In the immersive environments of theme parks nothing is what it appears to be. The architecture of such places relies on architectural manipulation, new technologies and vibrant scenes to create a pleasurescape that would prolong the visitor’s stay. Reflecting on the touristification and disneyfication of Tallinn’s Medieval city centre, ‘The Quarry Theme Park’ is a theoretical and design exploration of deceit in architecture, questioning normative understandings of value, beauty and honesty.
The project argues for the preservation of the soon-to-be-depleted Vao quarry in the avoided and rather unattractive residential area of Lasnamae and its transformation into a theme park. The theme park, situated in the central area of the quarry, is conceived as a sequence of thresholds in a loop, whose purpose is to immerse people into the world of the quarry.
The project has three main parts: the parking, the main entrance, and a typical attraction entrance.
Taking Estonia’s national material as its theme, the park aims to bring awareness of the properties, uses, value, beauty and temporality of limestone through the architecture and the landscape of the quarry by transforming it into an imaginative landscape. It argues for the value of deceit in architecture by bringing out the qualities of theme parks to immerse, surprise, make us wonder, instill imagination and make us suspend our habits and beliefs.