EAL x BAUA x TAB 2024 workshop

The aim of the BAUA workshop is to create synergy between TAB 2024 and Tallinn City Municipality. Tallinn city is waiting for a prospective Main Street – a pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly urban space with reduced car traffic and more public transport. Taking place in the heart of Tallinn, the workshop can kick start the main street project by introducing urban interventions.

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 Tallinna main-street project by KAVAKAVA architects (https://www.kavakava.ee/project/tallinna-peatanav/)

Organisational aspects:

Participants from all three Baltic countries will be grouped into mixed nationality teams of 3-4. Altogether there will be a sound 30 participants. 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

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

**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.