The 6th edition of the Architecture Biennale is underway in Tallinn. Originally from Greece, the event's curators - architects Lydia Kallipoliti and Areti Markopoulou - chose "Edible" as their theme, treating the issue of food both literally and metaphorically.
The Tallinn biennial was accompanied by a competition seeking a vision of the circular block, exploring architecture's ability to transform waste into energy or matter. Honorable mention in the competition went to Michal Spólnik, author of the "Next Door" project.
Visualization of the "Next Door" project
© Michal Spólnik
As the organizers stressed, in Estonia buildings are responsible for nearly half of energy consumption and almost a quarter of the country's carbon footprint. It is therefore necessary to look for alternative solutions. The goal of the competition was therefore to try to define new urban models, to create urban units that would not only provide space for residents, but also be capable of producing food and processing waste.
The area for design research became the Lasnamäe district, the most densely populated part of Tallinn, built up mainly with tall apartment blocks. The task facing the architects was to look for strategies and solutions that would enable, among other things, using the surface of the blocks to produce food for their residents, using waste to generate energy or products, increasing urban density by using demolition materials, or implementingblockchain technology to manage energy or material resources locally .
The jury for the competition included Winy Maas (MVRDV), Kaidi Põldoja (head of the Urban Planning Competence Center at theTallinn City Hall), Benedetta Tagliabue (Miralles Tagliabue EMBT), Toomas Tammis (Professor of Architecture at the Academy of Arts in Estonia) and Veronika Valk-Siska (Advisor to the Ministry of Culture in Estonia). Three prizes and seven honorable mentions were awarded.
cloud of possibilities
Referring to prefabricated structures, Michal Spólnik's proposal, as he himself writes, is a vision of blocks understood as sets of elements pulsating with possibilities, which are constantly morphing, transforming. Dominated by the Soviet large-plate system (Mikrorayon), the city district became the architect's starting point for a project that would involve enriching the program of existing blocks by superimposing on them a reconfigurable "cloud of elements - a cloud of possibilities."
the project would involve enriching the blocks by superimposing on them a reconfigurable "cloud of elements - cloud of possibilities"
© Michal Spólnik
Prefabricated facades, parts of apartments and even simple wooden window muntins will now create innovative, hybrid forms of sharing space. Tenants will gain the choice of contributing individual elements to local ecosystems, which, using static compensation, structure lifting or symbiosis of materials, will enhance the vitality of the blocks and redefine the possibility of 21st century urbanism, the project's author explains.
Michal Spólnik's proposal involves creating innovative forms of sharing space
© Michal Spólnik
Along with the ability of private rooms to go out towards the courtyard, the interiors of the blocks gain the possibility of merging into larger neighborhood clusters. The texture of the facade thus begins to oscillate and extend beyond the original building outline, leaving surplus space in the deeper regions of the apartments. These in turn - located around stairwells and corridors - can now open up and create neighborhood gathering places and local events. This space, which is susceptible to negotiation, introduces a new pulse of the block, combining communication arteries with group activity. It would be a matter of openness for each community to join forces with surrounding blocks, defining the scales of penetration of neighborhood revues, the architect adds.
Visualization of the "Next Door" project
© Michal Spólnik
Looking to the future - we can be pioneers in co-creating our neighborhoods, even those supposedly stagnant for centuries, Spólnik concludes.
Michal Spólnik is also co-author of the Sterick Building transformation project and the eVolo award-winning agro-ecological skyscraper project New Spring.
