Zaha Hadid Architects (UK) working with Esplan (Estonia) have been have been awarded first place in the design competition for the new terminal of the Rail Baltic railway at Ülemiste, Tallinn.
Rail Baltic is a planned 870 km electrified railway from Tallinn in Estonia to the Lithuanian-Polish border. The terminal will be the starting point of the Rail Baltic line connecting Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius with the European high-speed rail network.
The Ülemiste terminal is designed as a connecting public bridge used by the local community as well as multi-modal transport hub for commuters, national and international rail passengers in addition to air travelers using the adjacent Tallinn airport.
KODA is constructed of thin composite panels made of a concrete exterior and wood interior, with silica-fume vacuum insulation panels in-between. This combination of materials creates a strong and durable exterior, a nice and cosy interior and will keep the building as warm or cool as needed. The front of the house is a four-ply glass wall with a small terrace and a concrete sunscreen.
Fahle house, which was designed by KOKO, is one of the characteristic examples of architecture during the recent economic boom in Estonia. It is a building that from an architectural point of view was ambitious, from a real estate development point of view risky, and from the heritage protection point of view controversial and received a lot of attention from the public. Situated at one of the main entrances to Tallinn, between the airport and city centre, Fahle house draws the attention of every passer-by. The building is part of the complex of a former cellulose and paper factory where the most outstanding building is the tall and voluminous boiler house (1926) built from limestone and designed by architect Erich Jacoby.
Estonia’s leading educational institutions are going through a renewal process – The University of Tartu new IT centre and the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences Tallinn main building architectural competitions winning designs were announced in April 2016, both designs won by an architectural firm Arhitekt11 OÜ.
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.
The sports complex is situated in a former Soviet residential area – Lasnamäe – and is one of the first buildings that is intended to revitalize the area.
It constitutes the first phase of a larger development by OÜ Tardamel – a local Estonian developer. The complex includes 8,500 m² of residential units – 23 apartments (phase 1) and 10 single-family houses (stage 2 and 3), all integrated into the surrounding landscape of the Tallinn’s picturesque historic neighborhood of Nõmme. The project was defined by its site and the local zoning regulations which restricted the amount of developed space to a maximum of 600 m2 per unit. Thus, the overall concept of the project became \”Buildings in the park\”.
The two-storey building is sculptural, slightly resembling a ship, with a subtle scale. There is a small piazza and an awning in front of the entrance. The crystal-shaped church hall seats 720, and a slender wedge-like spire emerges from it. The curved “tail” contains a common room, theological seminary classes, library, students´ sleeping quarters, offices etc. It is a powerful solution to the rear part of the building.
The building program provided the inspiration for the design. It is a collection of many different uses. Instead of trying to press all of these varying spaces with varying needs into one singular form, the design allows each component to take on its own form. This permits each programmatic element to work independently and efficiently. The varying spaces are not compromised functionally in order to fit into a certain form.
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