BAUA Awards 2024 Workshop for architecture students and young architects

The Estonian Association of Architects in collaboration with the City of Tallinn and Tallinn Architecture Biennale invites you to Tallinn to take part in the BAUA Awards 2024* Workshop.

The event takes place on Saturday, October 12th and Sunday, October 13th at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Sign up for the workshop here.

The aim of the BAUA workshop is to create synergy between TAB 2024 and Tallinn City Municipality. Tallinn is waiting for the realization of a perspective Main Street, a pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly public space with reduced car traffic and focus on public transport. The workshop in the heart of Tallinn will kick-start the main street project by introducing critical interventions to one of the key locations adjacent to the street.

Object of the workshop

The site and object of the workshop is the hill “Musumägi” (Kissing Hill), a remnant of bastional fortifications in the very centre of Tallinn. The bastional hill is three dimensional: it consists of a park on top and a public pub inside on the side of Valli street and flower selling booths on Viru street. Today the hill is an isolated park that attracts mostly teenagers and other marginalised groups for whom the park has become one of the last consumption-free spaces in the centre. It is a socially sensitive site where accessibility, diversity and security come together in contradicting ways.

Workshop task

Teams will investigate the possibilities of making the park more accessible, diverse, safe and usable and will arrive to a spatial vision or series of propositions for opening the hill more to the public and integrating it better with the urban context.

The result of the work will be an input for the city of Tallinn for future initiatives, thus is expected to follow a cohesive larger vision while also remaining applicable in a tactical urbanism scenario.

Proposals need to take into account the existing design of the adjacent Tallinn main-street project by KAVAKAVA architects.

Organisational aspects

Students of architecture and urban planning and young architects (who have recently graduated) from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Ukrainian students studying in Estonia are welcome to join the workshop. There will be seven teams of four (28 participants), and each team will have members from different schools/countries.

The participants can examine the area and the detailed assignment on the evening of Friday, October 11th. The spatial content of the workshops will be created during the following two days.

A prize of €600 will be awarded to the best group work (team of 4 members). Transport to and from Tallinn, accommodation (3 nights) with breakfast and lunch is also covered.

The workshop is mainly intended for BAUA nominees**, but a limited number of places is open for all students and young architects to join. In case of higher participation interest, older courses are preferred.

Mentors

TBC!

Previous workshops

• Workshop “Sustainable City” in Pärnu 2023
• Tallinn – European Green capital tactical urbanism workshop 2023
• Riigikogu (Estonian Parliament Building) 100 years workshop 2022
• Talsinki – Tallinn Helsinki tunnel workshop between Finnish and Estonian Architects during Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2017

Additional information

Kairi Rand, Project Manager
kairi@arhliit.ee
+3725056723

The workshop is led by BAUA – Baltic Architects Unions Association.

Supporters of the workshop

Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Thermory, Ruukki, Tallinn City Government.

*BAUA Awards 2024 will take place on Monday, October 14th. The location of the event is the Museum of Estonian Architecture.

**BAUA Awards were created by the three members of the Baltic Architects Unions Association. The exhibition and competition of the best graduation projects by architecture students is held annually in a different capital city of the Baltic States.

The aim of the event is to present, compare and award the best graduation works of architecture students from the Baltic States. It provides a platform for architecture students, inviting them to showcase their creative potential, obtain evaluation and feedback from professionals and the international community of architects. The exhibition reflects the results and quality of architectural education in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, provides an opportunity to compare methods and programmes of education and fosters collaboration and contact between young architects and academic societies.