Kesklinn Community Centre

Reimagining Soviet-Era Heritage through the Lenses of Memory and Perception

Master thesis (2024)

Authors

I.N. Nikolova Architecture and the Built Environment

Contributors

W.W.L.M. Wilms Floet Situated Architecture - Architecture and the Built Environment (mentor)
N.L. Tilanus Teachers of Practice / AE+T - Architecture and the Built Environment (mentor)
Eric Crevels Situated Architecture - Architecture and the Built Environment (mentor)
D.A. Groetelaers Education and Student Affairs (graduation committee member)
Faculty
Architecture and the Built Environment
Architecture Perception Heritage Memory Preservation Soviet Modernism Estonia Tallinn
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Published Date

05-07-2024

Language

English

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Faculty

Architecture and the Built Environment

Abstract

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.