Why not set a higher value on dispersal? Instead of living in just one place, and trying in vain to gather yourself together there, why not have five or six rooms dotted about Paris?
Most people are more or less consciously preparing for old age, the most ordinary and nationally approved preparation consisting in accumulating money into pension funds. Are we opening Pandora’s box when we ask how and if these most common investment funds affect environmental and social developments now and in the near future?
The expiration of a building’s service life does not mean the building has exhausted itself, say Simo Ilomets and Anni Martin. They see the renovation of Estonia’s ageing housing stock and the reuse of building material as a technical as well as a creative challenge where architects’ involvement is essential.
Dagnija Smilga, a founder of the Latvian architecture office Ēter, discusses the project for a single-family house that was halted in the early 2000s, but is now revived under new ownership and architects.
The sedimentary layer of Estonia deserves valorisation, conclude the material development and design studio kuidas.works. Maria Luiga and Hannes Praks write about their recent earth-based construction study trip to Paris.
Jurga Daubaraitė, Egija Inzule and Jonas Žukauskas initiated Neringa Forest Architecture in Nida, Lithuania. They write about their work around a Baltic forest as a constructed space, an infrastructure, an environment reliant on human actions.
Vallikraavi street that winds below the slopes of Toome Hill in Tartu will get three new capacious apartment buildings this year, doubling the number and area of living spaces on this short street that has merely a couple dozen houses altogether. Systemic densification of old towns enhances the possibilities of urban life and helps to save energy through more economical mobility.
Infrastructure is inherently spatial, but what role does architecture play in its grand schemes? You are invited to submit a 200-word abstract in English or in Estonian as a proposal to contribute.
An industrial construction technology based on modular and reusable building components can resolve many problems in the construction sector.
Kaija-Luisa Kurik gives an overview of the results of a 30-months-long partnership project between the Estonian National Heritage Board and the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage, titled ‘Historic Town Centres Revitalised Through Heritage-Based Local Development’, and tries to decipher the increasingly close connections between heritage preservation, urban studies, and sustainable development.
Planning in Norway is strongly guided by strategic approaches and broad state-set goals directing the local level. This is also reflected in the management and development of local cultural heritage. Vignir Freyr Helgason, senior advisor at the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage (Riksantikvaren) gives an overview of how strategies are developed and implemented in collaboration between the state, municipalities and communities.
Ewa Effiom dives into the significance of conservation in the debates surrounding contemporary architecture, beauty and functionality.
Editors' choice
The architecture offices born at the time of economic downturn are inevitably much less inclined to undertake bold experiments than the ones whose beginnings are rooted in more auspicious times. Instead, what becomes crucial then is an ability to make the most out of the limited resources in a nuance-sensitive way. Thus, KUU architects are, in a sense, minimalists, yet they do not seek minimal form, but look for opportunities to efficiently utilise the existing contexts in order to create spaces that empower its users.
The architecture offices born at the time of economic downturn are inevitably much less inclined to undertake bold experiments than the ones whose beginnings are rooted in more auspicious times. Instead, what becomes crucial then is an ability to make the most out of the limited resources in a nuance-sensitive way. Thus, KUU architects are, in a sense, minimalists, yet they do not seek minimal form, but look for opportunities to efficiently utilise the existing contexts in order to create spaces that empower its users.
Most read
I have failed to notice, in all those nostalgic reminiscences about the old Baltic Station market, has anyone shown any interest in whether the sellers themselves actually enjoyed spending time in this environment?
A building with a strong character is easy to hate. Or to love. Take, for example, Tallinn City Hall—few are indifferent to it. Many see the City Hall as an ingenious artificial landscape and urban stage, while others consider it a relict of the Soviet occupation that is unfit for a free Estonia, just like the Sakala Centre that was demolished in 2007. There are many other lesser or better known buildings from the Soviet period that are architecturally ambitious, but unacceptable to many for aesthetic or ideological reasons.
After the slow-burning and partly contestable success stories of Rotermann Quarter and Telliskivi Creative City, the eyes of Tallinners interested in urban design or just longing for a better urban space turned to Noblessner—the privately developed waterfront set to become one of the first chapters on the road to open the coastal areas of Tallinn to its citizens. Though far from complete, the lively quarter already offers a chance for a status report and an insight into the entrenchment of certain spatio-social tendencies in the Estonian real estate landscape.
Paide State Secondary School is an excellent example of the mutually complementary dialogue between a historical space and contemporary architecture.
Dagnija Smilga, a founder of the Latvian architecture office Ēter, discusses the project for a single-family house that was halted in the early 2000s, but is now revived under new ownership and architects.
I sat down with Judith Lösing, Julian Lewis and Dann Jessen, the three directors of East Architecture Landscape Urban Design Ltd., the architecture office I work with in London. As an office it is not uncommon for us to exchange ideas and discuss matters that might not have a direct connection to a project but that are a part of a wider architectural discussion. For this issue, I invited the three directors to discuss the way East’s practice that spans around 20 years relates to the theme of authorship in architecture and how practicing more or less exclusively in London shapes that relationship.
A Discrete Paradigm for Design and Production.
For Veronika Valk-Siska, architecture neither begins nor ends with a design or a building. Her career in architecture until now can be read as a reflection of an increasingly expansive understanding of what architecture could be.
Laura Linsi writes about the architect and educator behind ‘A Moratorium on New Construction’—the initiative that argues in favour of reviewing what in space production is desirable and what has ceased to be so.
I have failed to notice, in all those nostalgic reminiscences about the old Baltic Station market, has anyone shown any interest in whether the sellers themselves actually enjoyed spending time in this environment?
