was to give it an identity and connect it visually.
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Mikko, Kaarel, Aleksandra
In the future the aim is in trying to convince the city that the area should be the first self-regulating public space where not the city forces but people themselves take responsibility.
“I hope that people will see the potential and the benefit of the seaside and this feeling connected with the natural elements, that when larger developments start, people would be against very insensitive proposals.” – Elo Kiivet
Text is based on the interviews with Elo Kiivet, Keiti Kljavin and Anni Müüripeal.
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Kalarand
Before 1991 all of the Estonian seaside was considered a border zone between the Soviet union and the Western World. There was no public access to most of the coast-line along the Baltic coast. After Estonia regained its in-dependence in 1991, the seaside in central Tallinn named Kalarand (translates as The Fish Beach) was opened and cleaned up by Pro Kapital, the legal owner of the beach who had bought the land in the transitional period. Pro Kapital considered the area to be a wasteland and wanted it to remain that way until they decided what to develop at the site. However the area was discovered by inhabit-ants as a recreational area due to its connection to the old town. Talliners soon started to dream about a connection between Tallinn old town and the sea, which could have been achieved by extending Pikk street making it directly accessible. Especially after ‘Lift 11’ – a festival designed to invite inhabitants to discover new parts of their city and created while Tallinn hosted ‘European Capital of Cul-ture’ cultural life started to flourish and Kalarand became a popular public space. Unfortunately, the beach was privately owned by Pro Kapital, a company that initially didn’t mind the activities taking part on the site but had other plans for the place.
The plan was to develop a residential area instead of the so-called wasteland and public interests were not con-sidered in the planning process. The new development plan was taken up for discussion by the local neighbour-hood association Telliskivi selts. Lengthy negotiations begun between several contradicting parties: the plot’s owner Pro Kapital, activists from Telliskivi selts, and the inactive City’s Urban Planning Department. The main drawbacks of the original master plan was that it didn’t specify extent of public use on the plot. In addition,
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the natural sand beach was planned to be replaced by a promenade, which had happened everywhere else in the city centre’s coastline, and also the seaside was physically cut from the town by an asphalt road that lead to future inhabitants’ garages.
Thus the question was raised if the area would become a so-called “gated community” due to the land’s original use as a port that grants some special outdated rights on how to deal with the space. Pro Kapital did not expect the reaction from the activists regarding their privately owned plot and thus they were not ready to make any compromises in negotiations. Furthermore, the City’s Urban Planning Department was impartial in conflict be-tween developer and neighborhood activists. During the conflict in 2015, the temporary fence was erected by Pro Kapital in order to, as they claimed, protect the area from homeless people and protect the new road construction from wasteland dirt. The activists had another interpreta-tion of the fence – a symbol of power of private property.
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However, when the disagreement was about to reach its closure due to the deadline for accepting the develop-ment plan coming closer compromises were attempted. Both sides had to accept some changes to their initial ideas for the future of Kalarand. The compromise was hurried by the Municipality that otherwise would have to pay a fine to Pro Kapital if the development plan was not accepted in time.
Altogether the new plan benefited from the compro-mise that was made, the approved development plan was visibly cleaner and easier to understand than the first attempt. The residential area’s design concept would be
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Anastassija, Johannes, Güngör, Nastja
Our research is based on interviews with Toomas Paa-ver and Teele Pehk (all interviews are in the possession of the authors); media research of years 2012–2016; and comparative research of master plans.
decided by an architectural competition, the artificial promenade width was fixed to a minimum of 25 meters, public usage was defined and the possibility of gated community was denied in written form. The case was a first precedent where public interest was fought for and taken into account in private plan after decades of laissez-faire development. But still the case is not closed, due to the changed development plan that transferred important decision making to architectural competition held in 2016.
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The cultural Kilometer
The case of the Culture Kilometre can be regarded as a showcase project of how the process of conflicting private and public interests looks like. Culture Kilometre was located on the former train tracks, which represented the industrial character of the area in the Soviet times. Dur-ing the struggles of the privatisation process in Tallinn after the the collapse of the Soviet Union the new owner of the area emerged: Pro Kapital. The foreign investment company had from the beginning in mind to develop the entire area of Kalarand to an upper class residential district. The train tracks were to be removed and replaced by a road to grant the access to the buildings. But in the next years when the planning process started and a pos-sible implementation was in prospect, the great potential for public use was noticed by some of Tallinn’s urban activists, leading to the organization of several events that were intended to attract public attention to new plan of the area. This was firstly tolerated by the owner of the area, perhaps having in mind that this attention may also be lucrative for the development itself.
This public activism peaked by establishing of the Culture Kilometre for the year 2011, when Tallinn was the European capital of culture. The path on former rail track was then acknowledged by a great amount of people. Through the events the place became popular and publicly recognized, as happened also in the case of Kalarand. But the investor then took the initiative and pushed the planning forward. The state of affairs between the activists who were claiming to be representatives of the people and the private investor who was following his economic and financial interests, changed from agreed cohabitation to a rigid dispute. At the end of the process, as likely in most of cases like this, a compromise was
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found. The train tracks were removed, the street was built, but the design was slightly adapted to the sur- roundings, what means that the amount of street lanes was reduced to two with the addition of bicycle lines. Activists were disappointed in the result and blamed also the city’s lack of interest in partaking in the discussion.
Nina, Johannes, Güngör, Anastassija
Our research is based on interviews with Toomas Paaver and Teele Pehk (all interviews are in the possession of the authors); media research of years 2012–2016; and compar-ative research of master plans.
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Kultuurikatel and ekkm
Kultuurikatel – Tallinn Creative Hub (in the following: KK) is the municipally owned culture hub in the former building of Tallinn City Central Power Station. The pow-er plant was founded in 1913 and functioned until 1979. The limestone building built in 1934 used to be the boiler room of the power plant with giant boilers inside. The brick chimney of the complex was the tallest in the Baltic States and nowadays it is under heritage protection.
The industrial coastal sites were owned by the munic-ipality and had been closed to the public since the Soviet period because of security reasons. For the last decade the city has been looking for ideas how to open itself up to the sea and to bring life back into this area.
KK was the flagship project of the Tallinn 2011 – European Capital of Culture, as a cultural incubator for supporting the creative industries, but the half-ready KK hosted only few events during the Cultural Capital year. The reconstruction took longer and was more expensive than expected because of the asbestos found in the walls. The opening ceremony was postponed to February 2015.
KK is not really open to the public according to locals and our personal experiencesa. It is a place of top-organ-ized, “fancy” events and high quality, expensive studios. Most of the artists cannot afford to rent a studio there. KK organises events such as fashion shows (Tallinn Fash-ion Week), concerts and conferences of art and design. According to its website the aim of the institution is to develop cultural tourism, marketing, exporting and the connection between culture and private sector. The shift from a former idea about “public space for creative in-dustries” to a marketing and tourism orientated approach becomes clear.
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Totally different, but strongly connected to KK is EKKM – the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, located next to KK. Starting from a squatting project in 2006 in the former office building of the heating plant it is now an established artist DIY venue with some state-funds helping, still they don’t consider themselves “institu-tionalized”. From their alternative roots they kept the run-down atmosphere of the building and the openness leading to other small creative starters, like the Lugemik Bookstore, which is the premise of a publishing initiative for artist, and around the corner is the ISFAG Gallery. EKKM at the moment is renting the space from KK, a step undertaken in 2012 to legalize the use of the build-ing, but can possibly be thrown out at every moment. EKKM considers their relation to KK today as a win-win situation, as every time KK gets money or attention, EKKM will also profit on it.
The city’s attitude towards EKKM was not always as respectful as it is now, since the city which owns the place has tried to sell off every piece of land surrounding
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the site to private investors. The cost of the overpriced completion of KK needed to be covered by selling the backyard of EKKM and the neighbouring site, a former urban gardening space, putting EKKM`s survival at risk. Even though EKKM was one of the reasons for the city to invest in this area as it started the “cultural spirit” already before the European Cultural Capital Year they considered sacrificing it. Criticism set off quickly when this detail plan was leaked in 2014 denouncing the city’s focus on KK and the ignorance towards the independent culture, the “dirty little brother” next door. Finally they made a deal, so that EKKM could keep its backyard, but will also not shed any bad light on KK. All the activist’s activity coming from outside of EKKM calmed down really quickly and at the moment the city is trying to sell the plot of the former urban garden. What is going on around them might call for political engagement, as you would expect from some alternative artist, but the EKKM people don’t consider themselves as activists. Struggling in the beginning with their own financing, they con-centrate on EKKM´s own survival. Ironically one of the recurrent topics of EKKM is claiming land, as they step by step explore the spaces in and around the building with site-specific installations.
The ISFAG Gallery in the back of EKKM is since 2013 an autonomous gallery of the Installation, Sculpture and Photography department of EKA. Its location is in the coal loading ramp of the one-time power plant – and this makes the space unusual and exciting for a gallery. Half of the space is in the land of the municipality that leases it to the gallery but the other half is in a private hand – this part of the gallery can be considered as a squatted area. This private land is the same where the plans for the fu-
Text is based on internet research; the text Francisco Martinez: Wasted Legacies? Youth and Repair After a Troubled Past, unpublished; the exhibiton catalogue “I Looked Into the Walls And Saw”; and an extensive interview with the current curators of EKKM: Marten Esko and Johannes Säre.
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ture investments will take place which raises the question what is going to happen with the gallery. While EKKM became an official gallery of contemporary art, the ISFAG gallery gives opportunity for art-experiments and student exhibitions.
During the walk, we used the texts from the catalogue of the I Looked Into the Walls And Saw exhibition – which was a site specific exhibition in the ISFAG gallery – to summon the spirit of the place.
Seeing the whole story of EKKM and ISFAG in a wider context we can identify a classical case of culture being instrumentalized to increase the land value and attract tourists. Developers and cities take advantage of temporary culture, send them to death the very moment they reached their own goals (KK). Money (exchange val-ue) rules here over the need for culture (use value). And the city is the one to set the definition through its acting what can be considered less or more “valuable”. But how can the city claim to know what is the “better” kind of culture? How to avoid abusing culture as land-value-in-creaser? And what is culture anyway?
Mate, Fruzsina, Jolande
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Linnahall
The purpose of the Palace of Culture in USSR was mainly political: the goal was to raise a new generation of working class to contribute to the new utopian society. Secondary purpose was, of course, to provide to youth places of leisure with different club activities, libraries and sport facilities. These purposes were fixed into legislation somewhere around 1925 and were not changed till the fall of the USSR. This created a new typology: the “palace of culture”. It was widespread, in every major city were few of them, in smaller ones one or two. Universities and factories had their own Palaces of Culture, but they weren’t exclusively only to people who worked or studied there – everyone was welcome. These places were multifunctional, aside from club activities and sports, they could host a concert or a movie screening, or other sort of gatherings as art exhibitions or political (party) meetings. Thus they became to be a center of social life.
The first “bloom” of Palace of Culture construction was in 1920s, and that’s when Moscow got its most prominent examples. The second “bloom” started around 1970s with the return of Modernist style in
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Soviet architecture. Linnahall, designed by Raine Karp, is the example of latter case. Its construction ended just before the beginning of the 1980 Olympic Games and was originally meant to host the sailing regatta, but never served that role. However, for a long time it functioned as a main concert hall since it could fit 4200 guests, and, once the ice rink was completed, it also hosted different sport events. Although in 1997 it was declared to be an architectural monument, the use of Linnahall started to cease slowly after the fall of the USSR.
By the end of the 20th century, a helicopter port was added in an attempt to bring life back to Linnahall, and from the beginning of the new millennia many different ideas were exchanged about how to make this building economically viable. Among those ideas were the recon-struction of the concert hall to make it more suitable for modern day concerts, building a tennis court on the roof or completely converting Linnahall into a science
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and conference center. The future of the building was in question also after it was closed down as a concert hall. The threat of the demolition was in the air, though in the end the fact that Linnahall was named an architectural monument never allowed that. Several competitions were held, and some of the projects proposed to surround this structure with other buildings such as apartment houses or a hotel. By the 2008 a master plan was approved, which included a yacht harbour, a promenade, service and commercial structures and residential area. This plan was supposed to be implemented by 2011, when Tallinn was named the cultural capital of the year, but, in the end, it never even begun.
By this time, only seven employees oversaw the function of the building – a glaring decline from the over 500 employees that were working at Linnahall originally. This structure in its massive glory is struggling to find a new meaning and bring back life into its halls. So at this moment, with a still unclear future, it resembles a giant body made of concrete and limestone that is left to slowly decay, to become nature again…
Tom, Elena, Kasparas
Text is based on the catalogue How long is the life of a building of Estonian pavilion at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition at la Biennale di Venezia; and interviews with Linnahall employees.
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GeniusLociWalk
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Keskturg
Introduction
In the second half of the semester, we started to work with one specified area in Tallinn: the subdistricts of Maakri and Keldrimäe. Our first task was to gain a general knowledge about the area by investigating the history of it. In groups we researched the pre World War II spatial forms, the changes in the urban fabric during World War II and Stalinist era, the late-Soviet modernist planning practices in Keldrimäe, the genealogy, use and future of Keskturg market, the post-soviet developments in Maakri, and the post-soviet residential fabric of Keldrimäe.
With all the information gained, the second task was to find a topic for our interim critique walk – the first publicly announced walk in the programme. During the research process we encountered an array of somewhat mysterious places – the areas seemed intriguing and somehow haunted to all of us. As we approached Hal-loween we decided to assemble a walk including all the haunted qualities of the area. We later discovered that day we had chosen for the walk, November 2nd, is an important day in Estonian folk culture: the All Souls Day. So what makes a space haunted, or more generally, what makes it set apart from other spaces? Is it the Genius Loci – the spirit of the place – that determines that? Our walk was based on the different aspects of this term, with every stop expanding the notion.
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Genius Loci
The term ‘genius loci’ comes from the ancient Roman culture, where it had a religious, spiritual meaning. The genius was a spirit that existed outside the human being, but accom-panied it throughout its entire life: human life began at the very moment when a genius joined a human being and ended when the genius depart-ed. The genius influenced a man’s character, modes of life, states of happiness, and good or bad fortunes. Not just an individual man, but fam-ilies, professional groups, societies, states, locations also had their own geniuses. From a religious perspec-tive, space is inhomogeneous, there
are sacred and profane places – and the genius loci is what creates this inhomogeneity.
From a literary approach, the genius loci means the special atmos-phere of a place – a spirit radiating from a specific place. When someone writes about a genius of a city, he formulates his feelings and thoughts that the place triggers from him, or writes about the sight of the city, the history of it, the people who were born there, the behavior, the life of the locals unconsciously under the influence of the genius.
From the architectural perspec- tive one of the most important
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elements of the genius loci is the cityscape. The cityscape hides a complex content: the history, the social and economic relationships of the local community. According to Norberg-Schultz, a place is a physical formation – its spirit is defined by its physical environment. ‘The spaces where life occurs are places… A place is a space which has a distinct charac-ter. Since ancient times the genius loci, or spirit of place, has been recognized as the concrete reality man has to face and come to terms with in his daily life. Architecture means to visualize the genius loci and the task of the ar-chitect is to create meaningful places, whereby he helps man to dwell.’ (Nor-berg-Schultz: Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture, 1980, p.5.) The contextualist theories of postmodern urban planning say that a space becomes place if it gets a meaning from the regional and cultural context.
The sociological approach says that the genius loci contains the mentality, behavior, culture, and ideology of the citizens of a city. The genius loci distinguishes the city from every other city and it includes the traditions and actual status of the local society.
We chose to look at the districts of Keldrimäe and Maakri as haunted because of the incoherent immediate look of the cityscape. There are many different buildings of very different representations collected at one place. Different ideologies prevailed and failed here, dwellings were burnt down to make room for other houses of other tastes. The district has a dra-matic shift in style within only a few blocks. The different styles represent different “ghosts” to us, places that tell different stories of different times.
Nina, Mate
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Skyscrapers of Tallinn central business district
The first stop of our tour was on the top of a skyscraper – a sky bar of Radisson Blu Hotel. The 105 meters high building was finished by year 2000. The distribution of its whole volume refers to constructivist architecture, likewise the geometric roof and divisions of the facade. The view from the top is wonderful but obviously this pleasure cannot be the only reason for the existence of high rise buildings in the neighbourhood of Maakri subdistrict. To “find” the genius loci of the area we have to understand the narratives of progress of Estonia’s recent past.
