Tallinn Architecture Biennale (TAB), an international architecture and urban-planning festival based in Estonia, aims to create a synergy between emerging talents and industry, Estonian and international architects, and architects and the general public, by creating a point of contact between them to stimulate the exchange of ideas.

In November this year, TAB called for architectural proposals for its Installation Programme Competition 2019. The brief, Huts and Habitats, aligns Estonia’s rich history of timber construction with new technologies and design strategies. Participants were asked to design a modern take on the wooden ‘primitive hut’, an installation that researches fundamental, primordial notions of construction, tectonics and dwelling.

Offering the opportunity to design and build an experimental wooden structure in the heart of Tallinn, 137 world-wide submissions were received for the two-stage competition. Among the 12 architectural firms selected to continue on to the second stage were AA Alumni, Nicholas Grimshaw (AADipl(Hons) 1965), Manuel Jimenez Garcia (AA DRL MArch 2011) and Igor Pantic (AA DRL March 2011). 

The winner will be announced in February 2019 and will receive €15,000 to build and construct the installation in front of the Museum of Estonian Architecture in Tallinn city centre in August 2019. It will be opened to the public during TAB Opening Week, 11–15 September 2019.

Read more on the brief or find out about the other finalists here

Image credit: Gilles Retsin’s TAB 2017 Installation ©NAARO-6