Architecture and Urban Design

The art of creating and building systems

Architecture creates a material framework and conditions for the functioning and development of the whole society. In a narrower sense, architecture is the art of creating and building systems.

It is often thought that an architect only designs houses, but that is only a small, albeit prominent part of the architect’s work. Architecture also includes learning about engineering, the humanities, and various software, building endless models and prototypes to create and experiment with new structures and worlds. The most important part of architectural education takes place as practical work in a studio, in an environment similar to an architectural office, where an actual project is born from the initial sketches. Theory and engineering subjects, painting, drawing and experimental studios support the studio work.

The latter is related to the laboratories of the Faculty of Architecture (3D Laboratory, VR Laboratory, PAKK) and the research work carried out in it, where it is possible to touch the fringes of space creation. There, you can acquire knowledge and specialise in restoration, landscape architecture or planning.

Our vision for the future

Architects have the difficult task of giving modern technology a commonly comprehensible material form and face in accordance with cultural expectations; create a whole from parts whose value is greater than the sum of any individual parts. Architecture is meant to constantly innovate, rebuild and offer different visions of the future – this is also one of the important ambitions of EKA’s architecture programme.

Read more about the curriculum here.

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News and events

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EKA Arh Conference 2026: Open Call for Abstracts until 31st March

The Estonian Academy of Arts Faculty of Architecture invites abstract submissions for the upcoming EKA Arh Conference 2026: To Be Continued…, a biennial international peer-reviewed conference held as a satellite event of the Tallinn Architecture Biennale. Knowledge about climate change and the possible adaptations, mitigation strategies, and transformations of the built environment is more ...
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Open Architecture Lecture: Eero Paloheimo

On March 12 at 6 pm, Finnish engineer, scientist and environmental researcher Eero Paloheimo will give a special lecture “Ecological city planning” in the EKA auditorium. Eero Kalervo Paloheimo has defended his doctoral theses at the University of Munich and the University of Helsinki. He worked at the company Eero Paloheimo & Matti Ollila from 1965 to 1994, and then was a professor ...
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Holt Scholarship 2026 awarded to Joosep Pärn

This year’s Jaan Holt Scholarship was awarded to Joosep Pärn, a final-year student of Architecture and Urban Design, for the strong thematic development of his thesis. Architecture students are encouraged already 7th year by Jaan Holt, an Estonian architect of Virginia origin and Professor Emeritus of Virginia Tech, with a scholarship. The purpose of the scholarship is to support ...
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KVI + ARH Open Lecture: Kaisa Karvinen “From Care to Concrete: Exhibiting Architecture”

The 2025/2026 academic year open lecture series will be held in collaboration with the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture and the Faculty of Architecture. The theme of this academic year is “Architecture and the Ethics of Care” and the lectures will be curated by KVI Senior Researcher Dr. Ingrid Ruudi. On February 26 at 6 pm Kaisa Karvinen will give a lecture “From Care to ...
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Applications Open: Funded PhD Position at PAKK in Sustainable Timber Architecture

The Estonian Academy of Arts invites applications for a full-time doctoral candidate position at the Timber Architecture Research Center PAKK, in collaboration with the PUUSTER research project. This is a new doctoral position within PAKK, focusing on research in sustainable timber architecture and construction. The doctoral research is carried out in close collaboration with the national ...
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Model exhibition “H-school” in the lobby of EKA

Starting from the first week of January 2026, an exhibition of ideas for renewing standard school buildings will be on display in the lobby of the Estonian Academy of Arts. The exhibition features works completed by 2nd and 3rd year architecture and urban design students in the 2025 autumn semester, illustrated by school models. “The studio looked for ways to design an H-shaped Soviet-era ...
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Abandoned Landscapes 2026: Tallinn City Hall

The Estonian Academy of Arts will organize its 2026 workshop “Abandoned Landscapes” in Tallinn from 19 to 22 January, with the City Hall as the focus. The aim of the workshop, which is already being held for the 14th time, is to practice international cooperation between students of architecture, heritage conservation and interior architecture, and to understand the needs and opportunities ...
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Public lecture: Dan Dubowitz: Cultural Masterplanning

The Estonian Academy of Arts will organize its 2026 workshop “Abandoned Landscapes” in Tallinn from 19 to 22 January, with the City Hall as the focus. The aim of the workshop, which is already being held for the 14th time, is to practice international cooperation between students of architecture, heritage conservation and interior architecture, and to understand the needs and opportunities ...

Student Work

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