From the mid 1990s – after Estonia had regained its independence – a significant economic growth begun. One actor behind this growth was the building and real estate sector: great number of established firms needed new offices and families needed new homes after the time
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of a depressing housing situation. A new “city” – an area of offices, hotels and residential buildings was developed to south from Viru Hotel. This rapid development can be attributed toTallinn’s post-socialist urban form. The city core has dispersed, the Old Town turned into kind of historic theme park, that attracts and traps tourists at the same time; and high rises are erected as a representation of a new neoliberal city – a free development without almost any regulations lead by private investors. As a result of the rapid privatisation process and the city’s urge to sell all its properties to private hands, the Tallinn owns just 5% of the city’s land.
The CBD area around Maakri Street never had a comprehensive master plan: skyscrapers have been built one after another to show the economic power of the private sector – mostly foreign banks. The Maakri area became the financial centre of the capitalist Estonia. The presence of high rise buildings is merely a symbolic visual presentation, because Tallinn actually has space, so it wouldn’t really need such densely built area.
The two remarkable silhouettes of Tallinn are the Old Town with its church towers, and Maakri area. They are somehow competing, or, from some other perspective, complementing each other. The unofficial regulation for the maximum height of skyscrapers is 124m (officially 130m); the height of the former tallest church in the me-dieval Europe: St Olaf church in the Old Town.
Mikko, Fruzsina, Kasparas
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Reenacting the industries
Not all of the history left traces in nowadays urban fabric, so it is even more important to make them visible again. During the walk we were reenacting the story, drawing and mapping it visually into the snow:
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It all begun with a river making its way from Ülemiste lake through the sandy sloped hills of today´s Keldri- mäe, splitting in two and reuniting in what is today called Maakri. The river was given the name Härjapea (Bull’s Head) and being the one with the larg-est volume in the City of Tallinn.
In Middle Ages craftsmen who could not have their workshops in Old Town because their activities polluted it too much or took too much space inside of the town walls, settled down here. Here in free nature along the
riverside they found a place to stay, close enough to the medieval town and giving as well the opportunity to cultivate land, which begun right after building their wooden houses. Further up from here, next to today’s Liivalaia road, linen wavers used to bleach their textiles, which gave the Keldrimäe quarter its earlier name: Pleekmäe – Bleach Hill. Tanneries and watermills are reported along the river as early as the 13th century. Dating back to the same century St. John’s Almshouse, the most prosperous and earliest of this
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Aleksandra, Jolande
kind in Tallinn, was founded in this area along the trade route to Russia, giving shelter to those suffering from virulent infectious diseases.
Manufactures turned into factories in the end of the 19th century and by the turn of the century Maakri street, right along the river, had Tallinn´s first factories lined up side by side. By the 1914 the highly polluted river, most important for the nearby factories, was covered first with wood and later channelled underground.
During the largest bombing in Tallinn in March 1944 a huge part of the district was destroyed, leaving a perforated fabric of wooden and stone houses behind. Still, factories contin-ued their production till the very end of the Soviet time.
In 2002 the “breakthrough of Tartu maantee” – connecting Tartu mnt with Rävala pst – was realised, which cleaned the area off from all her historical dirtiness, being the unpleas-ant suburb, making way for a picture perfect cowboy capitalism.
The history of three factories near-by was then highlighted: the Birks laundry industry, soviet Linda and Kommunaar leather and shoe fac-tories. The audience of the tour was
then taken to the Stockmann inner yard, where they experienced papers falling from the sky. One could find some pieces from prohibited books on those sheets. That commemorat-ed two opposite stories: of a former paper mill that functioned for many decades on this spot and also the burning of forbidden books in the chimney-place in early Soviet times.
Our story is based on internet research and comparative research of historical maps.
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garages WORTH MILLIONS
While standing in the center of an undeveloped land in Maakri area we can recognize remarkable amount of references to different develop-ment plans for future. The outcome could be imagined to be similar to Sony Centre next to Potsdamer Platz – having both multiple owners, a heritage protected building and need to have “public” space in the centre of architectural ensemble. However, Maakri subdistrict’s central quartal is more diverse – there are more than 50 owners due to privatization and further interactions in the real estate field. After 2000s, almost every owner in Maakri wanted to built a skyscraper, but the plots were very
small, so the disputes around the value of each plot became tense.
In 2006, Estonian Association of Architects planned to carry out two-phased architectural competition in order to have a master plan for the whole central area. The aim of the first phase was to find an overall idea for a new development: sketches of architectural volumes, the concepts for public space, parking solutions and sun study. Six submitted compe-tition works were divided into three categories: the ones that proposed to develop every plot independently, one group proposed to create super-structure for the whole central area such as Sony Center, and last catego-
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ry was to create similar plot structure as was already existing in the area. The parking was solved by two-sto-rey underground common parking area. Remarkably, the preconditions for future competition were favoring public space.
However, the first phase of com-petition did not contain the limita-tion to take into consideration al-ready 6-years ongoing design process of Maakri 28 & 30 developments.. The competition outcome was not favouring to build a high-rise either on Maakri 28 or Maakri 30 and the owner was against following the competition’s outcome. Furthermore, the garage owners were one of the weakest link in creating the agree-ment and over-priced garage plots
Anastassija
stopped the development process.Unfortunately, the second phase
of architectural competition that had to start half year after the first phase (2006) has not been carried out yet (2016). If the first phase was an idea-based presentation, then the second one was planned to be taking into consideration the different plot owners plans and creating a realistic detail plan for the area. Unreached agreement between owners, mis-interpretation of the first phase competition works and second phase funding problem were obstacles that leaded to current situation.
It is a pity that even though this much energy has been put into the works of the competition, the surrounding situation has changed drastically which have made the previous proposals out-dated and development process has to start practically from the scratch.
Pelhtovuori, P.: Elagu manhattaniseerumine! Maakri kvartali arhitektuurikonkursist. MAJA, (2007) [online source] http://www.solness.ee/maja/?mid=117&id=87
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Haunted Heritage
As you can probably figure out from the remnants and traces on the wall in Maakri 24, you are standing in a place that not too long ago was a house – a wooden one. The kismet of this house much resembles the kismet of the rest of this district.
The area around Maakri and Keldrimäe is one of the old-est suburban residential areas outside the medieval core of Tallinn. Throughout its history the area was mostly composed of wooden houses: in early days for suburban farmers and later for the working class. Like in many other parts of Tallinn since the beginning of 20th century, the prevailing type of a wooden dwelling was so called Lenderi house with small apartments for working class people that were build in masses at that time. In addi-tion, some examples of the older types and newer Tallinn houses were also present. Part of the area was destroyed during the March bombing in 1944.
In reality, most of the wooden buildings in Maakri
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Our research is based on compar-ative research of old maps (Tallinn Planning Reg-ister, xgis), old photos from Estonian Muse-ums’ public portal and news-paper articles published online.
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were demolished during the 1990’s and 2000’s. Although many import- ant individual buildings were destroy- ed in the bombing, much of the old urban fabric still survived. This fabric consisted mostly of wooden homes of the working class. The destruction caused by the bombing and the dis-order of the urban form it reportedly left behind was used as an excuse to support the profitable high-rise development in the area. Sacrifices “had” to be made, and in this place those sacrifices could be easily reasoned. Many times the demolitions were pre- ceded with suspicious accidents or fast deterioration caused by deliberate negligence. Since those accidents are not investigated by the police unless the owner of the plot wants to, most of them remained unsolved.
Examples:Maakri 24: Burnt down “by accident” in 2008 after years of neglect, demol-ished in 2013, now a parking lot, no current detail plan.Maakri 34: Whole plot had wooden housing, which got demol-ished in 2006 (in hope for high rises), currently working as a parking lot.Rävala 2: Was still there in 2000, demolished to give way for the
Mikko, Jolande
breakthrough.Kuke street: Whole street side was demolished when the streets were realigned to give way to Radisson Blu and the parking house.Lennuki 24: Demolished in 2009 (in hope of a high-rise), now a parking lot.
We held an obituary for Maakri 28
during the walk, mourning the death of a great house! We lit graveyard candles, suitable to All Souls Day on this plot, as well on some other empty plots, which used to be occupied by wooden houses before. You can find the obituary itself and the ode of the house Lennuki 26 on the next page.
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monologue of a wooden house (lennuki 26)
what happened to the place? I once called home? horrible bombing at first and most of us were gone hit by the destruction and postwar plans
with the 90es came high-rises aim - so far, so high I cannot even see the sky where is my space, my air shell? where can I breathe as those breathtaking figures besiege me?
I am alone, alone, forgotten... my neighbourhood gone, left over of another dream telling a story of century changing colour scheme
most of what you can see is based on wilful destruction esprit next to deathblow are all of us but wooden friends - especially thus stone houses are less destroyable more valued, more enjoyable
I am falling apart, even my decor was taken I am totally forsaken like a last standing man on a battlefield called Maakri-War fighting for land value and capital
new plans, new hassle arise, we are haunted by detailplan tries my two neighbours –right away here - were just taken down giving space to 35 storage showcase further west the same will take place incredible fights over garage-erase one thing that can save us here they say it’s the sticker of monument peer but even that one is just a farce what happened down the street mates were light up, several time´ in particular, an art nouveau building, like mine
one by one just disappear leaving parking plots for years get rid of us, destroy the story, accidently or planned we are losing glory
but do you think twice before you regret me because I´m part of your nation I´m part of your medley
monologue of a wooden house (lennuki 26)
what happened to the place? I once called home? horrible bombing at first and most of us were gone hit by the destruction and postwar plans
with the 90es came high-rises aim - so far, so high I cannot even see the sky where is my space, my air shell? where can I breathe as those breathtaking figures besiege me?
I am alone, alone, forgotten... my neighbourhood gone, left over of another dream telling a story of century changing colour scheme
most of what you can see is based on wilful destruction esprit next to deathblow are all of us but wooden friends - especially thus stone houses are less destroyable more valued, more enjoyable
I am falling apart, even my decor was taken I am totally forsaken like a last standing man on a battlefield called Maakri-War fighting for land value and capital
new plans, new hassle arise, we are haunted by detailplan tries my two neighbours –right away here - were just taken down giving space to 35 storage showcase further west the same will take place incredible fights over garage-erase one thing that can save us here they say it’s the sticker of monument peer but even that one is just a farce what happened down the street mates were light up, several time´ in particular, an art nouveau building, like mine
one by one just disappear leaving parking plots for years get rid of us, destroy the story, accidently or planned we are losing glory
but do you think twice before you regret me because I´m part of your nation I´m part of your medley
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in t
he
his
tory
of
Est
onia
n e
duca
tion
and a
n i
mpor
tant
pie
ce o
f th
e ar
chitec
ture
in
Tal
linn,
was
ta
ken
dow
n
on Thurs
day
16.
Januar
y of
2014.
Suff
erin
g
from
a f
ire
sever
al t
imes
, la
test
ones
in 2
010
and ag
ain in
2012,
it w
as al
way
s re
stor
ed,
while
the
late
st
burn
ing
just
le
ft
ruin
s –
re
stor
atio
n m
ade
impos
sible
. Built
in 1
914 a
s pla
ster
ed tw
o-st
orey
w
ood buildin
g an
d si
nce
th
en
an
inte
gra
l par
t of
th
e nei
ghbor
hoo
d,
this
hou
se s
erved
for
the
firs
t 21 y
ears
as
a sc
hoo
l buildin
g.
Lat
er on
it hos
ted dif
fere
nt
kin
ds
of m
anufa
cture
s. T
he
stat
us
of a
nat
ional
m
onum
ent,
whic
h w
as t
he
gre
ates
t hon
or o
f its
life
, w
as g
iven
in 1
999.
It w
ill be
rem
ember
ed
for
its
rich
ly d
ecor
ated
fac
ade
in A
rt N
ouvea
u
styl
e w
ith a
mea
nder
gir
dle
, to
othed
co
rnic
e an
d e
ntr
ance
s fr
amed
by
Art
Nou
vea
u a
wnin
gs
and
met
al
par
apet
. Till
today
it
was
not
in
ves
tigat
ed w
hat
cau
sed t
his
las
t dev
asta
ting
fire
–
sq
uat
ters
or
th
e w
ish
to
clea
r th
e la
nd fo
r th
e ex
pec
ted hig
h-r
ise-
dev
elop
men
t.
You
w
ill
be
gre
atly
m
isse
d,
rest
in
pea
ce.
In M
emor
y of
Maa
kri 2
8
Maa
kri
28,
a se
min
al f
igure
in t
he
his
tory
of
Est
onia
n e
duca
tion
and a
n i
mpor
tant
pie
ce o
f th
e ar
chitec
ture
in
Tal
linn,
was
ta
ken
dow
n
on Thurs
day
16.
Januar
y of
2014.
Suff
erin
g
from
a f
ire
sever
al t
imes
, la
test
ones
in 2
010
and ag
ain in
2012,
it w
as al
way
s re
stor
ed,
while
the
late
st
burn
ing
just
le
ft
ruin
s –
re
stor
atio
n m
ade
impos
sible
. Built
in 1
914 a
s pla
ster
ed tw
o-st
orey
w
ood buildin
g an
d si
nce
th
en
an
inte
gra
l par
t of
th
e nei
ghbor
hoo
d,
this
hou
se s
erved
for
the
firs
t 21 y
ears
as
a sc
hoo
l buildin
g.
Lat
er on
it hos
ted dif
fere
nt
kin
ds
of m
anufa
cture
s. T
he
stat
us
of a
nat
ional
m
onum
ent,
whic
h w
as t
he
gre
ates
t hon
or o
f its
life
, w
as g
iven
in 1
999.
It w
ill be
rem
ember
ed
for
its
rich
ly d
ecor
ated
fac
ade
in A
rt N
ouvea
u
styl
e w
ith a
mea
nder
gir
dle
, to
othed
co
rnic
e an
d e
ntr
ance
s fr
amed
by
Art
Nou
vea
u a
wnin
gs
and
met
al
par
apet
. Till
today
it
was
not
in
ves
tigat
ed w
hat
cau
sed t
his
las
t dev
asta
ting
fire
–
sq
uat
ters
or
th
e w
ish
to
clea
r th
e la
nd fo
r th
e ex
pec
ted hig
h-r
ise-
dev
elop
men
t.
You
w
ill
be
gre
atly
m
isse
d,
rest
in
pea
ce.
In M
emor
y of
Maa
kri 2
8
Maa
kri
28,
a se
min
al f
igure
in t
he
his
tory
of
Est
onia
n e
duca
tion
and a
n i
mpor
tant
pie
ce o
f th
e ar
chitec
ture
in
Tal
linn,
was
ta
ken
dow
n
on Thurs
day
16.
Januar
y of
2014.
Suff
erin
g
from
a f
ire
sever
al t
imes
, la
test
ones
in 2
010
and ag
ain in
2012,
it w
as al
way
s re
stor
ed,
while
the
late
st
burn
ing
just
le
ft
ruin
s –
re
stor
atio
n m
ade
impos
sible
. Built
in 1
914 a
s pla
ster
ed tw
o-st
orey
w
ood buildin
g an
d si
nce
th
en
an
inte
gra
l par
t of
th
e nei
ghbor
hoo
d,
this
hou
se s
erved
for
the
firs
t 21 y
ears
as
a sc
hoo
l buildin
g.
Lat
er on
it hos
ted dif
fere
nt
kin
ds
of m
anufa
cture
s. T
he
stat
us
of a
nat
ional
m
onum
ent,
whic
h w
as t
he
gre
ates
t hon
or o
f its
life
, w
as g
iven
in 1
999.
It w
ill be
rem
ember
ed
for
its
rich
ly d
ecor
ated
fac
ade
in A
rt N
ouvea
u
styl
e w
ith a
mea
nder
gir
dle
, to
othed
co
rnic
e an
d e
ntr
ance
s fr
amed
by
Art
Nou
vea
u a
wnin
gs
and
met
al
par
apet
. Till
today
it
was
not
in
ves
tigat
ed w
hat
cau
sed t
his
las
t dev
asta
ting
fire
–
sq
uat
ters
or
th
e w
ish
to
clea
r th
e la
nd fo
r th
e ex
pec
ted hig
h-r
ise-
dev
elop
men
t.
You
w
ill
be
gre
atly
m
isse
d,
rest
in
pea
ce.
In M
emor
y of
Maa
kri 2
8
Maa
kri
28,
a se
min
al f
igure
in t
he
his
tory
of
Est
onia
n e
duca
tion
and a
n i
mpor
tant
pie
ce o
f th
e ar
chitec
ture
in
Tal
linn,
was
ta
ken
dow
n
on Thurs
day
16.
Januar
y of
2014.
Suff
erin
g
from
a f
ire
sever
al t
imes
, la
test
ones
in 2
010
and ag
ain in
2012,
it w
as al
way
s re
stor
ed,
while
the
late
st
burn
ing
just
le
ft
ruin
s –
re
stor
atio
n m
ade
impos
sible
. Built
in 1
914 a
s pla
ster
ed tw
o-st
orey
w
ood buildin
g an
d si
nce
th
en
an
inte
gra
l par
t of
th
e nei
ghbor
hoo
d,
this
hou
se s
erved
for
the
firs
t 21 y
ears
as
a sc
hoo
l buildin
g.
