Niine 6a apartment building in Tallinn, Estonia by KUU architects

Article source: KUU architects

The building is fitted into the urban tissue of a mostly residential historic area. The plot is big enough to leave a gap between the other buildings. With a 300 m2 footprint, the house is also a bit smaller than the adjacent buildings. This gave us the chance to preserve most of the trees and create a large back-yard with a playground,parking, and a communal terrace shared by the residents. In the front, the building creates a recess in the building line for the main entrance.  The first floor level is not much higher than the pavement, which provides a voyeuristic perspective into the apartments and, we believe, contributes to the street by fading the border between private and public space.

Image Courtesy © Tõnu Tunnel

• Architects: KUU architects
• Project: Niine 6a apartment building
• Location: Tallinn, Estonia
• Photography: Tõnu Tunnel
• Software used: Graphisoft ArchiCAD
• Team: Juhan Rohtla, Koit Ojaliiv, Joel Kopli

Image Courtesy © Tõnu Tunnel

The building’s shape is inspired by the roofscapes of the neighbouring houses. The attics in the area all have a romantic sense to them,  having historically been occupied by low-rent tenants and now being treated as more exclusive living spaces. We wanted to maximize the space on the top floor, and give it a strong spatial character with slanted ceilings and spaces up to 4 meters high. The owners of the third floor apartments were encouraged to build a mezzanine level, which some of them successfully did.

Image Courtesy © Tõnu Tunnel

Image Courtesy © Tõnu Tunnel

The building is viewable from all four sides and all facades are treated equally. We aimed to create a monolithic form wrapped in a skin of wooden strips. The wood strip skin is a historical element characteristic to 1930-s wooden Tallinn-type buildings dominating the area. The skin creates a decorative quality to the facade and also constitutes a barrier for balconies.

The detail level in the buildings architecture has been kept to a minimum to create a ’background for life’ and considering that a lot of artefacts will appear in the course of daily life.

Image Courtesy © Tõnu Tunnel

Image Courtesy © Tõnu Tunnel

Image Courtesy © Tõnu Tunnel

Image Courtesy © Tõnu Tunnel

Image Courtesy © KUU architects

Image Courtesy © KUU architects

Image Courtesy © KUU architects

Image Courtesy © KUU architects

Image Courtesy © KUU architects

Image Courtesy © KUU architects

Image Courtesy © KUU architects

Tags: Estonia, Tallinn

Categories: Apartments, ArchiCAD, Graphisoft, Residential

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