Kopli Community Courtyard

Located in the rapidly gentrifying district of North Tallinn, the grade-listed Kopli 93 community centre has stood largely derelict since the 1990s. However, the centre is far from abandoned – in the cracks between neglect and necessity an avid community of tinkerers has taken root. Following the success of the community garden and the repair studio, a new project is underway this spring. Delivered in collaboration between Tallinn’s Strategic Management Office and the community’s own architects, a new public courtyard will be constructed of stone salvaged from demolition sites and recycling centres across the city.

In the absence of formal centralised material harvesting systems, the project taps into existing ad hoc networks, using their peculiarities to foreshadow the shape a future salvaging system might take. Through inventive use of these modest materials in the centre’s grand grade-listed setting, the design aims to showcase that low carbon and low-cost do not equal low quality.

Alongside normalising the aesthetics of this nascent circularity in the city, the project questions popular dogmas within Estonian urbanism, where the prevalence of single-phase renovation assumes sites to be either entirely used or disused, with few options available in the in-between. This temporary limbo has grown seemingly permanent for Kopli 93, giving rise to grassroots methodologies for meanwhile use. The presentation foregrounds the potential of such temporary DIY placemaking more equitably and experimentally guiding the city’s formal long-term development.

Location

Gross Area

Client

Duration

Status

Kopli Culture Centre, Tallinn

420 m2

Tallinn City Strategic Management Office, Salme Cultural Centre

2023-24

On site