Lat
er on
it hos
ted dif
fere
nt
kin
ds
of m
anufa
cture
s. T
he
stat
us
of a
nat
ional
m
onum
ent,
whic
h w
as t
he
gre
ates
t hon
or o
f its
life
, w
as g
iven
in 1
999.
It w
ill be
rem
ember
ed
for
its
rich
ly d
ecor
ated
fac
ade
in A
rt N
ouvea
u
styl
e w
ith a
mea
nder
gir
dle
, to
othed
co
rnic
e an
d e
ntr
ance
s fr
amed
by
Art
Nou
vea
u a
wnin
gs
and
met
al
par
apet
. Till
today
it
was
not
in
ves
tigat
ed w
hat
cau
sed t
his
las
t dev
asta
ting
fire
–
sq
uat
ters
or
th
e w
ish
to
clea
r th
e la
nd fo
r th
e ex
pec
ted hig
h-r
ise-
dev
elop
men
t.
You
w
ill
be
gre
atly
m
isse
d,
rest
in
pea
ce.
68
KaAsani Church
The figure of Virgin Mary, Mother of God is one of the most important in Russian Orthodox Church, and the icon of Our Lady of Kazan has one of the highest stature within it. This icon has a long and complicated his-tory, full of mysteries and miracles. It is believed to be originally made in Byzantine Empire and then taken to Russia sometime in 13th century, but disappearing until it’s recovery in 15th century. Where and under what circumstances it was lost for two centuries remains unclear.
It was officially copied several times, and one of the copies was made for Moscow, and another, a long time later, for St. Petersburg.
Garages Industries
Heritage
ModernismChurch
Industries
Dvigatel
BrothelKeskturg
KeskturgDensification
Densification
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Mardi tn
Heritage
69
Traditionally, both the original icon and its copies are believed to be miraculous, as the figure of Virgin Mary in Russian Orthodox Church has a status of the palladium, a protector. So, the miracles tied to this icon have a lot to do with protection against various invaders during the course of Russian history. It comes as no surprise then that a copy of the icon was very much desired by the army.
Military is also the reason how Tallinn gained a copy of the Kazan icon: troops of Czar Peter the Great brought the copy of the icon from St. Petersburg during the war with Sweden. The church itself was built by and for Rus-sian soldiers stationed nearby, and it was decided to keep the icon there.
The church hasn’t changed much from the moment of its construction in 1721, though it certainly has seen its share of hardship. For example, it was robbed, burned, and the church grounds were reduced in size due to reconstruction of the Liivalaia street. Although when the fire damaged the church in 1980s, it also helped to reveal the original interiors. The church garden have housed also a different landmark on Tallinn: a black poplar tree, which was believed to be planted by Peter the Great himself (it is also said that this particular czar enjoyed visiting Tallinn, then called Reval, very much). The tree survived the bombings during the WWII, but, in the end, a storm broke it down few years ago.
Elena
70
Keldrimae Modernism
Modernist planning characterizes the district of Keldri- mäe today: tower blocks located in vast landscape. In the time of the 1970s, when most of the buildings were con-structed, the plan for this area foresaw a more moderate realisation of soviet modernist planning compared to other parts of the town that were built around the same time (Lasnamäe, Mustamäe). Because of the proximity to the city centre the houses in Keldrimäe were supposed to have a lower height and more variation in their form, but that was then only partly implemented.
Before that time the area was shaped by a organically developed town structure, containing small scale wooden houses and narrow streets. The inhabitants were mainly workers for the industries in the neighbouring districts. When after the war the soviet government took over, Tallinn was to be industrialized and modernized. A new general plan for the whole city was developed which pro-vided that the low density area of Keldrimäe was entirely replaced by high-rise housing blocks. In this way the
Garages Industries
Heritage
ModernismChurch
Industries
Dvigatel
BrothelKeskturg
KeskturgDensification
Densification
Genius LociCBDRävala pst 3
Mardi tn
Heritage
:
71
great majority of the wooden houses were demolished, only few buildings that were regarded to have cultural importance were left.
By the time of the 1970s there were more prefabricat-ed houses built in the USSR than anywhere in the world, since the policies for a rapid industrialisation caused a huge migration into the cities where then new dwellings were needed. The rigid tabula rasa planning, as in the case of the big soviet housing projects, was only possi-ble under the totalitarian regime of the Soviet Union. Socialism and architectural modernism had a quite similar agenda, namely the proclaimed aim of creat-ing a better, socially egalitarian society. So architecture emerged as the suitable tool for this ideological purpose. From today’s perspective both socialism and architec-tural modernism has failed. Keldrimäe as an inner-city exclave of its “bigger brothers” seems to be out of place of the surrounding city fabric what then leads to the critic of modernist city planning which emerged in the second half of the 20th century: the monumentality and monot-ony of the place, the apparent lack of cultural facilities. We miss the functionality of a organically grown, con-textualized city structure. And in the end we perceive the place to be haunted.
Johannes
72
Dvigatel workers’ home
On the corner of Liivalaia and Tartu mnt lies an apart-ment block built in 1954 for the workers of the Dvigatel factory. After regaining independence in August 1991 many symbols of Soviet power were removed but this iconic building with its spire and star serves as a re-minder of the splendour of the 1950’s regime. Tartu mnt 26 is one of the most well-known examples of Stalinist architecture in Tallinn, however the attitude towards the building today and its expression of communist ideology seems to be ambivalent, as it seems most Estonians still feel uncertain about the city’s Soviet legacy. This ambiv-alence was indicated by the results of mental mapping in the area – none of the respondents mentioned the building while being interviewed.
Garages Industries
Heritage
ModernismChurch
Industries
Dvigatel
BrothelKeskturg
KeskturgDensification
Densification
Genius LociCBDRävala pst 3
Mardi tn
Heritage
73
Aleksandra, Nina
Stalinist architecture, as seen at the site of Tartu mnt 26, was the favourable style of the 1940’s and 50’s before it was succeeded by Soviet modernism and the prefabricated urban housing of ‘The Khrushchyovkas’. To illustrate the Genius Loci of the place we decided to focus on the ideology the building somewhat carries and how it seems to haunt the inhabitants of the city. Two important historical texts were used to enact a variation of two opposing ideologies in one combined speech – first from the time shortly after regaining independence, ‘The Estonian Economic Miracle’ by prime minister Mart Laar and a second just after Stalin’s death, the controversial ‘Speech to 20th Congress of the C.P.S.U’ by Nikita Khrushchev.
Inspired by postal censorship and the method of cutting out text practiced by censors during the Soviet era both texts were cut up, combined and reassembled to create a new meaning. The speech was held on the porch of the Dviga-tel building as part of a performance on site. The speech was spoken in two languages simultaneously – English and Russian – and accompanied by Soviet music to confuse the audience and create an atmosphere of controversy. The audi-ence could follow the fiery speech on the leaflets handed out to the participants of the walk (see pgs 72-73). The aim was to suggest that the current ideology of capitalism is as much an ideology as communism was and that this too is shaping urban realms.
74
75
76
Madame Blokhina’s Brothel
Garages Industries
Heritage
ModernismChurch
Industries
Dvigatel
BrothelKeskturg
KeskturgDensification
Densification
Genius LociCBDRävala pst 3
Mardi tn
Heritage
77
While drinking the hot green/ginger/honey tea and eating biscuits at the entrance of Mardi 3, it was time to talk about present-day unacceptable topic – prostitution. During Czarist time a brothel was a quite socially acceptable business and Mardi street was one of the most famous streets in Tallinn with rich selection of various brothels. It was socially acceptable for a girl from countryside to earn money with such way during first years of her stay in the city. Mardi 3 building was originally used for girls boarding house, but madame Blokhina changed it to brothel. In addition, it was not an ordinary brothel but very famous for its girls who were all inspected by a doctor. Ironically, the house’s nowadays functions as an AIDS prevention centre.
Anastassija
78
Keskturg
Keskturg or the Central Market, locat-ed in the Keldrimäe neighbourhood, is a busy spot for buying everything from fresh grown vegetables and fruits to chinese imported clothing. It is situated a bit further from the main roads and thus can be called a hidden gem of Tallinn.
Local inhabitants as well as people from further parts of Tallinn have more time in the weekend to make their shopping. The market is situated in the middle of higher modernist blocks buildings from the 1960s and 1970s. The main entrance of the market has a sign that’s shaped as a potato bag and the gate is a simple one with iron bars. There is an aura of
a certain gone era. First steps through the gates and we are already in the middle of clothes that are hanging from the sides and fighting with the walkway for space. We hear, smell and see all that we can to fully embrace this one of a kind space. The market is divided into rows of and kiosks that sellers rent. In some parts the rows are covered with a roof. There is no insulation in most parts and in a cold day the temperatures can reach quite low. The kiosks or stalls vary in con-struction: some transactions happen through a small window, some are just for storing the goods in the nighttime and opening for the daytime while sitting on a chair right next to it,
Garages Industries
Heritage
ModernismChurch
Industries
Dvigatel
BrothelKeskturg
KeskturgDensification
Densification
Genius LociCBDRävala pst 3
Mardi tn
Heritage
79
and some are built in a more sturdy way, having a door for customer and various vendors inside. While walking around the market, we conducted short interviews to find answers about their past as a vendor there. Our approaches were mostly met by Russian words and head-shakes as they were not used to being investi-gated. Despite the language difference, we managed to find out that people who buy goods from there have their favourite vendors and depending on their background they either enjoy the atmosphere or they don’t. For example, a young girl with her mother just went there for consumption, one vendor enjoyed the crowd while disliking only the cold wind. Heading more towards the center of the mar-ket, there is a market building. Inside, there are three stories, the upper one for clothes, the middle one for meat and eggs and the basement one solely for meat. The prices are lower and the variety is wider and because of this, there were a lot of customers. The main language throughout the market is Russian, but it doesn’t interrupt the business between a non-speaker and a Russian-speaking vendor. This is a place for bargaining and buying things that people choose to buy here,
rather than from a supermarket. During the 1990s the market
changed its owners from the mu-nicipality to a private owner and the process turned violent. The vice-may-or, Mait Metsamaa, who was at the time in the market’s council, was shot in a nearby block house. His assassin – a low-life worker from the market who was hired by a businessman named Vadim Politsuk, was interested in buying the market without having to bribe the council. The 1990s in Estonia and other Eastern European countries was like the “wild west”and it seems mainly due to the lack of a proper police force. Keskturg was one of the hotspots for the fight for domi-nation in this era.
At our haunted urban walk we reenacted the murder of Mait Metsa-maa through the eyes of two detec-tives. We looked for connections between all the different persons who were in the focus at that time tied with the market and the atrocities happen-ing around it.
Kaarel, Tom
80
densifIcation of Keldrimae
Genius LociCBD
Garages Industries
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Industries
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Dvigatel
BrothelKeskturg
KeskturgDensification
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Rävala pst 3
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:
81
Because of being in the inner city area of Tallinn, Kel-drimäe and Maakri districts have been experiencing a rapid transformation from the last decade of 20th cen-tury. The districts, which were recently consisting of by wooden houses and other non-residential functions, are now being in a process to be replaced by the post-soviet residential structures. The general characteristics of the districts change, including the housing prices. According to the Tallinn City Map in 1938. Mardi street was a con-tinuation of Lennuki street in Maakri area.
The name of today’s Mardi street was Lennuki street, and this street had a straight access from north-west to south-east direction between Maakri and Keldrimäe areas. With the construction of the Soviet blocks and modern Liivalaia street, the street was divided and the part within Keldrimäe was called Mardi street.
The most recent and completed project on Mardi street is Mardi 9 apartments (image pg 78). Just a little more than two years ago, the plot known as Mardi 9 was three different plots, named as Mardi 9, 11 and 13. There were two wooden houses in Mardi 9 and 13 and the middle plot was used as a car parking lot. During the demolishing of the wooden houses, there were some protests from some group of people. Now Mardi 9 is one complex which is constructed for both residential and commercial purposes.
Likewise, just in the opposite of the Mardi 9 project, there is a development project for Mardi 10, 12 and 14. Probably the same kind of development will be imple-mented there as well. Therefore, the face of the Mardi street is altering.
Güngör
82
83
FinalWalk
84
Paper SkyscraperMobile M.
Garages
Domination
Liminal Space
Liminal Space
Modernist Living
Modernist Living
Sacred PlacesTree Tales
RealEstate
Kids
Non-Places
Turisti Pood
Modernist Living
Tartu mnt 17
Maakri 30a
85
RealEstate
Introduction
The final episode of our Typomorphology studio takes place in the Maakri and Keldrimäe – just like the previous one. We have gained a lot of knowledge about the area since we first started to research it, but this time our task is to go even deeper in some specific topics with our individual projects. The format of the project’s output is free, everyone can choose what fits his/her topic and attitude the most. So there are performances, exhibitions, maps, conferences, lectures, poems, presentations, and so on. The topics are also varied, from the future of garages and the usage of parking lots, the CBD area and the transformation of Estonian real estate market, to the Soviet tourist shops and modernist residential buildings – just to mention a few. In the following chapter you can read in detail about all the individual projects, originally presented on site in Maakri and Keldrimäe subdistricts on 7th of December 2016.
86
Paper Skyscrapers
The center of Maakri quarter (pos. 1), an area full of parking lots, soviet garages and general emptiness, has been a source for production of paper architecture in last 16 years. The original housing and street pattern has been destroyed in March Bombings of World War II. After Estonia declared again its independ-ence in the beginning of 1990ies, the massive land privatisation took place that had major impact on the area’s development. All garages in Maakri area (pos. 2) were privatised, and thus even today the 1,3 ha centre of Maakri has more than 50 owners. The plots are too small to be devel-oped independently, but the value of the land is pushed too high to be
2
1
3
4
5
bought and developed by one owner. The question is up in the air: can owners decide themselves how to develop this overpriced area?
In year 2000, one year after com-pletion of the first high-rise build-ing in Tallinn, nowadays known as SEB bank headquarters (pos. 3), the owner of Maakri 28 & 30 (pos. 4) started planning high-rise on its plot. In year 2006, planning process was practically finished, when the owners of surrounding plots and the Estonian Association of Architects stopped the development, because it would cause unfavourable con-ditions to neighbouring owners. It was decided to hold two-phase architecture competition to solve the area with one common master plan. Remarkably, the base condi-tions for competition’s first phase favoured designing public space. It could be said that the importance of public use was “rediscovered” by Maakri competition. Unfortunate to Maakri 28 & 30 owner, there was no requirement but only recommen-dation to consider Maakri 28 & 30 master plan in competition projects. All submitted six design proposals did not consider specific master plan, so Maakri 28 & 30 owner was against
87
changing their development plans to be in accordance with first phase competition’s outcome.
The situation was new to every-one, because it was a first mul-tiple-phase competition held in Estonia. In addition, the competition was done not for building project, but for area’s master plan. This multiple-phase competition format favoured to have more diverse pro-posals and to spare time for various architects, who did not present the finest ideas for the first phase. In all, there were no flawless competition
submits, for example, the project “Parabole” had elaborate concept, but lacked the realistic structure. The project “Urban Village” had created realistic development strategy, but its floor area was twice smaller than in others’ projects. The assessment was complicated because there was no common ground in projects. How-ever, the owners were clearly seeking for realistic plans, but the first phase was concentrated to give overall design idea, and afterwards, in latter stages, it was planned to work more closely with owners to reach rational
Paper SkyscrapersMobile M.
Garages
Domination
Liminal Space
Liminal Space
Modernist Living
Modernist Living
Sacred PlacesTree Tales
RealEstate
Kids
Non-Places
Modernist Living
Maakri 30a
Turisti PoodTartu mnt 17
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development plan. The second phase was planned
to be carried out after half year, but it did not happen. Ideally, the city architect should have guided the second phase and following situa-tion, but initiative was never taken. The first phase was mostly paid by one plot owner, however, the second phase had to be sponsored by every landowner. Unfortunately, owners did not have will to participate in it. Most owners were not potential de-velopers, they were interested getting the building rights to gain more prof-it from selling plots. Furthermore, formed garage cooperative had a contract for selling the garages’ land as a whole, but the price for the land was unrealistically high. Nowadays, the garages are not used due to their poor conditions, and instead they create an inner-city hub for garbage
and homeless people. Due to “post-poned” second phase of competition, Maakri 28 & 30 owner carried on the process of designing their master plan for a high-rise.
