‘The Real Answer Will Be Given by History’
Ingrid Ruudi discusses architects’ relationship with time and the various ways in which architects in their later years record their doings as history.
kaire
From Cornerstone to Worktop and Back Again
When a certain building technology or material is sidelined for an extended period, one is bound to get the impression that it is intrinsically obsolete. This has happened with natural stone, which architects, when asked about its potential for use, describe only as being too expensive, too labour-intensive, incompatible with the public procurement system and, as can be witnessed in renovation projects, simply too complicated to build with. The inability to imagine a future different from the present is typical to the 21st century, and hence, the main use of limestone in Estonia remains blasting it into rubble that can be utilised as landfill and concrete aggregate.
He—the Woodpecker—Is A Real Estate Developer
What is happening in the freshly insulated walls of author’s home?
The Baltic Sea Commons. Closer to the environment through (landscape) architecture
One of the ways to alleviate environmental problems might lie in architecture that brings people closer to their environment again. Estonia as a maritime nation has plenty of opportunities for this.
Kärdla School. An Invisible Schoolhouse
n Kärdla School in Hiiumaa, designed by Arhitekt Must, outdoor recess is not some laborious ideological effort, but simply an ordinary and natural idea, writes Kadri Klementi.
Muhu Hut
Mihkel Tüür writes about the wooden slat house that he built on the island of Muhu fifteen years ago.
Curled-Up Coastline
I believe that many a reader will imagine islands in the form of a curled-up coastline—after all, often there is little else there besides sea foam and bird screeching. Although Estonian islands are slowly growing in size, we still have a very large number of small islands—reefs, rocks, islets—whereas not so many islands where people would live all year round.
An Oasis of Calm in a Fast-paced World. The challenges and opportunities of Hiiumaa Comprehensive Plan
Hiiumaa municipality architect Kaire Nõmm takes a look at what life could be like on one of Estonia’s main islands.
3-2024 (117): Infrastructure
These days, to be is to be connected. Electricity, heat, road and street networks, internet connections, and water supply—it is as if all these intersecting and sometimes overlapping networks have become basic human rights. If these networks function well, our dependence on them goes unnoticed—we rarely take a moment to acknowledge the energy that travels across the sky, through underground and underwater pipelines, through wall cables, into millions of devices. On the other hand, when something disrupts the functioning of these networks, be it military aggression by a tyrannical neighbour, a sharp rise in prices, or catastrophic weather events, the political, economic, ethical, and often also spatial dimensions of these structures suddenly become apparent.
A Residential Quarter like a Hedgehog
Elo Kiivet revisits Tulbi-Veeriku quarter in Tartu where the friction between these two dimensions has given rise to one of the most praised new neighbourhoods of early noughties in Estonia.
