My graduation project explores the relationship between memories, perception, and Soviet-era architecture. The project site is the former "Turist" foreign currency shop in Tallinn, built for the 1980 Summer Olympics. As a Soviet-era building aimed at those with foreign currency, it symbolizes the inequalities of the Soviet regime.
Despite years of trials, the government has failed to secure heritage protection for the building. An architectural competition plans to replace it with a high-rise, which would cause a significant loss to architectural heritage and additionally intensify Tallinn’s existing issue of constructing without regard for urban context and human scale.

An alternative to the current demolition plan is proposed - preserving and transforming the Turist shop while honouring the past, present, and future. Memories and perception in architecture serve as a foundation for reimagining the space and for guiding the design proposal, transforming the former shop into an inviting community centre. The form, scale, proportions, materialization and detailing of the new extension contrast that of the communist monument, maintaining a balance that avoids overshadowing it. This is achieved through a composition characterized by rhythm, simplicity and a strategic interplay between closeness and openness. An atrium between the two buildings is the heart of the project, where the past and the present exist together.

This thesis presents a comparative case study of two exemplary for the post-war period projects - Robin Hood Gardens and Park Hill. Although a lot of research already exists on post-war mass housing and on the two projects individually, they have rarely been analyzed in comparison to each other, despite sharing similar characteristics. By juxtaposing Robin Hood Gardens and Park Hill, the notions of failure and success of what once seemed to be utopian ideas for housing are investigated. The main objective of this research is to find patterns in the underlying design thinking, ideas, and practice of the architects behind these projects, which could potentially help in understanding the symptomatic decline of post-war housing. The projects are analyzed on different layers, beginning with the historical context they were built in, the thinking and beliefs of the architects involved, the intentions behind the designs and the reception of the projects. This multi-layered analysis incorporates different perspectives, from professionals to residents, revealing that historical discourse is a collection of various narratives. Rather than providing a simple answer to the decline of the projects, the thesis demonstrates that the outcome of Robin Hood Gardens and Park Hill is a complex synthesis of social, political, and economic reasons.