This research-in-progress examines the Estonian National Museum (ERM) as a critical and emblematic case of reparative planning and design. Reparative, rooted in the word repair, refers to mending or fixing what is broken, restoring to a sound or healthy state, and making amends, remedying, or setting right to a fairer, more accurate, and desirable state. Beyond applying the economic and environmental logics of adaptive reuse, reparative planning and design actively deals with thorny societal issues and ethical dilemmas in forward-looking, transformative ways that are fraught with tension and conflict. Combining semi-structured interviews and participant observation with document-based research, the ERM case study traces the making of the new national museum building at Raadi airfield. The analysis focuses on inherent tensions and conflicts in the process of confronting past harms and injustices along with the role of arts and culture in collective acts of reimagining and rebuilding. Supported by the Fulbright US Scholar program, it is part of a book project on reparative spatial planning and design initiatives that seek to confront historical injustices through design methods of reckoning, reimagining, and rebuilding that give the sites back to most-impacted communities and pay forward the lessons to build more equitable and just futures. Spanning the US, Estonia, and Taiwan, the book partly advocates for more comparative decolonization frameworks and desire-based studies of reparative justice.
Dr. Lily Song is an assistant professor of architecture and urban planning at Northeastern University. She directs the Anti-Displacement Studio in Boston and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on participatory action research and community-driven planning and design.