In 2009 the thematic plan for high-rise areas in Tallinn was approved and this initiated various development processes in the sur-roundings of the competition area. Apart from progressing Maakri 28 & 30 plan, Estonian Business School started to plan a new high-rise for vertical campus in 2011 (pos. 5). The main issue with vertical campus is non-existent recreational area that could be beneficial for the whole neighborhood. The school extension is described as a business plan to educate and accommodate Chinese students. In addition, quarter that is surrounded by Lennuki, Liivalaia, Lauteri and Maakri street has been
Competition project rendering “Parabool” by Leena Torim, Veronika Valk, Tõnis Arjus, Kadri Klementi, Eerik Kändler.
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planned with additional 35-storey high commercial/residential build-ing (pos. 6).
In the year 2015, the master plan for Maakri 28 & 30 was approved by authorities as the objection “Let’s wait for the second phase compe-tition results” was not competent any more as the pause had lasted far too long. Altogether, the situation has changed drastically not only in surrounding area, but also inside the competition region. For now, the first phase competition outcomes are outdated and can not be used
in second phase even if it will come eventually. The overall impression for next ten years is that the competition area would not be developed except Maakri 28 & 30 plot, in addition, at least two new high-rises on neigh-bouring plots could pop up. Maakri central quarter’s situation will last until landowners would become developers, because chances are very low for rea- lisation of master plan with present- day strategy “selling land to develop-er after gaining building right”.
Anastassija
My research is based on interviews with garage owner Mart Levo, a former official of Urban Planning Department; Maakri architectural competition jury member Martti Preem, an architect; Maakri architectural competition jury member Tiit Trummal, Maakri architectural competition organiser and an architect; member of Estonian Association of Architects Toomas Paaver (all interviews are in the possession of author); media research of years 2000 to 2016; and comparative research of master plans from Tallinn Planning Register.
See Anastassija’s “Paper Skyskrapers” movie trailer from vimeo.com/196200288
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the Change in value of garage-scapeThe typology of the garage, or the ga-rage-city appeared and spread across the Soviet Union around 1970s, when cars became affordable for almost every family. Usually the logic of garage-scape followed the same com-munity-line as everything else: people who worked in one place got their apartments in the same building and their garage boxes in the area nearby. That resulted in a special sense of community – a place for leisure, where people could gather and hold discussions on various topics, and, of course, exchange helpful tips on cars and mechanics.
Naturally, there are several ex-amples of this typology in Tallinn, concentrated in the soviet panel housing districts like Lasnamäe and Mustamäe.
Traditionally, garage-city con-sists of several rows of garage boxes (cells), divided by inside streets, which forms a version of a gated community surrounded by fence and in cases having an employed guards and janitors to tend to it. When the number of cars in the city increased, it was thought more efficient to build garages in multiple levels, which
continues to be the most popular and commonly used typology also today. In some cases the individual cells are retained. Cells, either in the case of garage-cities or anthills, were not used only to park a car, but they were also used as storage. Nowadays storage is one of the most common use for garage boxes.
Sometimes a simple car cell can even become a bar. It should be noted that even if there is a certain sense of personal ownership, both of the ga-rage typologies can function as public space. It can be different kind of car services where the vehicle can be washed and/or repaired or bars and in some cases the garage can even have a sauna. In this way, even if the garage itself no longer inspires a sense of community, these places continue to serve as a meeting point for garage owners and their acquaint-ances.
However, currently these soviet typologies of the garage-scapes grad-ually become a thing of the past to give way to more profitable invest-ments in terms of the land use, like renting an empty plot for parking lot or building a shopping center.
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The garage-city on Tammsaare teeThis is also the story of the garage-city on Tammsaare tee in Mustamäe. It is a long and ongoing matter that involves shady business, half-illegal dealings and a tactical process of demolishing the scape cell-by cell, in some cases without notifying the owners. In 2015 on the crossing of Tammsaare tee and Mustamäe tee a new shopping center was built, de-spite that the area already has several in close proximity.
After the completion of the shop- ping center, the structure and a func-
tion of the area has not changed dras-tically, since the new building stands on the street between previous rows of the garages, replacing the former grid of cells with a new configuration of a parking lot.
Nevertheless, not all cases have the same outcome as in Tammsaare tee. For the most part the possibility of a new development has a lot to do with how close the area in question is to the city center and, consequently, how high are the area’s land prices.
The value of land became one of the main actors in next case situated
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in Northern Tallinn, in Paljassaare – the Garaažilinnak. Garaažilinnak is a true garage-city, as is reflected by the name, with over 1300 garage boxes (Northern Tallinn: Between potential and everyday, 2014, P. 61) in regular grid, spread over approximately 7,5 ha. Garaažilinnak is near the sea which, in theory, has a lot of poten-tial to develop as a sea-side area. This potential was recognised and an architecture competition had been held in 2005 and several projects were proposed. However, there is no concrete plan to this day. Unlike
in the Tammsaare case the Garage Association is fully formed and func-tional since the 1990s, though they are similarly divided by the desire to sell the plots and cells to a higher bidder and leave the place as it is. This, combined with inability (and the lack of funds) of the municipal government to decide on a concrete plan for the area, leaves the Garaaži-linnak as it is for now.
The row of garages in MaakriMaakri case is special in many ways. First, its location, unlike in previous examples, is right in the city center, part of the CBD area. Secondly, it is different in size, as it is quite small, especially compared to other ga-rage-cities: just three rows of garage boxes and one inner street. Another point is that Maakri garages are surrounded by parking lots that took over free space after houses were de-molished. It might be the reason why this particular spot is relatively small – as it was surrounded by buildings it had no space to expand. Other than that, Maakri case also shares some similarities with the general typology of the garages, like how it appeared in 1970s for people who lived nearby. It was used in the same
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way, to both park a car and store some things, and, from some point, it was used just as a storage space. At this moment, most of the garage boxes are bequeathed, and their new owners see no possible use for it. This, combined with a possibility of profit, led to creation of the Garage Union in 2006, as there were no such association before, and the first part of an architecture competition was held. The Garage Union exists simply to prevent such situations like those in Tammsaare case, when some garage owners bought out some plots and sold the majority of land with-out consent or notification of other owners, and to sell all the plots at the same time, dividing the profit. How-ever, this case is quite problematic from several points. For example, its size does not allow for a wide range of possible reconstruction, unless the surrounding plots were to be used as well. Next, even though the location promises a lucrative deal, not many investors are interested in it as the Garage Association asks too big of a price for a plot where no high-rise can be built. In the end, it is widely believed that there is not much to be done about the area, unlike in the cases that were previously discussed,
where the garages were either demol-ished to be built over, or left in peace until the budget and a new project are confirmed. Maakri case’s future is, most likely, a simple demolition, new empty space to be used the same way the surrounding area is – as a parking lot.
Elena
My research was based on interview with garage owner Mart Levo, com-parative research of master plans from Tallinn Planning Register and on a book by EKA Urban Studies research group 2012/2013: Northern Tallinn: Between potential and everyday, 2014.
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Mobile morphology
In the last 20 years, large changes have occurred in the spatial structure of Tallinn and its transport systems. The number of private cars increased rapidly in the early post-soviet con-dition, which resulted in changes and formations in the urban landscape. Although the number of people using car has decreased since the es-tablishment of free public transport, the average length of a car journey has gone up, which manifests in in-creased presence of cars in the urban environment.
The number of people in an aver-age car in European cities is just 1,2 in home-to-work journeys. An av-erage car is parked 90% of the time. Thus, 90% the time car is stationary and totally empty, and even when in motion, only 76% of it is occupied. Whether in or out of motion, it re-quires vast amount of space. The area of a single parking place is roughly 12 square meters, and with the space required to manoeuvre the car, the size increases to 25 square meters. In order to be able to use an automobile in the first place, parking spaces must be available.
This is where cars become problematic in terms of urbanism. To maintain the density in cities,
parking must be regulated. Since the availability of parking spaces in the outskirts of cities has been one reason for the suburban sprawl, parking must be regulated not only by limiting the amount of parking spaces in cities, but also by making sure that enough parking spaces are provided for the urban dwellers inside the central city. The city of Tal-linn has means of governing, limiting and permitting parking spaces for citizens in the planning level, but not all urban space is subject to planning.
In this condition, a peculiar form of temporal typology has emerged. Whereas parking is in most cases under strong administrative supervi-sion, in the case under investigation here, it has escaped the governmental intervention by utilizing a legal void. It is created by the lack of regulations thought necessary by state author-ities. Besides taking advantage of the legal void, the form also intends to create a void in urban space and operates in it. The phenomenon in question is the emergence of numer-ous private off-street surface parking lots, visible especially in the heart of Maakri subdistrict.
The legal void emerges partly from economically creative use of
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urban void. Estonian urban plan-ning’s only concern are permanent structures that are constructed. A thing that is described as a “con-struction” according to the law is something more substantial than just a land plot covered with gravel (soil has to be removed 30 cm in order to erect an object for it to be consid-ered a “construction”). Therefore, these parking lots are not subject to urban planning tools. Also, because there is no register for temporary
off-street private parking lots, the activity happening on the plot cannot be officially entered into the frame-work of governmental intervention. Therefore, parking in this case is not legally framed as parking, but an act defined by a common agreement between client and a customer. The city’s tools of controlling parking and finding the person to be fined do not apply here.
Urban space always has a price tag, so in a sense, it is rational to
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capitalize every moment of its existence. In this case, the basic process of capitalizing is simple. First, creating the void: the owner of the plot clears the land of buildings. Second: the owner rents the plot to one of the companies that operate in the parking business (EuroPark, Ühisteenused, Citypark). Third: the operator then levels the ground, adds a layer of gravel (if necessary) and adds the signs and ticket machines to the area. Although the parking lot es-tablished this way is expected to exist only for a short period of time, such parking lots often remain in place for years, or as in Maakri case, for over a decade (from the year 2006).
Instead of making large invest-ments in building something new, the profit in this case is made by carving out of existing space, creating an urban void. These voids are places that disrupt the urban tissue, leaving it incomplete and put into question the use of them. It can be interpreted as an urban area being without per-meability and social realm. Accord-ing to Roger Trancik, urban voids fail to connect elements in a coherent way. Still they are not nothing: they often provide a place for different forms of urban life. Moreover, urban
voids are not “non-places”. They are voids only in the physical space. If the static physical space itself fails to connect urban elements, the activity that takes place in the space might do it in an intricate way. The realm of a parking space might seem vacuous for the casual observer, but the nature that parking one’s own car contributes to an environment can be described even as intimate. A car is a delicate part of someone’s possession. Already the car itself and the condition of it tells much about the owner’s social and economical status and the position of the parked car maps where the said conditions meet. If the parking ticket is visible behind the windshield, the duration of the parking event can be directly read from it.
The inside of a private car could be described almost as private as home. The privateness was observed well in fieldwork: when asking people to draw a map of their commute or trip, people were usually very reluc-tant to let unknown person to sit in their cars, and rather drew some-thing by leaning on the car roof and holding the paper on it (if they were even willing to take part in the draw-ing at all, which was not frequent:
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only four maps and two interviews were acquired). In addition to the people travelling in it, the cabin hol-ds many everyday objects, that can have significant practical value and personal meaning to the driver. Even religious symbols (usually hung from the rear-view mirror) are not uncom-mon; consequence of the essentially perilous nature of driving a car.
If the parking lot does not con-nect spatially the physical environ-ment surrounding it, is connects the commuters mentally to other places. In the destination, the key in the pocket of a driver connects the owner to the place the car is stored, and the car itself connects the parking place to the home of the owner. Commut-ing by car reduces the different steps taken for a commute and is in Tallinn often the fastest way of travelling. The time-space-compression can also be seen from the maps, where the commute was expressed as very short in comparison to rest of the environ-ment. The amount of concentration one uses when driving a car could also be read: the lanes, turns and the directions of driving were usually expressed in a very detailed way. An urban void is created in the mind of the commuter during the commute,
but driving is what makes the ends meet in the fastest way.
The urban scene that parking field creates, still lacks the pleasantness in comparison to the residential structure (the old wooden structure that existed in Maakri, described in the chapter Haunted heritage). The fundamental difference arises from the fact that the people who use the space do not have to live there. It is just a temporary storage for a car. The number of people occupying the parking lot is low, and no major human activities are carried out in the place. Making damage to a car is fairly easy, so every other activi-ty than parking is seen suspicious. A car can also be stolen and taken to another place, whereas a house cannot – although breaking into both is possible. Even just looking inside someone’s car is as suspicious as looking inside someone’s house from a window. Yet, car does not have a yard, which fades sensing its limits. The land on which a car is parked, becomes common the moment the car is removed from it.
The morphology of a parking lot changes every day and through-out the day, and is at the same time diverse and depressingly grey and
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generic. The personal connection to the place is often forgotten or ignored, although the place holds high practical value to its user. The void of a parking lot is the one that cars carry with them from the noisy grayness of highways and intersec-tions, which the car encloses out from the highly private world of an urban mobilist.
Mikko
Resources: Tuvikene, Tauri: Freedom to park: post-socialist automobility in Tallinn, Estonia, 2015Augé, Marc: Non-places: An introduction to supermodernity, 2008Harvey, David: The Condition of Postmodernity, 1989Trancik, Roger: Finding Lost Space: Theories of Urban Design, 1986Elliott D. Sclar, Måns Lönnroth, Christian: Improving Urban Access: New Approaches to Funding Transport Investment, 2016I. Salomon, P.H. Bovy, J.P. Orfeuil: A Billion Trips a Day: Tradition and Transition in European Travel Patterns, 1993+ commuter interviews, mental mapping, personal observations
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Site of the sound installation. Listen it here: goo.gl/1cL9zZ
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Quest for Domination
Maakri is the first area in Tallinn that is primarily meant for skyscrapers, in Estonian terms. The skyline of Tallinn has been steadily filling up with new tall buildings and that can be accounted to the regaining of the independence and the onslaught of the neoliberal mindset. Some have said that this process is turning parts of Tallinn into a kind of Manhattan. My research’s aim was to look more into the ideologies behind these dominative building types.
The corporate office tower is nowadays dominating the skyline in most major cities. It is aimed for the workflows of growingly global corporations. The early skyscrapers were seen as something romantic, something that was reaching for the sky, but now that romanticism has started to fade. In the case of Tallinn, the city is mostly remembered by its old town with its curvy ancient streets and medieval architecture. The skyscraper had no part in there. That is also the reason every tall building in Tallinn has the maximum building height which is the same as the highest church Oleviste with its 123 meters high tower. The corporate office tower is nowadays dominating the skyline in most major cities. It is
aimed for the workflows of growingly global corporations. The early sky-scrapers were seen as something ro-mantic, something that was reaching for the sky, but now that romanticism has started to fade. In the case of Tal-linn, the city is mostly remembered by its old town with its curvy ancient streets and medieval architecture. The skyscraper had no part in there. That is also the reason every tall building in Tallinn has the maximum building height which is the same as the highest church Oleviste with its 123 meters high tower. There is a thematic planning made especially for the construction of buildings that exceed 27 metres – i.e the thematic planning of Tallinn’s high-rises. The planning is fixing the locations where these buildings can be built under a strict control that they take into con-sideration the view corridors to Tal-linn’s old town. Maakri area used to have a different potential with its old wooden buildings and quiet streets, it used to be a suburb. There was a po-tential to be used in some other sense but now all the projects foresee only an area with the most highest and shiniest buildings. The land value is high because it is the only area in the center of Tallinn with the permission
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to build high-rises and the gas pedal has been pushed to the ground on that aspect. The land is owned by multiple owners and that has had its effect. Its central location makes the land valuable and generates a wish to use its full potential, more stories are built. One of the new possible ways to tackle the problem of more and more buildings in the area is to conjoin the different plots, which can lead to better building regulations.
The more height the building has the more symbolic power it demon-strates. The building’s image is taking a new economic importance. There is a growing need to produce signs and images rather than use value and so the building grows taller. The adver-tising portrays a series of beautiful and powerful images, displaying the tower in different angles while fading its neighbours. The prospect of the perfect workplace is polished to
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look better than the competitors and provide the renting company its edge in the market. There is a competition to construct the most memorable landmark of the city. Maakri is yet not full of skyscrapers and there is a more clear distinction between them, but the SEB building with its triangular sky piercing shape has put its mark on the city forever. The quest for visual distinction is also pursued through the use of materials and regard to the environment. This is used to normalize and show the skyscraper as a building that respects the surrounding city.
The process that is happening in Maakri is viewed as a branding process of the city. The economic situation has made possible for landowners and companies to practice their power in this part and it can be said that it is the most growing part of the city. The brand of Tallinn is strongly affected by these skyscrapers and it is a symbol of neoliberalism process. In my project, i will talk about some of the more hidden meanings behind the construction of skyscrapers.
