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.
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, collectively known as the Baltics, are three small countries that most of the world finds pretty much indistinguishable. As a geopolitical term, ‘the Baltics’ took root only in the 20th century. The more distant past and cultural history of the three countries differ on several levels.
Perhaps it is namely in defiance against externally imposed homogenising simplifications that we tend to turn to more distant places for inspiration and view local trends and tendencies as something confined only to national borders. However, anxious times encourage unity, urging us to discover and interpret our identities ourselves instead of letting others define us. In order to be carried and consolidated not only by fear, but also joy, pleasure, and curiosity we invite to discover commonalities and peculiarities of the Baltic countries!
Wide breadth, blurred boundaries, ambiguous endings and beginnings—the charm of the Baltic condition is not easy to grasp. But as Latvians say, per Reinis Salins: ‘Katram savs stūrītis’ (‘Everyone has their own corner’).
Architect Johan Tali, landscape architect Merle Karro-Kalberg, architect Siiri Vallner, project manager Priit Õunpuu and interior architect Hanna Karits discuss their experiences of using limestone in recent projects.
Limestone in Estonian Construction and Architecture in the 20th Century.
This piece by geologist Rein Einasto and engineer Hubert Matve was first published in newspaper Sirp ja Vasar on the 13th of July, 1987. Forty years later, Rein Einasto maintains that sustainable and multifaceted use of local stone is a necessity without an alternative, and a wide open road of possibilities.
Case Study - 4 social housing units with 68 apartments in Switzerland, architecture Gilles Perraudin and Atelier Archiplein.
Case Study - apartment building in Paris, at 62 Rue Oberkampf, architecture by Barrault Pressacco.
Case Study - office and apartment building in London, 15 Clerkenwell Close, architecture by Groupwork.
Acting as material broker, Amaya Hernandez writes about saving more than 100 million years old stone from being ground into aggregate for a concrete planter.
Artist Helena Keskküla wanted to work on stone as she tracked stone-related episodes in the text and illustrations of The Kalevide, and looked for connections between stone and Estonianness.
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The ELME project of the Environment Agency deals with mapping of ecosystem services and develops innovative methods for collecting and displaying information about biodiversity.
The question is concerned with the unknown and how to give sense to it. As in the end, every unfamiliarity may be given a familiar, perceivable context. However, let us talk about the feeling of unfamiliarity. Could it be something more, something more genuine or even more delicate than the most obvious, for instance, an abandoned building?
The bank building standing on an old industrial frame on Narva Road proves its ability to also serve as a public library. The obligation to survive various eras and situations is common to both buildings and people, Madli Kaljuste ponders.
North-Tallinn development areas. The size of the population will estimably grow by 44,000 people, that is, up to 100,000 residents.
The use of program-controlled machinery in customised production.
Any apartment complex can become a community house if its inhabitants are so in sync that while they need to meet up (cooperative activities) they also want to come together.
The London-based photographers David Grandorge and Jonathan Lovekin have researched the altering terrain of Baltic states showing how industry and transport shape the landscapes.
MAJA kevadnumber on trükist saabunud ja müügil üle Eesti. Tellimine: info at ajakirimaja.ee
The top-level conference held at the Estonian Academy of Arts during the Tallinn Architecture Biennale dealt with the effect of digitality on architecture, production processes and society.