RED BLOCK - MUSEUM & RESEARCH CENTER OF COMMUNISM IN ESTONIA
Honorable mention in an open competition organised by the City of Tallin in Estonia
Free Mind Award for creative thinking received from the City of Tallin in Estonia
Project Summary:
The project strives to deliver a comprehensive design proposal for a facility focused on Communism both as a political and economical system. To facilitate this the program has been divided in two departments - The International Research Institute on Communism and the Museum of Communist Crimes.
The starting point was a general analysis based on presenting Communism as it was seen and experienced by many people. Seducing and promising from the outside and when already inside not logic, unsustainable, unjust and simply oppressive.
To present this the outer form of the old historic Patarei fortress-prison, an icon located centrally in Tallinn, had most of it’s openings enclosed, the walls and roofs painted with protective fluorescent paint which mostly comes in red, creating a closed shell. A red block which holds a mystery inside. Here nature as a silent witness of committed atrocities in many cases, has been practically used to subtly communicate certain feelings to the observer. The exisiting interiors which are already currently in a bad condition, covered with moss and small plantation on the walls, would be kept as they are in special places. The ammount of green there would be even additionally increased to emphasize the notion of oppression, claustrophobia or hopelessness that the prisoners and victims of this location had to endure. This poetic approach would create at the same time a neutral canvas to showcase the main exhibition of the Museum with it’s artifacts.
The remaining block with open windows would hold mostly office and laboratory functions within a newly established research institute whose mission would be to study Communism as complex system on an international level.
An efficient irrigation, ventilation and cooling system would be planned in the internal green areas in order to create good conditions for the plantation and visitors.
Concept: MJZ
Type: Open Competition, Finalist. Winner of Free Mind Award from the City of Tallinn
Client / Competition Organiser: City of Tallinn
Status: Reference project for execution
Date: 2018
RED BLOCK - MUSEUM & RESEARCH CENTER OF COMMUNISM IN ESTONIA
Honorable mention in an open competition organised by the City of Tallin in Estonia
Free Mind Award for creative thinking received from the City of Tallin in Estonia
Project Summary:
The project strives to deliver a comprehensive design proposal for a facility focused on Communism both as a political and economical system. To facilitate this the program has been divided in two departments - The International Research Institute on Communism and the Museum of Communist Crimes.
The starting point was a general analysis based on presenting Communism as it was seen and experienced by many people. Seducing and promising from the outside and when already inside not logic, unsustainable, unjust and simply oppressive.
To present this the outer form of the old historic Patarei fortress-prison, an icon located centrally in Tallinn, had most of it’s openings enclosed, the walls and roofs painted with protective fluorescent paint which mostly comes in red, creating a closed shell. A red block which holds a mystery inside. Here nature as a silent witness of committed atrocities in many cases, has been practically used to subtly communicate certain feelings to the observer. The exisiting interiors which are already currently in a bad condition, covered with moss and small plantation on the walls, would be kept as they are in special places. The ammount of green there would be even additionally increased to emphasize the notion of oppression, claustrophobia or hopelessness that the prisoners and victims of this location had to endure. This poetic approach would create at the same time a neutral canvas to showcase the main exhibition of the Museum with it’s artifacts.
The remaining block with open windows would hold mostly office and laboratory functions within a newly established research institute whose mission would be to study Communism as complex system on an international level.
An efficient irrigation, ventilation and cooling system would be planned in the internal green areas in order to create good conditions for the plantation and visitors.
Concept: MJZ
Type: Open Competition, Finalist. Winner of Free Mind Award from the City of Tallinn
Client / Competition Organiser: City of Tallinn
Status: Reference project for execution
Date: 2018