Kaarel
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Pelhtovuori, Panu. “Elagu manhattaniseerumine! Maakri kvartali arhitektuurikonkursist” Maja, Jan. 2007Dovey, Kim: Framing Places: Mediating power in built form (1999)
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Liminal space of CBD
I try to understand the role of the in-between, liminal, transitional spaces of Maakri district by the theo-ries of “non-places” (Augé) and “Ge-neric City” (Koolhaas). I reveal the similarities and differences between the new urban form of western cities and Tallinn’s high-rise area.
According to Marc Auge and Rem Koolhaas the contemporary urban landscape is becoming more and more generic. Auge argues in his theory of “non-places” that the main components of the new urban form are changeable and anonymous places. Inhabitants do not connect emotionally to the non places; they are just users, customers, passengers or listeners of them. Non-places are transitional localities such as places of transportation, leisure and commerce institutions and the mixed space of communication and trans-portation; the virtual space.
Architect Rem Koolhaas linked the term of mobility to the contem-porary cities, and the same did Auge. Due to the globalization and the rapid exchange of information, cities are trying to position themselves apart from other cities by creating an image. According to Koolhaas a city with a strong identity is static
and inflexible. For Koolhaas the new city is like a huge airport: “a her-metic system from which there is no escape, except to other airports”. The “Generic City” is privately owned; the private investments generate the development. The most important elements of the new type of cities – the infrastructure of bridges, tunnels and roads – clearly show the concept of flexibility and transportability. In his other controversial essay Kool-haas talks about urban planning as a disappearing discipline. According to him the “Generic City” is developed without urban planning and any kind of regulations.
At the World Architecture Festi-val in 2016 Patrik Schumacher – the (new) head architect of Zaha Hadid Architects – called for the end of public space and social housing as a solution of London’s housing crisis. Like Koolhaas, he advocates private investments – he even suggested pri-vatizing streets, squares and parks to create a “real” real-estate market. Ac-cording to Schumacher regulations are “stifling creativity and progress”.
One can say that Auge’s and Kool-haas’s idea about cities may be some-thing that it is the opposite from the term of genius loci. For both
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Auge and Koolhaas the undefined elements – the “non-places” – can “define” a new globalized city. There is a difference between their theories: Auge as an anthropologist is more interested in the “users” and not the architectural form of the places like Koolhaas. And Koolhaas’s argument clearly shows that cities should po-sition themselves as “Generic City” to be competitive and successful. It seems Schumacher wants to actu-alize Koolhaas’s theory in a case of London by creating a market-based urban form.
Experiencing the “in-between”The process of continuous change is a base condition for contemporary cities. Due to the flux of people and information new type of spaces are created; the spaces of going, transi-tion and circulation. The locations of everyday life are the liminal, in-be-tween spaces. The main characteristic of “in-between” is temporariness. Where can we find “in-between” within city spaces? According to Ana Luz’s classification; the borders – doors, windows, fences, thresh-olds – present spaces between two
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opposite identities. Second type is the “empty” spaces within the urban fabrics; streets, squares, parking lots and green parks. Finally Auge’s “non-places” – the places of transi-tion – can be called “in-between”.
What is really happening in these places? I try to answer to the ques-tion in case of the “leftover” places of Tallinn’s CBD area. For this it is necessary to understand the (short) history of the Estonian “contempo-rary city of high-rises”.
The liminal spaces of MaakriAfter Estonia has regained its in-dependence skyscrapers have been erected – in a concentrated area – as a symbolic presentation of the local and regional firms. Without a com-prehensive master plan the area of high-rises has been developing as a bumpy carpet of the private inves-tors. The neighbourhood around Maakri street became the core of the contemporary neoliberal city because of its central location. As higher buildings were built there already during the soviet period (Olümpia and Viru hotel) the sil-houette of the city can now be clearly divided into two parts: the density of church towers of old town and high-
rise glass buildings of Maakri.Between the single buildings
of Maakri area there are narrow pedestrian lanes and streets, bus stops and empty plots as temporary parking lots. Due to the area’s lack of designed public places people just stay there for a short time; for instance waiting for a bus or smok-ing cigarettes in front of the build-ings. To experience the transitional in-between places of Maakri we have to see what is happening “behind the scenes”. The semi-public or semi-pri-vate backyards are usually parking lots with other service functions. The buildings are unrecognisable from the “other side” and the backdoors lack of representative attributions. The backyards are the places of short stay; for a smoke during lunch break or parking your car.
In a case of the whole city Maakri area itself is “in-between”– located next to the old town and residential areas, a core of public transport and full of Auge’s “non-places” – usually people just go across it.
The aforementioned theories use the western metropolises as examples. In the case of Maakri district the area is really small – we can just talk about
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few streets. Yet the glass buildings of the area redefine the whole city centre as representations of the neoliberal urbanization policy of a post-soviet country. These new high-rise buildings are not special in any way – they are the “generic” as most of 21th century glass skyscrapers.
Can Maakri be called “unde-fined urban structure” with generic elements? I think it is more compli-cated than that. Firstly, these new buildings represent the economic and cultural freedom of the coun-try. Secondly, the structure of the area – the location of the streets and building plots – is old, from another
time; not a planned grid: the urban form of Maakri has several layers – old wooden houses present the former slum, modernist and stalin-ist blocks are there from the soviet period, the empty plots functioning as parking areas show contempo-rary “tensions”. Maakri area is a “historical mixture” with a mean-ingful past and present, despite the more and more high-rises, shopping centers and reconstructions which try to “cover” the past; the district – or even Tallinn – never will be a Generic City. Fruzsina
Resources: Ana Luz: Places In-Between: The Transit(ional) Locations of Nomadic Narratives Marc Auge (1995): Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of SupermodernityRem Koolhaas, Hans Werlemann, Bruce Mau (1998): S M L XL
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Modernist Living
Please enter the door to you right, take the steps and turn left. Then, follow the arrow up the stairs to the ninth floor.By now you should be on the third floor.By now you should be on the sixth floor.When you arrive at the ninth floor follow the next sign to the rooftop.When you are outside on the rooftop turn left and wait for the piece which is about to begin.You can enjoy the view.
Introduction The History of KeldrimäeWhen we look at Keldrimäe, as it is today, we see big greyish tower blocks surrounded by greenery, few streets, and some smaller houses. This appea- rance was mainly created in the sec-ond half of the 20th century. Before this time the district would have been hardly recognizable for our eyes. Small wooden houses characterized the area, loosely spread in a rather chaotic order, narrow streets were running through the territory. The inhabitants this time Keldrimäe were mainly workers for the industry and factories settled in the neighbouring areas, like Maakri.
After the Second World War
Tallinn was left under the control of Soviet Union. Parts of the town were destroyed or damaged in the course of the March Bombings in 1944 and the new government put big effort into industrializing the region. On this account a general plan for the whole city was developed in 1964. For Keldrimäe this new planning provided that the entire area with its wooden houses was to be torn down and replaced by high rise housing blocks. In two periods of demolition the general plan was started to be im-plemented in 1967. Not only all of the buildings were removed, but also the street structure was changed, so that almost every were or removed. At the end of the process, in the formerog-anically developed urban area, hardly any stones were left unturned.
Chapter One has just ended.Please follow the stairs back towards the starting point of the tour.By now you should be on the sixth floor.By now you should be on the third floor.When you arrive at the ground floor, leave the building through the entrance and turn to the right.Follow the signs.
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Part IThe transformation of Keldrimäe was firstly regarded as a showcase project for soviet housing in Tallinn because of its close proximity to the city centre. The single buildings were supposed to be planned as individual projects, public facilities should have made the area more liveable, but only 50% of the intentions of original general plan were implemented due to financial shortage and the fact that
this planning and building process was too time consuming.
By the time of the 1970s there were more prefabricatedfacto-ry-made houses constructed in the USSR than elsewhere in the world, since there was a huge need of housing, caused by soviet policies that lead to a rapid industrialisation and migration into cities. Within this framework, the building activities of the soviet Union can be regarded as
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the greatest realisation of modernist urban planning. And it did not take place in the West, where it was origi-nally invented, but in the East, name-ly in the suburbs of Prague, Krakow, Riga, Tallinn and many others. All that leads to the assumption that only a totalitarian regime can make use of this kind of totalitarian plan-ning. And in fact soviet socialism and architectural modernism had a quite similar agenda. Both stated the creation of a better world, both praised the ideal of an egalitarian society. And so architecture became the suitable tool, or method, to real-ize the socialist state and society, to realize the utopian reality. The belief prevailed that buildings and neigh-bourhoods, even entire towns can be the foundation for a new society. But in the end both, soviet socialism and architectural modernism, failed.
These Soviet cities were charac-terized by their monotonous archi-tecture and master plans, by their insufficient social facilities and public transport, the absence of urban life, the uniformity of the social milieu, by geographic separation between the residential quarters and the zones for activities and maybe most impor-tantly, the decrease in the extension
and richness of social networks and human interaction in comparison to the inhabitants’ former experience. And indeed there was the ideolog-ical aim for standardisation and conformity, which tried to organize, subdivide and squeeze labour and social activities i.e the everyday life as a whole into timetables.
Chapter Two has just ended.Please enter the door in front of you, enter the elevator and go to the top floor.When the elevator door opens, leave the elevator and turn left.Follow the sign and take the stairs.When you arrive at the ground floor, leave the building through the entrance and turn to the right.When you are outside on the rooftop turn left and wait for the piece which is about to begin.You can enjoy the view.
Part IIToday we look at the wooden houses of Keldrimäe in a nostalgic way, romanticizing the time and its people, but for the inhabitants, those houses were simple accommoda-tions, without any comforts. And at the time when the first demolitions
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started lot of the houses were in such a desolate condition that they were hardly habitable. They were dwellings from another time and the inhabit-ants longed for appropriate housing, for housing with central heating, electricity and warm water, in which families would not have to share rooms and flats with other ones. In many cases the great modernist housing estates was all about this, the provision of decent housing for a huge amount of working class people so that they didn’t need to live in shanty towns anymore. And in fact the people for whom the new houses were intended,regarded them as a blessing, offering the prospect of a better life.
There is a controversial dealing with modernist large-scale housing estates all over the world. Many of them were and are demolished in Western Europe and North America. In other regions of the world, where cities still grow rapidly like Shang-hai or Mumbai, modernist housing is still the suitable way of creating accommodations for huge masses. Also the block bulding districts in Moscow have led to a special form of post-soviet urbanity. But especially for people from the former West
block these buildings are strongly stigmatized. In the 1960s the con-sensus on the goodness ofmodernist design began to fracture, which was partly politically intended to justify the withdrawal from public provi-sion. But also sociological critiques started to diagnose social patholo-gies and a loss of community in the new estates, and that resulted in a negative image and eventually in a stigmatization that is prevailing even today.
This stigmatization in our time is questionable. From a pragmatic point of view the existing housing estates’ potential for revaluation should be acknowledged. In the last decades new types of families have been emerging in contemporary cities that differ from the traditional nuclear family: single parent families, couples without children or single residents. These new urbanites have totally dif-ferent priorities and concerns: they don’t need as much private space as a large family, but they especially enjoy public spaces. Modernist housing possess the possibility to combine domestic and public space, offering the flexibility for its inhabitants to enable layouts adopted to their spe-cific needs. It seems on this account
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as if the former critique regarding the drastic changes in everyday life is not reliable anymore and will die out with the generation of our grandparents or parents that had to cope with it. New generations already have absorbed those transformations. The layout of modernist housing seems to rather correspond to today’s new kind of urban life.
Another point that at first glance might seem to be marginal is the enormous expense of the building’s dem-olition. Concerning the promotion of sustainable urban development, renovating the housing estates makes much more sense. 19th century housing is massively renovated all the time, so why shouldn’t modernist housing have the same future?
Part IIIModernist housing estates seem to offer great potential for contemporary and future challenges. Should we then just continue to construct them? From an aesthetic point of view the houses of both eras look similar, but the ideas behind them are totally different. The construction’ activities of the 60s and 70s were driven by the idea of modernization and the vision to provide decent housing for masses which used to live in shanty towns. This social agenda is missing in the case of the newly constructed buildings that have been placed in Keldrimäe in last decades. On the contrary they use the proximity to the city centre to offer cheaply built space for a relatively high price. This kind of development is only motivated by pri-vate interests and confirm with market interests instead of dealing with the question of living.
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Chapter Three has just ended. Please take the stairs back to the elevator.Take the elevator and go down to the ground floor.Outside of the building Máté is waiting for you.This tour finishes here.Thanks for your attention.
Johannes
Listen to the Audio-guide to Keldrimäe from here: goo.gl/TZot2K
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Mapping the sacred
The Inhomogeneous Urban Space The inhomogeneity of space has a religious origin, as Eliade writes: “For the religious man, space is not homo-geneous; he experiences interruptions, breaks in it; some parts of space are qualitatively different from others”[1]. This duality of sacred and profane spaces is still observable although the meaning of sacredness has a much wider content. In my project, my goal is to map these different layers of space, and make an analysis based on them.
Before I continue with my analy-sis, the first question is what I mean by sacred? Originally, the word “sa-cred” comes from the Latin “sancire”, “which means to enclose, to encircle, that is, to delimit an area or district, while what is outside of the district (fa-num) is referred to as profanum”[2]. This explains how sacred space may be something that is differentiated from every other space surround-ing it. It has a special meaning for a group of people – or at least for one person, who refer some places to be sacred and some not. It is important to emphasize that sacredness is not necessarily a religious term, someone doesn’t have to be religious to have a personal connection with particu-lar spaces of his life. “There are, for
example, privileged places, qualitative-ly different from all others – a man’s birthplace, or the scene of his first love, or certain places in the first foreign city he visited in youth. Even for the most frankly nonreligious man, all these places still retain an exceptional, a unique quality; they are the “holy places” of his private universe, as if it were in such spots that he had received the revelation of a reality other than that in which he participates through his ordinary daily life”[3].
Another aspect of sacred space is that it connects our world with the transcendental world – originally, in a religious sense, the world of the god(s), but again it can be interpret-ed in a wider sense. It can simply mean something that gives meaning to someone’s life. For example, for someone whose only interest in life is to collect money and get rich, the most sacred place can be the stock market where he’s spirituality is celebrated by trading – even if money casually is a part of his everyday life. By everyday rituals the space gains extra meanings for its user, it fills up with symbols – it becomes a symbol-ic universe that is the feature of the “anthropological place”. It is charac-terized by the social bonds and col-
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lective history of the users. A typical example for the anthropological place is the place of birth that defines the identity of many people. “The spatial position one is given, situates one in a con-figuration of relations and loyalties.”[4].
The inhomogeneity of space is based on these different symbolic universes. Every place has its own meanings for its user depending on what kind of connection they have with it. The same place can mean something totally different for two different persons. What interested me in my personal research is to understand the general image of the
different layers of space in Maakri and Keldrimäe area. In order to map it, I recorded different functions of all the buildings in the area and distinguished seven layers (living, shopping, working, leisure, nature, religious, cultural, and business). Aforementioned layers are possible way to interpret the sacred in con-temporary urban environment – but it doesn’t necessarily mean that all of the marked places are sacred for someone, and for sure not for every-one. The maps show that the same area – the same fragment of space – can bear different meanings. The
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sacredness of space is a concept that I use to understand all these different kind of relationships.
Putting the maps together and seeing the different layers one of the most diverse areas is the Liivalaia 40 building. It is a residential building, a living space for many people. In the ground level we can find shops and small businesses, like a beauty salon and a health salon. These are working spaces for the owners and employees of the premises, who probably have a different approach to the whole building. For the customers these are shopping places, and probably there are a few of them who are frequent-ers here – they have a deeper connec-tion with these places.
In the other half of the building there is a library, that adds the layer of culture to the building – and in the meantime it is also a working place. Libraries always have a special aura – the combination of silence and the books all around us – that makes this place the closest to the original meaning of sacred space here. Right next to the building, there is the Kaasani Church which is literally a sacred place for the believers, and also the surrounding green area with a mysterious stone circle on the ground. This is just one example from the area that represents the inhomogeneity of space.
Máté
[1] Mircea Eliade: The Sacred and The Profane, 1959, p.20.[2] Liliana Gómez, Walter Van Herck, ed.: The Sacred in the City, 2012, p.3.[3] Eliade, 1959, p.24.[4] Gómez, Van Herck, 2012, p.17. based on Marc Augé: Non-places: An introduction to supermodernity, 2008
The research of the maps is based on the quoted theoretical texts and observational fieldwork in the area. Further readings: Justin Beaumont, Christopher Baker, ed.: Postsecular Cities - Space, Theory and Practice, 2011; Ferenc Jankó: A hely szelleme, a településimage és településmarketing (The Spirit of Place, Settlement Image and Settlement Marketing), in. Tér és Társadalom, 2002
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Tree tales
In 2015 The European Arboricultur-al Council (EAC) awarded Tallinn with the title of ‘European City of the Trees’. As of May 2015, Tallinn is home to 52 listed trees, the major-ity of which grow in the city center. Tallinn’s oldest tree, a linden near St. Nicholas’ Church was planted around 1680. There are recorded 1275 different taxa of trees and 800 trees in Tallinn have a perimeter of 300 cm. The presence of wild growing greens in Tallinn, especially trees, is clearly visible. So are the older inhabitants of Tallinn with their grocery bags and
colorful berets. Both trees and elderly women seem to be sharing the same narrative of being old and wise. For the final walk I wanted to explore the correlation between trees and women.
