Estonian Art 1' 1999


	Searching for a Positive Image of an Office Building
	Andres Kurg



	"City in a delirium. Ha. What a befitting name for Tallinn. A city aspiring to greatness which develops at a crazy speed towards non-existent aims." Marek Kallin, music critic. Review of a record in Eesti Ekspress. In the search for a positive image, there must also be the belief that the shell allows something more general to show through, that this is a means of communication between both the inhabitant and the creator, and that an image demands attention - either screaming or whispering for it.

	BEFORE The monumental office buildings of the Tallinn city centre of which most date back to 1970s Soviet Estonia, represent the usually ponderous interpretation of the international style. Due to that particular period, these buildings cannot be regarded as merely office buildings; they all carried a symbolic meaning of some dominant institution: Communist Party Headquarters, Planning Committee, Trade Union House. The office buildings of various project firms and building companies contain less coded pompousness, as does the Radio House, which best follows the American sky-scraper model. The architectural postmodernism massively exported from America to Europe in the 1980s did not leave significant office block giants in Estonia. There is, however, one remarkable exception - a bastion re-built in the early 1980s that outwardly follows the example of the mid-17th century Väike-Rannavärav fortification that was on the same spot. Its inner courtyard, on the other hand, is embellished with lexical fragmentation which embraces the entire history of architecture. One of the most successful office building contests in the newly independent Estonia was organised by Hansapank in 1994. The whole establishment of local architectural avant-garde was asked to take part: Künnapu and Padrik, Siim and Kreis, Alver and Trummal, Urbel and Peil. The winning project (Siim and Kreis) was sadly never realised; the bank was built by extending the streetfront (Künnapu and Padrik) which consisted of curtain-wall office buildings. Another rather innovative building in its time and space was the Nissan centre (Siim and Kreis). Its black curving shape was and still is quite chic. The 1990s have produced numerous fine-sounding skyscraper projects, the best known of which is doubtlessly the sharp-pointed Astlanda in 1991, although this too has remained on paper.

	NOW The present time seems to be the final phase of one stage in the business of office buildings. On the one hand, many city-centre office buildings have been constructed within a very short period of time, or are still under construction (the last such building boom which radically changed the city centre occurred in the early 1970s). Not all are banks like in previous years, but the fate of some buildings originally meant to house banks is not at all clear at the moment of the writing of this article. It still has to be established whether the need for office buildings has been already met or not, and what direction the whole construction business is going to take. It may develop at a rapid pace, as cheaply as possible and with obvious carelessness; or there might emerge an idea of an architectural quality and the price that needs to be paid for it. Or should the whole problem be mixed with a bit of pathos: is the era of construction companies and producers of materials going to be replaced by the era of architects? All this is partly caused by the sad truth that despite the large number of new buildings, they present few pleasant surprises and not too much tranquil architecture of real quality. Every vacant place need not necessarily be filled with an outstanding monument, rather there is a shortage of good honest background architecture. In that respect, the Norma Group office building in Hobujaama Street is quite a frightening sight. The Emajõe business centre in Tartu is an example of weak city planning, although the project was a result of an open contest in 1997 that attracted numerous participants. The winning project came from Kalle Rõõmus's architectural firm. The form and cover materials of the house follow the archetype of commercial office buildings of the last quarter of the 20th century. The whole house seems to be displaced in relation to the city centre, built for a teeming and bustling business city which Tartu certainly is not. In a situation where part of the Tartu centre has remained an empty field after World War II with a huge theatre and concert hall buildings on one side, it is truly strange to see the chaotic metropolitan planning policy chosen by the municipality. The question remains: when and how is the field going to be utilised for construction?

