Estonian Academy of Arts
Tallinn, Estonia
Two stage competition
Design Team:
Principal: Sean Lally
(Viktor Ramos, Marina Nicollier, John Carr, Ali Naghdali)
Executive Architects: Morris Architects, Houston
The Estonian Academy of Art (EAA) asserts its identity and position within the city of Tallinn at both the level of the school’s internal operations as well as with its level of its integration with the city and its need for public programs, including parks, garden space, galleries, and shops. This relationship between the internal operations of the EAA and its means for contributing to the city’s infrastructure is a critical feature of its design.
The relationship between the student and the city is mediated through a year-round public park. A series of “Artificial Climatic Lungs” located in six zones along the building connect the school above to a public park below. The park itself is located on top of the school’s primary mechanical systems and workshop half a story off the street, collecting and amplifying the building’s captured energy to produce lush artificial gardens throughout Estonia’s long winters. The zones also provide full-spectrum lighting to counteract the short daylight hours of winter. The building’s light source for close to a third of the year comes not from the sky above, but from the glass “lungs” below: the true façade of the building. This façade visually connects the student studios to the public below while maintaining a necessary security of space. As the “lungs” move up the building through three levels of studios, they act as thermal collectors: as heat rises to the top toward the upper floors, it pools internally within the enclosed roof for external use by the students as they enter from the floor above. These organizational devices are exposed to the external environment, but are nested internally in the building envelope and fed by the building’s heat.
Six “climatic lungs” set within the building’s mass visually connect the design schools and administration above to a year-round public park below. This ceiling plan acts as the building’s most public façade.
Each of the six “lungs” provides full-spectrum lighting to counteract the short daylight hours of winter. For close to a third of the year, the light source for both the park below and the interiors above comes not from the sky, but from the illuminated “lung” system.
The park, in turn, sits on top of art galleries, a black box theater, and conference rooms, as well as mechanical systems and an entire floor of college wood and metal workshops. These programs are sunk half a floor level, making the park easily accessible from the street. All excess energy from these programs is delivered into the soil and vegetation of the park located underneath the “lungs.”