The trees function as a green counterweight to the traffic that dom-inate the Tallinn infrastructure. Both visually and biologically, as a 20 year old pine tree actually absorbs a daily amount of 9.35 tons of gases, and produces 7.25 tons of oxygen every day. In recent plans it has been decid-ed that for each tree that is felled in Tallinn a new one has to be planted.
Trees and old ladies as antitheses to rapid urbanization
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One could argue that the aforemen-tioned women serves somewhat as counterweights as well. They function as a reminder of the past in a city that is rapidly transforming and distancing itself from its Soviet heritage.
In the act ‘On Land’ of 1918 The Communist Party declared all trees to be possession of the state and to be protected from damage. In 1948 the ‘The Stalin Plan for Transformation of Nature’ was implemented and resulted in many new trees being planted in all Soviet States including Estonia. Gen-erally the Soviet Union regarded trees
as “monuments of nature”. In many ways the continuation of the protec-tion of trees in Tallinn can be seen as a part of a socialist programme that survived the political transition in 1991 contrary to the focus on wom-en’s issues, that was not fully adopted into the new governmental structure. Studies show that women’s issues are poorly represented in parliaments of former Soviet states, due to negative connotations of the egalitarian legacy of Socialism and the re-emergence of nationalism and conservatism. Wom-en in the age group of 65+ that cur-
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rently live in Tallinn, have lived most of their active lives during the Soviet era. They are the last generation of Estonians that fully experienced the Soviet way of life and with them also practices and values of the past are disappearing. Like the trees they will be replaced with new ones, that do not have the same deep roots.
According to the Social Insurance Board in Estonia the state pension is €167,50 per month which is the base rate. According to Estonian statistics the average wage in 2016 is €1,129 per month. Women live up to 10-12 years longer than their spouses and adding to this Estonia has the biggest pay-gap between genders in the European Union. Consequently this results in some women living alone and for little means for the last years of their lives. Instead of this being a political project focused on social injustice I wanted
to figure out how the women in this age group lead their lives despite a low income and how their specific usage of the city affects the urban landscape – where these women are becoming living typologies that shape the city as much as the built environment.
Pragmatic usage of the cityIn Tallinn it is possible to spot an older lady leaning against a tree. Especially during warmer seasons. When encountering this sight for the first time it is difficult to fathom what this practice entail. Some will lean for quite a while, others will just stay next to a tree for a couple of minutes. Among other practices, I wanted to find out whether this is a form of contemplation, sacred ritual or just a practical way of pausing without sitting down.
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surrounded by different myths. I was unsure of how to approach them as a focus group. As I have learned social interaction is different here from where I come from: “A hierarchy exists in Estonian society, and people tend to respect their elders with age, position and experience. People in Tallinn act very smooth and quiet. You will gain more respect if you act calm and rational, like others in general, speak quietly and not draw attention to themselves” (SimplyTal-linn.com).
In order not to be disrespectful or too intruding I started out by follow-ing the women around Keldrimäe and Maakri, mapping where they went, who they talked to and what they did. I noticed that many were well-dressed and that everyone was wearing a hat. Many went to the surrounding bus stops, to Maxima on Tartu mnt and some went inside the Keskturg Market. During this data collection I did not encounter any leaning against trees – I realised that I had to talk to the women instead of keeping my dis-tance in order to have my questions answered. As I don’t speak the lan-guage I provided each of my sources with prepaid envelopes containing my questions translated into Estonian.
A place that is important to mention is ‘Energia Kohvik’ – a café of the past and frequently visited by 70+ wom-en and also the place where I found most of the informants. Opened in 1964 and situated near Keldrimäe and Maakri on the busy shopping street Kaubamaja, it has survived the gener-al westernization of the café culture. The waiter explained that many of the women have been coming there most of their adult lives and enjoy the low prices, the regular coffee, their famous ‘apple bombs’ as well as the atmos-phere. Only time will show whether ‘Energia Kohvik’ will survive its clien-tele – it has the possibility to endure by falling into the category of ‘Soviet Chic’ in the eyes of next generations. One source answered that what she enjoyed most about the district of Keldrimäe and Maakri was the many bus stops and bus connections also taking her to the café as bus nr. 1, 3, 23 & 42 stops right outside the door.
The women that I asked knew nothing of the practice of leaning against trees, I therefore turned to Estonian literature and the internet to see if I could encounter the habit there. Nor in ‘Purge’ by Sofi Oksanen were there traces of it, even though many birch trees almost function as
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supporting roles, yet in Aliide Truu’s character I found the same pragmatic approach and sturdiness that domi-nated the behaviour and answers of the women that I observed and asked. Many of my questions were answered with yes or no answers and when I asked about the amount of hats I got very precise, yet elaborate answers: “I wear my hats according to the weather. I have two black hats (favourite colour) that I wear in the Autumn – for summer I wear one with a flower”. When asked about safety and possible troubles of being a woman over 65 in Tallinn, I simply got “Ei, ei” (no, no). One woman answered that because she “is born and raised in Tallinn, a die hard city dweller, she doesn’t know how to re-spond to aching backs” and does not
Resources:Connolly, E. & Ó Beacháin Stefańczak, K. (2015) Women’s Political Representa-tion in Post-Soviet Republics. STSS Vol 7 / Issue 1 Studies of Transition States and Societies. Pp. 41-58. McCauley, M. (1988) The Soviet Union 1917-1991. Routledge. Pp. 178-188. Oksanen, S. (2015) Renselse. Rosinante. Pp. 9-355. Weiner, D (1988) Ecology in the former Soviet Union. In: “Models of Nature: Ecology, Conservation, and Cultural Revolution in Soviet Union,” Indiana University Press.
use the city’s trees as comfort zones. With the interviews I realised that I have been asking for information that would confirm my assumptions of the women I have encountered in the cityscape. Like the trees they allude to something natural and authen-tic that contrast the globalized and fast urbanization that prevail in the city and is perhaps therefore easily misinterpreted and mythologized. My presentation taking place in the woodlands next to Kaasani Church and the modernist apartment blocks of Liivalaia will be an elaboration both visually and methodologically of my findings and assumptions about elderly women as living typologies in Tallinn. Nina
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Once the Baltic countries became independent after 1990s, the real estate market was re-activated in the beginning of this period with the im-plementation of ownership reform. This reform, implemented officially from 1991 to 2004, gave possibility to buy land, privatise dwellings and return properties expropriated by the Soviet power to their rightful owners. This created a large num-ber of private owners. However, the Baltic real estate market was in the early years relatively passive and price levels were quite low (Kolbre, Kallakmaa-Kapsta, 2006). Due to the low purchasing power, inaccessibil-ity and expensiveness of loans and the privatisation process itself the activity of the market was quite low, especially in regards of transactions between locals.
In Estonia, the state created a pri-vatisation voucher (EVP) to privatise real estate and other state-owned properties. Dwelling and land priva-tisation transitions were performed in many times lower prices than the market prices of that time. It was an important move to help along in the privatisation, as private property was the only asset considered to be a seed capital for every individual entering
the new market system. Therefore, this process inhibited the develop-ment of a real estate market, because people were able to privatise their dwellings for much lower prices than market prices, so there was no need to obtain real estate from the free market (Kolbre, Kallakmaa-Kapsta, 2006).
A big change in the real estate market in Estonia happened after the replacement of previous Soviet peri-od laws on purchase-sale transitions with the new Law and Property Act adopted in December 1993. These contemporary legal bases contrib-uted to vitalization of real estate market by leading to a fast growth in subsequent years. This period wit-nessed the construction of first new apartment buildings, but most of the transitions in the housing market were still made on used apartments. Additionally, at that time, bringing new development projects into mar-ket was limited due to the under-developed financial market and the big difference between prices of new dwellings and used apartments.
Housing market prices and trans-actions had been increasing until the autumn of 1997. At that time, global stock market crashed (mini-crash), and this influenced the number of
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transactions in a negative way. How-ever, there were no big falls in the price levels, because the price levels in the real estate market at that time were even lower than the construc-tion costs, so there was no possibility for bigger falls of prices. After the market crash, stagnation period for the real estate market lasted for couple of years, and years 1999 and 2000 can be regarded as a period of recovery for real estate market.
After 2000, the first faster growth occurred in Tallinn and Harjumaa with the price increase rate of 10-
30% year by year. During that time, the most rapidly developing part of the real estate market in Estonia was housing market. Before 2002, devel-opers had mostly focused on the city centre of Tallinn. However, the de-velopment activity started to spread all over the city. Therefore, housing prices rose up to 35% from the end of 2001 to the beginning of 2002 (Kol-bre, Kallakmaa-Kapsta, 2006). The development process also reached Tartu and Pärnu with a time shift. However, the activity didn’t reach to Narva and Kohtla-Järve, even though
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they are major towns in terms of the population, mostly due to lower than average standard of living there.
From 2000 to 2007, real estate price increase exceeded 500% at the peak of the bottom in the mid-2007 compared with 2000. So, the fast-est-growing property prices among European countries occurred in Estonia. However, with the mortgage and securities market crisis in 2008, the number of property transactions and the price levels fell sharply.
The real estate market boom between 2000 and 2007 can be explained with supply and demand conditions and financial dynamics. There were several reasons explain-ing the housing demand during the boom time. The first reason was that the number of households increased. Over the 1997-2009 period, the number of residents declined in Esto-nia but increased in Tallinn. In total, the number of households in Estonia increased 3% (Lamine, 2009). The second reason was that the average household income increased. Rapidly growing wages and progressive re-duction in income tax rates played a role in increasing demand. The third reason was that there was an increas-ing demand for new dwellings built
using latest construction methods and materials. In 2006, around 50% of the housing stock dated back be-fore 1970, and the stock of low-qual-ity Soviet era apartment blocks built during 1971-1989 was around 44% of the total housing stock. Additionally, around 20% of them were in very poor quality. Therefore, dwellings less than 15-year age accounted for only 6% of the total housing stock, and a large share of total transactions was accounted for by modern buildings within this 6% of stock. The fourth reason was the growing external interest for property in Estonia, par-ticularly from the retiring citizens of Nordic Europe, Central and Eastern European residents working abroad and global real estate companies. Additionally, there was an interest to acquire second residence from Estonians.
Moreover, financial conditions also contributed to the expansion of the boom during the first years of 21th century. Mortgage interest rates declined slowly from 1999 to 2002 in Estonia. The fall became dramatic in 2003, and mortgage rates stayed at very low level for years. As a result of low interest rates and increasing income, housing loans expanded by
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almost 60% per year between 2000 and 2006. Also, the decline in interest rates was more in Estonia than in OECD countries. Additionally, the 2000-2005 period was also a period of credit market liberalisation. The Estonian financial market opened its doors to foreign owned banks, which are mostly Nordic banks. This brought retail banking expertise and strong competitive approach. Therefore, the maximum maturity of housing loans was extended, and the average maturity lengthened beyond 30 years.
After the 2008 crisis, Estonian real estate market prices and tran-sitions dropped sharply, and the market entered into a new recovering period. Years 2009 and 2010 can be regarded as the recovery period for the housing market. After that, the prices and transactions in the market started to increase again, but the situation is different from 2000-2007 period boom. In 2016, apartment prices are close to the level of the 2007 real estate boom in nominal terms. They are only 12% lower on average. However, the situation is not even close to the conditions of 2007 boom when prices are compared to income. Prices relative to income
have recovered from the bust that followed the boom, and stay below the 12-year average level now. Briefly, whereas in 2007, the average worker needed to pay 2.5 times the average net salary to buy one square meter of apartment space, s/he now needs only 1.7 average net wages in that given region.
2000-2007 and 2010-2016 time periods can be comparable in terms of supply and demand dynamics. During 2000-2007, demand was so high, and supply was not enough for the demand, so the price levels always increased more than it should have been. However, during 2010-2016, the supply side started to in-crease more, and nowadays, because of the surge in supply and increasing number of advertisements of new dwellings, price growth has almost stopped and price levels are stabi-lized. This is positive for households, whose income increase higher than the real estate price growth average.
Even though the prices of new apartments have decreased or been stable, the prices of older apartments have continued to growth. The gap between newer and Soviet-era apart-ments has decreased subsequently during the last year. A newer apart-
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ment is only 25% more expensive than Soviet-era apartment. Just be-fore one years ago, newer apartment was 43% more expensive.
Hence, the effect of the real estate market is visible in the urban space. The last 25 years of period brought new development projects to Maakri and Keldrimäe areas. The character of Maakri mainly changed, and it became a center of commercial activ-ities, and many landmark buildings were located to that area during the
real estate boom times. Keldrimäe area has been also influenced with the transformation of Maakri and the real estate market, and many devel-oping projects was completed within that area. Even though the develop-ment projects in Keldrimäe is mostly residential purpose, the character of the district is also changing by new commercial facilities brought by these projects. Güngör
Resources: Cocconcelli, Luca and Francesca Romana Medda. “The Estonian Speculative Real Estate Market: The boom and bust cycle.” UCL, (2013).Eesti Statistika. “Eesti Statistika Aastaraamat 2016” Tallinn. (2016).Isküll, Siim. “The Estonian Economy.” Swedbank Newsletter: Macro Research, (2016).Kolbre, Ene and Angelika Kallakmaa-Kapsta. “Housing Market Development in Estonia: Is There a Real Estate Boom?” Working Papers in Economics Vol. 20 (TUTWPE No 146). Tallinn: Tallinn University of Technology, (2006).Kolbre, Ene, Angelika Kallakmaa-Kapsta and Taavi Ojala. “Estonian Housing Market: Searching for Origins of the Boom.” Research in Economics and Business: Central and Eastern Europe Vol.1 (28), No. 2, (2009).Lamine, Baudouin. “Estonia: Analysis of a Housing Boom.” Economic analysis from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, Volume VI, Issue 07, (2009).OECD. “Economic Surveys: Estonia.” (2015).
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Güngör’s public lecture in the newly built Mardi 9 apartment building.
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Restlessly drawn to the irrational, in search for the forces that cannot be harnessed with rules and planning, I found children’s issue quite an interesting case for the final project. Kids are hardly ever asked what they want in the city, they just come out and live the space in their own way. What is that way? You never know. However, the forms we construct for children are quite evident: play-grounds, adventure parks, kindergar-tens. All mostly fenced. We suppose we are making a perfect place to hide for children, but instead we may be imprisoning them.
Keldrimäe district is that very example of an area of “closed islands” for kids. During my fieldwork none of the children was spotted using any of those constructions made for them. Usually they tend to prefer snowdrifts and grass to swings and sand boxes. Kindergartens seemed so unwelcoming that at first I thought they are not operating. However, something caught my eye from the very beginning: compared to the lim-ited number of “places for children” in other Tallinn central neighbour-hoods (from our mental mapping
we learnt that some parents living in Maakri bring their kids to play in Politsei park, which is not that close to the area), Keldrimäe may be seen as a playing paradise. Adults, who participated in mental mapping, agreed on that. When I learned the participant has children, I asked him/her how he/she finds the area for kids. All answers were positive, fo-cusing on “quietness and safety”. One of the respondents admitted that his granddaughter was happy to move from Old Town to Keldrimäe because of the ghosts. Children were asked to take part in mapping too, however, the results usually showed their rich inner world, but not preferences in urban surroundings.
Continuing to figure out what is wrong with kids or service struc-tures for them in Keldrimäe, I visited Mardi kindergartens to trace their stories. There I was told all the archives were drowned in a flood. But the very visit gave me a lot, as suddenly that sense of ambivalence appeared. Mardi kindergartens (two buildings), constructed in 50s-60s, have the usual soviet construction type, but are used in a new way: it
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is read everywhere, from the interi-ors and activities (comparing to my own kindergarten experience in a post-soviet town where soviet tra-ditions are still strong) to a such an interesting form as veranda, which is still extremely popular in Russia as a shelter for raining or too hot noon promenades and group games (the veranda is also usually a piece of mural art and an iconic place for punks to gather in the evening), here
forgotten or used as a storeroom. The opposite interplay of meaning and form is presented in the local system of playgrounds. Here the soviet urge to provide every yard with a play-ground is preserved, while the form is changed completely. Although the talk on comparing soviet standard playground with today’s renovated design can be endless, something still feels wrong. While safety require-ments of the latter are enhanced in
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geometrical progression and the structure is not metal anymore and cuter by its outlook, its mini-fences really add a weird sense to them (like a kid closes himself inside) killing its former total freedom and hiddenness in vast urban nature. What is more, they seem to have lost their universal character. Passages like “any worker enjoyed a swing returning home after a hard working day” are usual for witnesses recollecting earlier times. Today due to the size of built structures adults are excluded from playgrounds. Only kids are welcome to the stage.