	The most remarkable office buildings of recent times both come from the Künnapu & Padrik office - the towering Ärimaja (Business House) close to the Pärnu maantee viaduct and the EVEA bank in the city centre. These buildings allow a wider look at the topic of office buildings in general, and facing quite a few essential problems of the last decade. Take the floor plans, for example - the prospectus of Ärimaja reveals a significant feature of the majority of modern offices: "The work areas on the floors are like huge enclosures waiting to be transformed into different office landscapes, without long boring corridors." An ordinary office building standing on posts, and it is up to each institution to see which stalls it rearranges for its employees. Since the Ärimaja general plan does not stand out from the rest, we have to turn to the fa™ade in order to find the image of the building. The transparent organisation of the parking floors which correspond to the flow of traffic, the emphasised constructions and connecting passages, media space with its constructivist allusions conquering the traditional facade surface, etc. - all this forms something of the post-high-tech, the enterprising and future-oriented office-organism of society that aspires to capitalism. The house designed for the EVEA bank is equally rich in ideas, although rather more tranquil. The project dates back to the early 1990s, and seems to prove its qualities which conquer the fashion of the moment. Parking areas - much criticised by pragmatics - under the street-level central part elevated on posts make the whole building architecturally airy and create an exciting street situation. High-tech is fully present here, but backed into a curving aluminium corner and shiny pipes on the yard fa™ade. The following method was widely used elsewhere in the developed world in the 1970s and 1980s: with the help of all sorts of cables, stakes, tubes and pipes, the high-tech production process is visualised until it becomes a travesty. This was supposed to instill a progressive-flavoured faith in the future to counterbalance the pessimistic attitudes about the unrestrained advance of industry. So that those pushing papers around their office desks could feel part of the bright future project. In addition, the high-tech atmosphere offered a practical yet whimsical work environment which was neither hierarchic nor snobbishly off-putting. The third outstanding office building is located in a focal point in Tallinn, at the central Vabaduse väljak (Freedom Square). It is the Kawe Plaza with its excellent materials and execution. The bulging part on the side of the Pärnu maantee is extremely promising, but the solution relating to the square in the form of a razor-sharp corner fails to offer equal satisfaction. The connection with the street level is, considering the characteristic feature of the location, truly successful, and the building as a whole suits the city situation perfectly.

	MATERIALS Starting from the moment when ornament was declared heresy, modernism produced a trend (Adolf Loos, Mies van der Rohe) which compensated the discarded visible luxury with figuration; and the position-consciousness with using materials of varying cost and properties. Due to the wave of neo-modernism of the 1990s and because of the minimalism turning into mass fashion, expression with materials has obtained one of the most significant roles in architecture. This was encouraged also by the postminimalist and performance art of the 1970s that gave materials transcendental or experiential meanings and considered materials themselves the most important image. In architecture this practice is followed (at least partially) by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron who in their younger days had been Joseph Beuys's assistants. Their sense of materials brought them great fame. A better example is the Helsinki Museum of Modern Art where Steven Holl experimented for a long time, polishing aluminium plates by hand in order to achieve just the right effect of reflection. The other extreme is a somewhat casual rawness which prevails in Estonian architecture in general. This means restricting attention merely to the general idea and bulk, using the cheapest (but preferably shiny) materials which sadly reveal their low quality from afar. With the arrival of independence, the absence of plate glass and the 'wet-look' in Soviet times was rapidly and abundantly compensated. One of the Soviet office buildings with a highly negative image - the Planning Committee - had to undergo a cosmetic operation. It was covered with plate glass, the material that was almost a must in all sorts of new buildings. Glass itself exists in a thousand different ways, not just reflecting the surroundings. The above-mentioned three office buildings are in that sense happy exceptions where enough attention has also been paid to details. But so far they remain relatively rare examples. In conclusion, the 1998 top list of office buildings could be as follows: Ärimaja - the most optimistic, lots of architecture. EVEA pank - the most refined house, lots of ideas. The Emajõe Business Centre -the most archetypically commercial, can be seen from great distances. Kawe Plaza, a building using materials of highest quality, with significant location in town.


	\| Estonian Art 2/99 (6) \| Published by the Estonian Institute 1999 \| ISSN 1406-5711 \| einst@einst.ee \| tel: (372) 631 43 55 \| fax: (372) 631 43 56 \|