BIG: Tallinn’s New City Hall
The Bjarke Ingels Group has won an international competition to design Tallinn‘s [Estonia] new city hall on a 35,000 square meter plot near the Linnahall building. The new design presents a cluster of volumes, housing different administrative offices and interconnecting to form atrium and/or courtyard spaces that would seem to connect to more public plazas surrounding the structure.
Bjarke Ingels, BIG, Partner-in-Charge:
There is a saying that success has many fathers. That is especially true when designing such a crucial public building and public space as a town hall. The design needs to be shaped by input from neighbours  and users, citizens and politicians. Paradoxically we architects often find ourselves isolated from this crucial dialogue at the moment of conception, due to the anonymity of the architectural competition. Since this was a 2 stage competition, we already had our first feedback from the jury – causing us to dramatically rearrange our design to fit the citizens’ needs. As a result we have envisioned a very elastic structure – capable of adapting to unexpected demands. We see it as the first conversation in a design dialogue we look forward to continue.
The design emphasizes openness, and connections with the surrounding city. Located within the tower/spire shown, the city council looks out onto the city and outdoor public spaces – while at the same time, those outside can get a glimpse at the inner workings or the city’s government. To give those inside, and out, a better/more interesting view, the ceiling of the tower is to be tiled with a reflective surface – creating a kind of ‘periscope’ effect. This gives the city council a reflection of the city overhead – maybe a constant reminder of who/what they’re working for – and possibly gives the average citizen the ability to look in on meetings as they’re taking place, as if looking over the shoulders of their representatives.
The periscope is a form of democratic tower, where even the average Tallinn citizen on the street gets to enjoy the overview from the top. From a distance the silhouette of the town hall tower enters the family of Tallinn’s historical spires including those of the Niguliste Museum-Concert Hall, Toomkirik, Kaarli Kirik, Pühavaimu Kirik, St. Olav Church and the current town hall.
::images + quoted text courtesy of the Bjarke Ingels Group::
Posted: June 25th, 2009
at 10:42am by orangemenace
Tagged with green, competition, civic, urban/master planning, public space
Categories: architecture,competitions
Comments: 4 comments
4 Responses to 'BIG: Tallinn’s New City Hall'
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what a great use of public space
crumbles
25 Jun 09 at 1:55 pm
man…these guys are on a roll!
i’ve always admired BIG for their design approach, which is based entirely on context, climate and programmatic dictations. seems like a very straight-forward way to practice architecture, with an intriguing set of results. a very dignified way of seeing the world–acting as facilitators to a set of pragmatic desires, rather than contriving a forced artistic expression.
a very appealing democratic process for the public…
archaalto
25 Jun 09 at 3:25 pm
[…] BIG: Tallinn’s New City Hall from AMNP […]
ESD Roundup 26th June « The Augmented Environment
26 Jun 09 at 12:05 am
http://www.yskira.com/mag/2009/06/25/more-images-of-bigs-new-city-hall-in-tallinn/
Skira Yearbook has some great drawings of the project – plans, sections diagrams – that weren’t made available when I put up this post, but are definitely helpful in understanding the project. Check ’em out.
orangemenace
26 Jun 09 at 11:35 am