In Keldrimäe all cases of play-ground locations and designs draw attention. For me they all resemble a prison, a stage or a prison on stage. So, I decided it would be appropriate if uncertain feelings about play-grounds were expressed in a per-formance piece. Here the audience is invited to experience a series of happenings and absurd twists where
some urban characters from different centuries appear trying to interact with the structure in their own ways. Here the attempt to readapt the structure and re-bring it to market is hidden in hyperboles and metaphors. That effort fails on stage, but would it fail in real world?
Besides bringing out some dis-putable issues, I wanted to compile all the available information on what were the tendencies of using space by children over time in the district (or more common data applied to it), or if more precise, what structures and activities connected with them the state, planners and municipali-ties offer to kids in different times of history. For presenting those types and their morphology the form of a children’s book was chosen, as it needed to be appropriate enough to let anyone get into a child’s shoes and join him for his time travel.
Aleksandra
133
Resources: Aino Ugaste and Tiina Oun (2008) “History and current situation in the Estonian early childhood education”Colin Ward (1978) “The Child in the City”Ellen and Peter Jacobs (1980) “Children as managers of urban space”История советской архитектуры 1917-1954 гг. Учебник для архитектурных вузов. Под общ. ред, Н.Б.Былинкина и А.В.Рябушина. Изд. 2-е. - М., 1985. + Collective mental mapping
Pages from Aleksandra’s children’s book “Something Immense and Me” of being a child in Keldrimäe through different times.
134
Non-placesI labelled my final project as “non-places”. Those are places not noticed by citizens in their everyday life, places that have no historical val-ue or places that are so full of stimuli, sameness, that the individual human can find himself struggling in express-ing his individuality and uniqueness in them, like a metropolis.
Mental MappingTo spot these places in the Keldrimäe and Maakri area, my colleagues and I used the technique of mental mapping. Mental mapping means basically that citizens, not necessarily locals, are asked to sketch certain city situations out of their memory. Fur-thermore, legibility is fundamental for the city, but mostly unquestioned and rarely regarded in the planning process.We walked around with blank sheets and pencils and asked people to draw an aerial perspective of Keldrimäe and Maakri. A bigger part of the respondents had serious difficulties to do it, mostly because of the language problem or by their general inattentiveness in passing
through these areas. In the end, I would say that 40 out of nearly 60 maps produced were helpful for me. To get a more attributable result, more people need to be asked and also the possibility for translation would be elementary. Translation in this case means both translating the task language wise, but also translating the task from what we as urbanists and architects want from them into something that is under-standable also for people who are not related to these fields. As the second step, we asked people to mark their favourite point in the area and to mark a point which they dislike or simply do not like. This was easier for most of the respondents, because they had feelings for certain plac-es independent from where were these places located. Stockmann was the basic landmark for orientation for the Maakri area and Keskturg was the basic orientation point for Keldrimäe area. Even though most people accepted these places as im-portant for their orientation, a lot of them disliked Stockmann and Nor-dea. Keskturg was mostly disliked
Nothing and a bit of something
135
by Estonians. This is also true for the Stalinist quarter across the road from Stockmann. This residential area for workers of Dvigatel factory is ridiculously often not noticed and does not appear on most of the maps, although some respondents were 100 metres away from it. Anyway, this may be a good example showing the effect of emotional preference in perceiving the urban space. I think it is sometimes deliberately neglected
by Estonians but this argument needs more research into the theme of why one building is considered and the other one is not. Many respondents sketched Keldrimäe’s unobtrusive apartment buildings massive, simply because they live there, they work around it or they know someone there. We can also guess that, if we will continue the survey, in the end we would have at least one image of every building, and if there will
Mobile M.
Domination
Liminal Space
Liminal Space
Modernist Living
Modernist Living
Sacred PlacesTree Tale
RealEstate
Kids
Non-Places
Modernist Living
Paper SkyscraperGarages
Maakri 30a
Turisti PoodTartu mnt 17
136
be still a building which was not sketched once, it has some serious problems towards the citizens and needs a makeover concept.
Depicting the placesAs a next thing I elaborated on these results. I went through all maps over and over again and wrote down the consensus perceptions, areas which are not perceived and everything which reveals something about people and their space. When one area got perceived by five or more participants than I was willing to work with that space. The courtyard behind Stockmann is one of those not-perceived places. There is also the area behind Keskturg, and the area between Lastekodu street and Tartu mnt that shows some lack of consideration. Additionally, it was harder for people to sketch the west-ern part of Keldrimäe since there is nothing for consumption or to spend one’s leisure time at. Simple questions can get the most interesting answers: “Do you know this empty space there or where is the star building?” and it helped us the most when we ap-peared calmed and serene to the peo-ple. Even sometimes, longer discus-sions about these areas evolved due to our general survey. I admit that it
is fun to use the method of mental mapping, but I learned that one has to consider its limits and restrictions. Surely, the interviewer would need more time with the participants to also understand their personal past. One’s affections and past are strongly interlinked and linked to space. It is a significant difference if people de-liberately not notice a place or really don’t have it in their inner map. Also the basic question of scale is impor-tant on more than one level. Why can be the R-Kiosk as big as a skyscrap-er? Is it totally random or is there a reason? Another scale aspect is that adults who were given one A4 piece of paper need usually more than one, because they basically start sketch-ing in an exaggerated scale or they just stop at the edge of the paper. Children usually needed an A5 page, maximum. Their scale of perception is smaller and more clinged to details which has to be considered in plan-ning and arrangement of space. It may be also that people tend to form round, curved streets and buildings into rectangular, geometrical forms. It is hard to decide whether this should be accepted and not regarded or if it is important at all? It seems to be basically an archaic element of hu-man mind to think rectangular even
137
though, compared to the real city map, it will look dramatically wrong. I can at least orient myself better in rectangular grid.
Conceptualizing Non-placesIn between these processes and ideas rising from dealing with mental maps, I read about “non-places” from two different perspectives. Marc Augé (1995) defined non-places as the places without history, without identity. They are mostly transit plac-es like intersections, streets, roads, paths, highways, gas stations, air-ports, bus stations and so on. When we consider identity as important, it can be understood fast by the reader that these places are only a measure-ment of our time, not of ourselves. They have their own fast, hectic lan-guage and are built not for the pleas-ure of being there.(1) Jonathan Foer described these places in his book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005) as places people may need to hide in. Places in which someone can disappear and places in which someone can be forgotten. It seems to me that Augé places concern on the infrastructure and Foers plac-es concern on the “not perceived” space, a space in which someone may walk to be completely alone out of
several reasons.(2) As we have now connected these authors to the places left unmarked onmental maps, I add-ed a third one. Georg Simmel wrote a famous book about the mental life of the metropolis in 1903 which seems to be very relevant even today. He discovered a lack in the individuals of expressing themselves and being sensitive for affections. Most of the people who are living in the center of a metropolis are quite indifferent and in a state of blasé. They disap-pear in the mass.(3) This is my hook to this topic connected to the mental space. In contrast to Foer, Simmel described the metropolis as a unity in which one can be easily drift with the crowd. Elaboration on Simmel also gave a base for the concept of Flan-eur in the 20th century. The Flaneur, which was a dandy for self-display in the 19th century, shifts in the 20th century to a walking connoisseur of the mass. OutcomeAfter I clarified these things for myself, I designed a mental map that shows all the places with these three concepts by totally different authors. One side of the map showed these three places by authors, and map on the other side goes one step back and shows the space as people
138
did the mental mapping in form of the collage. Whoever may wander around with this map, it may cause a lot of disorientation. This is done on purpose: the map on the backside has wrong scale and streets for people to discover space quite randomly. Once they arrive somewhere, they should connect it to one of these three theo-ries or one of these collages from the backside. This is another approach to give the “non-places” their identity.
For my final walk presentation I did this with the help of a live perfor-mance. A small text, spoken by the appearing figures Simmel, Foer, Augé and the Flaneur shall bring attention to an intersection and the words should be even longer in the air around it, so that “non-places” gain identity for the ones who visited the tour.
Tom
I based my research mostly on the mental mapping process. Local’s perception and conception cleared the way and the direct conversations with them were most helpful. I also red Simmels Metropolis and Mental Life, Augés Non Places and Foers Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
139
4 S
ovie
t 19
54
The
Sov
iet
Star
Bui
ldin
g is
a
rad
ical
sta
tem
ent.
It's
oft
en d
elib
erat
ely
no
t pe
rcei
ved
by
E
ston
ians
.
7 T
he R
Kio
sk
The
R K
iosk
is t
he w
ell-k
now
n bl
ue k
iosk
w
hich
off
ers
smal
l item
s fo
r th
e im
med
iate
ly
need
. The
em
ploy
ees
know
eng
lish
in 5
0% o
f th
e ca
ses,
but
the
y ar
e fr
iend
ly a
ll the
tim
e.
The
proc
edur
e is
tay
loriz
ed a
nd t
he c
usto
mer
s fu
nctio
n as
cog
s, a
nony
m a
nd s
tead
ily.
1 S
TOC
KMA
NN
The
1993
bui
lt st
ore
offe
rs it
ems
from
clo
thes
to
kitc
hen
good
s. C
usto
mer
s ar
e in
depe
nden
t fr
om
empl
oyee
s. S
tock
man
n is
not
for
eve
ryon
e. T
he g
uard
w
ithdr
aws
hom
eles
s pe
ople
. Ano
nym
sho
ppin
g is
pre
-se
nted
in t
he a
nony
mity
of
one's
soc
ial c
lass
. Peo
ple
feel
unw
atch
ed, t
umbl
e go
ods
and
use
the
toile
t, w
hich
is f
or f
ree.
2 R
äval
a P
uies
tee/
Tart
u M
ante
e
The
Tart
u M
ante
e co
nsis
ts o
f 4
lane
s an
d is
mos
tly im
pass
able
an
d tu
rns
into
a r
ace
road
at
nigh
t. It
's th
e di
rect
est
way
to
Tart
u. H
ere
is n
othi
ng s
peci
al, b
esid
es t
he c
hai
ns b
etw
een
side
-w
alk
and
stre
et. T
he in
ters
ectio
n at
Sto
ckm
ann
is a
goo
d pl
ace
to f
eel lo
st a
nd s
mal
l.
3 K
eskt
urg
The
city
mar
ket
exis
ts n
ow f
or o
ver
70 y
ears
. In
the
early
yea
rs, t
he m
arke
t w
as n
ear
Tam
msa
are
Par
k,
whe
re n
othi
ng is
tod
ay b
esid
es g
reen
ery.
Peo
ple
can
get
anon
ym in
the
mai
n bu
ildin
g of
the
mar
ket
and
disa
ppea
r in
the
hec
tic. E
ston
ians
dis
like
this
pla
ce, a
t le
ast
a lo
t of
the
m. T
he R
ussi
an
m
arke
t w
as, i
s, a
nd w
ill be
in R
ussi
an la
ngua
ge
and
less
for
tou
rists
.
6 S
ovie
t B
arrie
r
The
Sovi
et p
refa
b ho
use
is t
he u
nmis
taka
ble
thre
shol
d be
twee
n M
aard
i and
Kel
drim
äe. I
n th
e ea
rly y
ears
the
nei
ghbo
urho
od m
ee-
tings
wer
e nu
mer
ous.
It
offe
rs t
oday
mos
tly a
nony
m liv
ing
with
out
resp
onsi
bilit
y fo
r ot
hers
. Bes
ides
th
at, t
he lib
rary
in t
he g
roun
d fl o
or
is o
pen
and
frie
ndly
.
8
The
wor
ld b
ehin
d St
ockm
ann
Maa
kri a
rea
cont
ains
m
ostly
bui
ldin
gs o
n th
e st
reet
sid
e. T
here
are
no
cou
rtya
rds.
The
ar
ea b
ehin
d St
ock-
man
n is
unk
now
n bu
t M
aakr
i Str
eet
is a
n is
land
in
betw
een
whi
ch
can
be s
ecre
tly
disc
over
ed.
5
Bet
wee
n Ju
hken
tali a
nd M
aard
i
The
big
unkn
own
spac
e be
twee
n Ju
hken
tali a
nd M
aard
i str
eet
is n
early
un
expl
ored
. Onl
y a
few
hum
ans
dare
th
roug
h th
e bi
g So
viet
apa
rtm
ent
build
ings
. The
str
eet
Juhk
enta
li is
the
bord
er o
f Ke
ldrim
äe in
sou
th d
iirec
tion.
NO
N-P
LAC
ES
KELD
RIM
ÄE
MA
AKR
IDI
STR
ICT
TALL
INN
AUG
È AUG
ÈAUG
ÈAUG
ÈAUG
ÈAUG
ÈAUG
ÈAUG
ÈAUG
ÈAUG
ÈAUG
ÈAU
AUG
È
AUGÈAUG
È
AUGÈAUGÈ
AUG
È
AUG
È
FOER
FOER
FOER
FOER
FOERFO
ER
FOER
FOERM
AA
KRI
KELD
RIM
ÄE
1 2
3
4
5 6 7
4 S
ovie
t 19
54
The
Sov
iet
Star
Bui
ldin
g is
a
rad
ical
sta
tem
ent.
It's
oft
en d
elib
erat
ely
no
t pe
rcei
ved
by
E
ston
ians
.
The
R K
iosk
is t
he w
ell-k
now
n bl
ue k
iosk
w
hich
off
ers
smal
l item
s fo
r th
e im
med
iate
ly
need
. The
em
ploy
ees
know
eng
lish
in 5
0% o
f th
e ca
ses,
but
the
y ar
e fr
iend
ly a
ll the
tim
e.
The
proc
edur
e is
tay
loriz
ed a
nd t
he c
usto
mer
s fu
nctio
n as
cog
s, a
nony
m a
nd s
tead
ily.
The
1993
bui
lt st
ore
offe
rs it
ems
from
clo
thes
to
kitc
hen
good
s. C
usto
mer
s ar
e in
depe
nden
t fr
om
empl
oyee
s. S
tock
man
n is
not
for
eve
ryon
e. T
he g
uard
w
ithdr
aws
hom
eles
s pe
ople
. Ano
nym
sho
ppin
g is
pre
-se
nted
in t
he a
nony
mity
of
one's
soc
ial c
lass
. Peo
ple
feel
unw
atch
ed, t
umbl
e go
ods
and
use
the
toile
t, w
hich
is f
or f
ree.
2 R
äval
a P
uies
tee/
Tart
u M
ante
e
The
Tart
u M
ante
e co
nsis
ts o
f 4
lane
s an
d is
mos
tly im
pass
able
an
d tu
rns
into
a r
ace
road
at
nigh
t. It
's th
e di
rect
est
way
to
Tart
u. H
ere
is n
othi
ng s
peci
al, b
esid
es t
he c
hai
ns b
etw
een
side
-
The
city
mar
ket
exis
ts n
ow f
or o
ver
70 y
ears
. In
the
early
yea
rs, t
he m
arke
t w
as n
ear
Tam
msa
are
Par
k,
whe
re n
othi
ng is
tod
ay b
esid
es g
reen
ery.
Peo
ple
can
get
anon
ym in
the
mai
n bu
ildin
g of
the
mar
ket
and
disa
ppea
r in
the
hec
tic. E
ston
ians
dis
like
this
pla
ce, a
t le
ast
a lo
t of
the
m. T
he R
ussi
an
m
arke
t w
as, i
s, a
nd w
ill be
in R
ussi
an la
ngua
ge
and
less
for
tou
rists
.
The
Sovi
et p
refa
b ho
use
is t
he u
nmis
taka
ble
thre
shol
d be
twee
n M
aard
i and
Kel
drim
äe. I
n th
e ea
rly y
ears
the
nei
ghbo
urho
od m
ee-
tings
wer
e nu
mer
ous.
It
offe
rs t
oday
mos
tly a
nony
m liv
ing
with
out
resp
onsi
bilit
y fo
r ot
hers
. Bes
ides
th
at, t
he lib
rary
in t
he g
roun
d fl o
or
resp
onsi
bilit
y fo
r ot
hers
. Bes
ides
th
at, t
he lib
rary
in t
he g
roun
d fl o
or
is o
pen
and
frie
ndly
.
