What is an architect’s work, and what is its result? Is it a finished building, street, auditorium? Or is it an abstraction of these things—a design, i.e., project documentation that will be translated into a building by someone else? We asked several architecture collectives for their opinion.
The cultural shift towards using materials and energy that are contained within planetary boundaries requires a reconsideration of the most fundamental assumptions about how buildings interact with the world.
Designing with a territory values connection over extraction. Clara Kernreuter from Atelier LUMA and Maria Helena Luiga from kuidas.works discuss bioregional design.
If we could overcome the paradox of meat and make the hidden realities of the animal industry even slightly more visible, it is conceivable that we might begin inching towards dietary practices that do not require the exploitation of animals.
Although dictionaries define the term ‘plateau’ as a stable, fluctuation-free state, they also include a caveat: it only lasts for a certain period of time. So, what comes next?
Vertikal Nydalen, a mixed-use building in Oslo designed by Snøhetta, pushes the boundaries of a modern natural ventilation system, writes Ott Alver.
In the UK, a number of councils have adopted the passive house method in order to realise their growing ambitions in the housing sector. Could this also lead to an increase in spatial quality?
Authors traced the bigger processes that are connected to the production of engineered wood - these materials are produced from industry leftovers, but also from trees that are cut for that purpose only.
In addition to being home to trees, cities or urban environments are also home to 70% of the Estonian population—are these people not entitled to clean air as a human right?
Hence the main question of this article: what power does stench have? And who gets to feel the stench? Who talks about the stench? Who gets to decide where it stinks?
No more posts

Editors' choice

What kind of relationship between a space and its surroundings would help to avoid the objectification of space—i.e., treating buildings or areas as sculptures or fully controllable objects?
Paide State Secondary School is an excellent example of the mutually complementary dialogue between a historical space and contemporary architecture.
Little was built following the re-establishment of Estonian independence in the early 1990s, however, the debates held and practices established largely came to set the foundations for the dominant issues in the architectural field in the past decades.
What kind of relationship between a space and its surroundings would help to avoid the objectification of space—i.e., treating buildings or areas as sculptures or fully controllable objects?
No more posts

Most read

It was not easy to aim for a better public space and more human-friendly and diverse street space. Creating an aesthetic city space and a functioning whole was an even more elusive task. It was difficult to explain to the mayor back then what I meant by social space. This combination of words probably gave him a different kind of idea, since the Social Democrats were still in opposition back then. And because all of these ideas were from the point of view of those who actually use urban space (in other words those who don't use cars), many thought they would inhibit progress.
Rannamõisa funeral home has taken a highly interesting path since its opening. Namely, the opening of the building was accompanied by a change of identity. Was the change of identity brought about by the author through the architecture or the client through the functions of the building? What does this say about our culture of death and the development of the respective architecture?
The sci-fi square with a compelling formal expression attracts your attention and engages you in play while testing the user’s readiness to participate in spatial design.
The renovation of 44 Queen’s Gate Terrace was completed more than a year ago, after which the embassy’s doors were also opened to visitors, whose numbers have risen impressively. A fair testament to high public interest in the building is the fact that on the city’s annual embassy open-doors day, the Estonian Embassy was so popular that the amount of people wishing to tour it exceeded the limited time frame allowed.
A Research Study on Urban Planning in Tallinn at the Faculty of Architecture of the Estonian Academy of Arts
Thinking through stone opens up a fresh perspective on construction culture (and the lack thereof), availability of local building materials and their untapped (economic) potential, and, ultimately, on building truly long-lasting buildings.
Life-centric approach in architecture and spatial planning may pave the way for more symbiotic relations between nature and the city.
The Estonian National Museum’s own home was completed thanks to three very simple underpinnings: belief, trust and cooperation.
No more posts
It was not easy to aim for a better public space and more human-friendly and diverse street space. Creating an aesthetic city space and a functioning whole was an even more elusive task. It was difficult to explain to the mayor back then what I meant by social space. This combination of words probably gave him a different kind of idea, since the Social Democrats were still in opposition back then. And because all of these ideas were from the point of view of those who actually use urban space (in other words those who don't use cars), many thought they would inhibit progress.
No more posts