Living Kopli Kaubajaam
Adaptive reuse of the industrial warehouse commplex in Kopli, Tallinn
S. Zhang (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
W.W.L.M. Wilms Floet – Mentor (TU Delft - Situated Architecture)
N.L. Tilanus – Mentor (TU Delft - Teachers of Practice / AE+T)
K.M. Havik – Mentor (TU Delft - Situated Architecture)
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Abstract
This project envisions the transformation of a former railway warehouse complex in Kopli, Tallinn, into a hybrid dynamic community facility. Drawing from the site’s industrial memory and the theoretical framework of Terrain Vague, the design reclaims the in-between condition of the post-industrial landscape and activates it with new spatial narratives.
The idea of Dynamic Space emerged from the need to create an adaptable framework rather than a fixed form. It is rooted in the belief that architecture should respond to changing community needs over time. By incorporating modular grids, movable walls, and overlapping programs, the space resists singular definition—allowing users to reshape its function and meaning through daily inhabitation, negotiation, and collective authorship.
The intervention consists of two main elements: the adaptive reuse of the historic brick warehouse and a new timber structure forming from the old grid. A modular system is applied in both—embedded gently in the old building as flexible programmatic “boxes” that respect and contrast the existing shell, and fully expressed in the new construction to allow community-driven spatial transformation.
The space serves as a community “living room,” hosting exhibitions, performances, co-working, and daycare. Architectural devices such as a diagonal ramp, double-height volumes, movable partitions, and suspended installations emphasize spatial flexibility, porosity, and layered engagement.