8
The
wor
ld b
ehin
d St
ockm
ann
Maa
kri a
rea
cont
ains
m
ostly
bui
ldin
gs o
n th
e st
reet
sid
e. T
here
are
no
cou
rtya
rds.
The
ar
ea b
ehin
d St
ock-
man
n is
unk
now
n 5
B
etw
een
Juhk
enta
li and
Maa
rdi
The
big
unkn
own
spac
e be
twee
n Ju
hken
tali a
nd M
aard
i str
eet
is n
early
un
expl
ored
. Onl
y a
few
hum
ans
dare
th
roug
h th
e bi
g So
viet
apa
rtm
ent
build
ings
. The
str
eet
Juhk
enta
li is
the
2
MENTAL MAPPING MENTAL M
APPING
MENTAL MAPPING MENTAL MAPPING MENTAL MAPPING
8
MA
RC
AUG
È NO
N-P
LAC
ES//
The
supe
rmod
ern
life
crea
ted
non-
plac
es. T
hese
non
-pla
ces
have
no
hist
oric
al la
yer,
no
rela
tion
and
are
ther
efor
e no
t im
port
ant
to d
efi n
e on
e's id
entit
y. T
hey
are
neve
r to
tally
com
plet
ed. T
hey
grow
, the
y ge
t de
-m
olis
hed
and
they
gro
w a
gain
. Non
-pla
ces
are
the
mea
sure
of
our
time.
P
asse
nger
s w
ith a
defi
ned
des
tinat
ion
use
them
rat
her
than
Fla
neur
s or
Tr
avel
lers
. The
spo
ken
lang
uage
is r
educ
ed t
o m
inim
um a
nd t
hey
don'
t co
mm
unic
ate
too
muc
h. U
sers
of
thes
e pl
aces
oft
en c
hang
e th
eir
ID-
Car
d to
par
k tic
kets
, driv
er lic
ense
s. T
hey
are
defi n
ed w
ith s
olitu
de a
nd
sim
ilitud
e.
JONA
THA
N S.
FOE
R E
XTR
EMEL
Y LO
UD &
INC
RED
IBLY
CLO
SE//
Thes
e no
n-pl
aces
are
pla
ces
to h
ide.
Pla
ces
whe
re s
ome
only
exi
st fo
r hi
s ow
n an
d fo
r th
e re
ason
of
bein
g so
mew
here
els
e. T
his
are
the
plac
es
for
solit
ude
and
they
hav
e th
e in
timat
e to
uch
of s
adne
ss in
here
nt. I
t ca
n be
onl
y fo
und
by p
eopl
e w
ho k
now
whe
re t
hey
exis
t. Us
ers
have
th
e w
ish
to b
e al
one
ther
e to
sol
ve p
robl
ems
com
ing
from
tog
ethe
rnes
s or
als
o fr
om s
olitu
de. T
hese
pla
ces
wer
en't
perc
eive
d by
ask
ed p
eopl
e in
th
e m
enta
l map
ping
sur
vey
whi
ch c
ame
befo
re. T
hese
pla
ces
wer
e on
ly
whi
te, e
mpt
y sp
ace.
GEO
RG
SIM
MEL
MET
ROP
OLIS
& M
ENTA
L LI
FE//
Thes
e no
n-pl
aces
com
ing
from
our
tod
ay's
wor
ld, w
here
cul
ture
de
velo
ps f
aste
r th
an t
he in
divi
duum
. The
ong
oing
tim
e do
esn'
t re
quire
act
ive
part
icip
atio
n, b
ut o
ne c
an d
rift
with
the
mas
s.
Peo
ple
beco
me
supe
rfi ci
al w
ith a
judg
e-lik
e-at
titud
e. T
he o
nes
who
re
sign
ed c
arry
the
sta
te o
f bl
asé
and
indi
ffer
ence
. The
hum
an v
s.
hum
an fi
ght
(ear
ly h
uman
vs.
nat
ure)
fi gh
t an
d th
e st
rang
e be
hav
i-ou
r of
hum
ans
can
be p
erce
ived
in s
tore
s an
d ap
artm
ent
hous
es.
AUGÈ
hist
oric
al la
yer,
no
rela
tion
and
are
ther
efor
e no
t im
port
ant
to d
efi n
e
AUGÈ
hist
oric
al la
yer,
no
rela
tion
and
are
ther
efor
e no
t im
port
ant
to d
efi n
e on
e's id
entit
y. T
hey
are
neve
r to
tally
com
plet
ed. T
hey
grow
, the
y ge
t de
-
AUGÈ
one's
iden
tity.
The
y ar
e ne
ver
tota
lly c
ompl
eted
. The
y gr
ow, t
hey
get
de-
mol
ishe
d an
d th
ey g
row
aga
in. N
on-p
lace
s ar
e th
e m
easu
re o
f ou
r tim
e.
AUGÈ
mol
ishe
d an
d th
ey g
row
aga
in. N
on-p
lace
s ar
e th
e m
easu
re o
f ou
r tim
e.
Pas
seng
ers
with
a d
efi n
ed d
estin
atio
n us
e th
em r
athe
r th
an F
lane
urs
or
AUGÈ
Pas
seng
ers
with
a d
efi n
ed d
estin
atio
n us
e th
em r
athe
r th
an F
lane
urs
or
AUGÈ
Trav
elle
rs. T
he s
poke
n la
ngua
ge is
red
uced
to
min
imum
and
the
y do
n't
AUGÈ
Trav
elle
rs. T
he s
poke
n la
ngua
ge is
red
uced
to
min
imum
and
the
y do
n't
com
mun
icat
e to
o m
uch.
Use
rs o
f th
ese
plac
es o
ften
cha
nge
thei
r ID
-AUG
Èco
mm
unic
ate
too
muc
h. U
sers
of
thes
e pl
aces
oft
en c
hang
e th
eir
ID-
Car
d to
par
k tic
kets
, driv
er lic
ense
s. T
hey
are
defi n
ed w
ith s
olitu
de a
nd
AUGÈ
Car
d to
par
k tic
kets
, driv
er lic
ense
s. T
hey
are
defi n
ed w
ith s
olitu
de a
nd
FOER
his
own
and
for
the
reas
on o
f be
ing
som
ewhe
re e
lse.
Thi
s ar
e th
e pl
aces
FOER
his
own
and
for
the
reas
on o
f be
ing
som
ewhe
re e
lse.
Thi
s ar
e th
e pl
aces
fo
r so
litud
e an
d th
ey h
ave
the
intim
ate
touc
h of
sad
ness
inhe
rent
. It
FOER
for
solit
ude
and
they
hav
e th
e in
timat
e to
uch
of s
adne
ss in
here
nt. I
t ca
n be
onl
y fo
und
by p
eopl
e w
ho k
now
whe
re t
hey
exis
t. Us
ers
have
FOER
can
be o
nly
foun
d by
peo
ple
who
kno
w w
here
the
y ex
ist.
User
s ha
ve
the
wis
h to
be
alon
e th
ere
to s
olve
pro
blem
s co
min
g fr
om t
oget
hern
ess
FOER
the
wis
h to
be
alon
e th
ere
to s
olve
pro
blem
s co
min
g fr
om t
oget
hern
ess
or a
lso
from
sol
itude
. The
se p
lace
s w
eren
't pe
rcei
ved
by a
sked
peo
ple
in
FOER
or a
lso
from
sol
itude
. The
se p
lace
s w
eren
't pe
rcei
ved
by a
sked
peo
ple
in
the
men
tal m
appi
ng s
urve
y w
hich
cam
e be
fore
. The
se p
lace
s w
ere
only
FO
ERth
e m
enta
l map
ping
sur
vey
whi
ch c
ame
befo
re. T
hese
pla
ces
wer
e on
ly
BUILD
INGS
1:120
00
140
The “Turisti Pood” (Tourist Shop) is not just any spot, any place. If we pass by we notice the weirdness of the building: totally closed off and a bit lost in between all the high-rises, but we do not question it. For some it will not even necessarily catch their attention. But if we start digging, there is so much to read in this little piece of urban fabric which gives us hints about other historical urban layers and social constructions nowa-days and in other times.
BeriozkaIn Soviet times Tartu mnt 17 was one of the so called “Beriozkas” (lit. little birch tree), the shops that served only people with foreign currency or equivalent coupons. In the second half of the 1950ies the USSR raised its heavy curtain a bit, which led to a higher number of tourists, and also to more soviet citizens working abroad and receiving their wages in foreign currency. In order to channel this money flow, foreign currency stores (and also corresponding res-taurants, cafes and resorts and hotels) were opened to amass as much hard
currency as possible. While hard currency possession was a crime, wages or remittances from abroad were substituted into checks certi-fied by “Vneshtorgbank” (Foreign Trade Bank). It was a try to satisfy the new class equipped with enough money, but without any privileges, by offering sacred and often deficit consumer goods to them. In this way the state wanted to overtake the huge black market trade. Additionally, the aim to provide a positive image of the USSR to visitors, while trying to extract as much hard currency as possible from them, led to the rise of numerous souvenirs shops. As trav-elling in USSR was quite restrictive (e.g. tourists were not allowed to talk to locals) and highly organized by Inturist (the USSR state-run tourist agency) shopping in perfectly created spaces was a way to quarantine tour-ists and offer a pretty picture to show the efforts of a planned economy.
On the walk postcards with old pictures and the hard facts of the building, the name origin of Berioz-ka and the other locations of foreign currency shops in Tallinn were is-
Soviet Shopormophology
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sued. In addition, a play on the stage of the night club, the current renter of the building, was performed, in which characters of 1986 appeared. Through these characters we got introduced to different “users” of that kind of shop: tourists for sure; people who worked abroad or acquaintances of them equipped with “Vneshpo-syltorg” checks; black marketers who dealt with those checks; as well as “illegal” customers who bought
vouchers from the black market. The actual access was limited and it was controlled if you had suitable pay-ment, but seldom if you had the right to possess such checks. The customer base shifted through the years from western tourists to eastern residents, who enjoyed shopping in those plac-es where goods had a better quality, also western goods were available and no queuing took place.
Even though these stores offered
Mobile M.
Domination
Liminal Space
Liminal Space
Modernist Living
Modernist Living
Sacred PlacesTree Tale
RealEstate
Kids
Non-Places
Turisti Pood
Modernist Living
Paper SkyscraperGarages
Maakri 30a
Tartu mnt 17
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a wider range of customers “better” goods, it was still widely considered improper to have access. The idea of providing hidden places for selected consumers goes clearly against the equality approach of soviet society. The fact that people got reasonable wages but had not had the same options to spend it, and that there were stores in the country where one could not buy anything with the local currency, caused great resentment. In order to foster social justice, Berioz-ka stores and Vneshposyltorg checks were announced to be abandoned in January 1988, but never disappeared till the end of USSR.
Tartu mnt 17This closeness and exclusion can be read in the architecture of the shops: to avoid jealousy they were located at remote alleys, new ones had no display windows, while other shops covered their windows with blinds, and some had hidden entrances or misleading signs. The one in Tartu mnt 17, is a perfect example: having a brick facade without any windows and looking like a fortress. It is outstanding, as it shows such clear isolation and insignificance in its ar-chitecture while demonstrating at the
same time a kind of magnificent aura through its curved walls and Alvar Aalto like form language, visible e.g. in the fan-shaped ground plan.
It was designed by Henno Sep-mann and Peep Jänes and parts of the interior by Aulo Padar and first in-tended to be a disco hall. The quality was excellent, as a Finnish company took over the construction works and gorgeous materials like certain clinker were chosen. Inside, one can find a three-story showroom with sales premises arranged in galleries and a separated room used as bar, a conference room and occasionally as another showroom. As the name says, it was specified in serving for-eign tourists, but locals with coupon could also enter. Still, the range of goods was clearly tourist-focused: photo albums, native handcraft, jew-ellery, clothes, local food products, Russian romances and gypsy folk music.
There were other stores in town: first one that was later extended was located at Gagarini Boulevard (today Toompuiestee) 29/31, and another one at Tehnika 2 opened its doors in 1965. After the opening of the Ferry Line to Helsinki and Hotel Viru in 1972, the demand for hard currency
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shops increased and new ones were opened at Terminal A and Narva mnt 6. Later, originally planned for the Olympics in 1980 but only to be finished in 1983, the one at Tartu mnt 17 was opened. Furthermore, there were other hard currency shops, not aiming at tourists, but at mariners and fishermen (Vase 10) or military personnel and diplomats (Pärnu mnt 8) and common articles in these stores were clothing, food and electronic equipment.
ShopormophologyShopping in Beriozka stores created a new phenomenon in the USSR: a consumer society. Access to these stores was something which defined a new elite. A class in which the de-sire for buying fashionable goods was determining their life decisions –
e. g. specialists even went abroad working in countries of the global south for a while, motivated by the fact that on their return they will receive their wages in coupons and could go shopping in Beriozka´s.
Those stores reminded citizens that the planned economy failed in meeting the people´s wishes and could not catch up with the west. The stores itself were considered as “consumer paradise” and once the culture around Beriozka, including checks, black market, tourist econo-my (Inturist itself was a very com-mercial business) arose, there was no way back. Consumerism had its breakthrough.
Logical consequences followed when Estonia gained its independ-ence again and a wave of naked capi-talism overrun the central locations, bringing newer and bigger depart-ment stores and shopping malls. Those were following the western “art of shopping”: more anonymity, less sales-ladies and more self-service. It was the time when“supermarket” re-placed specialist trades and basement shops, retail spaces widened into im-measurable stretch and shopping or malling became a hobby on its own.Department stores were not an
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invention of the west, but soviet ones were often half empty or had limited access, so after 1991 the well-equipped stores gave and give this freedom of choice and equally freedom to consume to everyone. It surely could be questioned if a store like Stockmann, also designed by Peep Jänes just 10 years later under different circumstances, with securi-ty guards and surveillance cameras allows access to each and everyone. Undesirables are most probably been thrown out – nowadays stores also segregate society by determining their customer range. Nevertheless, a lot more of people can wander around, having a look at luxurious goods, even if they cannot buy them.
Future PlansAfter serving as tourist shop, the building was used as a bank office, retail store and since 2004 it has host-
ed various night clubs. The owner bought the plot in the wild 90s and was given the permit to completely reshape the facade with a Titanic ship like construction. Even though this never happened, the owner could from now on have legitimate expectations to rebuild the building however he wants. When in 2005 the detail plan for a high-rise was initi-ated, the building was immediately put under temporary protection (for 6 months, and for the next 10 years no deconstruction). Nevertheless, the former Minister of Culture did not confirm it as a national monu-ment. In 2009 and 2010 new efforts were undertaken to push forward the high-rise planning and also to list the building and one year later it was put under protection. But right away the owner went to court. He won the session and detail planning is now ongoing and an architectural comple-
145
tion planned for a 42 storey residen-tial and commercial high rise, which would then be the tallest building in Maakri and in Estonia.
The court annulled the previous decision of the heritage department and the ministry admitted defeat – a wake-up call. Although over time the value of the original building increased and the court´s decision can be questioned as disproportion-ate. The building is one of the few preserved soviet modernist examples in its original form and interior, it is a good example of the hard curren-cy store system in Soviet Union. It contributes significantly to the mi-xed streetfront of Tartu mnt Maakri quarter. The option to nationalize an
important architectural monument does exist, but the possibility was nev-er used before, as the Estonian state does not consider taking care of it with public money, and also interfer-ing private ownership is disfavored – the shadows of communism are still around.
The Turisti Pood is just one piece of the city, but it is worth noticing. The City is a story, thousands of little narratives that make our daily life. It is like bringing a souvenir home: it looks like a simple thing, but the story behind might be much greater.
Jolande
My research about Beriozka´s in general and the history and future plans of the building on Tartu mnt 17 is based on Internet and archive research, as well as on Interviews with Triin Talk (state´s heritage department), Timo Aava (city´s heritage department), Karin Paulus (Art Historian) and Aleksei Morozov (current tenant). Furthermore I dealt with following resources:Anna Ivanova: Shopping in Beriozka: Consumer Society in the Soviet Union, online 2013 and Shawn Salmon: Marketing Socialism - Intourist in the Late 1950es and early 1960es in Turizm - The Russian and East European Tourist under Capitalism and Socialism, Ithaca 2012.
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Special Thanks to...
Interview Partners:Timo Aava Marten Esko and Johannes Säre Elo Kiivet Mart Levo Anni Müüripeal Toomas PaaverPeeter Päeske Karin Paulus Teele PehkMartti PreemTõnu Prööm Triin Talk Tiit TrummalTauri Tuvikene and all the people who took part in the mental mapping and citizen interviews
Locations:Cathouse NightclubEKKMKeskraamatukogu Liivalaia 40 Liivalaia 40 Garages in Maakri
Our tutors Andra and Keiti. Thank you!
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