Supervisors: architects Tarmo Teedumäe and Margus Maiste
Landscape architecture supervisor: Katrin Koov
Fall term of Year 3
The area of the joint building of the ministries in Tallinn city centre: contemporary multifunctional offices for about 1000 people, recreational facilities, café-restaurant, library, commercial premises, parking, squares, parks.
The general topic was the project of a large-scale public building. It is the students’ first direct contact with a complex large-scale spatial programme where they need to find a solution to the internal logistics as well as the links to the surrounding urban space.
The location for the project was the former plot of the Ministry of Finance at the corner of 1 Suur-Ameerika/Pärnu Road in Tallinn. At the time of the studio, there was also an architectural competition for the given project that, however, was mostly concerned with the issues of the façade.
The additional aim was to initiate changes highlighting the surrounding public space in the local context. In addition to the facilities of the four ministries, students needed to find supportive spatial programmes and solutions for bringing new life to the street and connecting the large-scale ministerial building with the local context.
Differently from the architectural competition where the spatial solution of the building with the floor layout, height and volume had basically been defined beforehand, the task of the studio allowed the students to decide on how to position the volume on the plot. Similarly, students needed to provide a solution to the adjacent stadium and possible square.
In the landscape architecture section integrated into the project, students developed the concept for the exterior considering both the architecture of the building and the surrounding urban space with its users.
The work also needed to include the initial principles for the technical solutions: energy efficiency, fire safety regulations, constructional solutions and utility systems. Similarly they considered regulatory standards and integrated the technical engineering works.
See the photos of the presentations here.