19.06.2009
An international idea contest was held for a new administrative building for the Tallinn city government and the best concept was presented by the Bjarke IngelsGroup ApS from Denmark, authored by Bjarke Ingels and Jakob Lange.
The second prize went to Alver Arhitektid OÜ (Andres Alver, Ulla Saar, Tarmo Laht, Indrek Rünkla, Sven Koppel) and the third to Kolm Pluss Üks OÜ (Andres Ojari, Ilmar Valdur, Markus Kaasik, Raul Kalvo, Pirko Võmma, Tanel Tatsi). The author of the winning project will be awarded with 500,000 kroons, the second prize gets 300,000 kroons and the third prize 200,000 kroons.
The mayor of Tallinn Edgar Savisaar stated contentment with the results of the competition, thanked all the participants and expressed his hope that the new administrative building of Tallinn will be built sooner or later, despite the hard times in the European economy.
The purpose of the international idea contest was to find the best architectural solution for the new administrative building of the city government that will be situated on the 35,000 m2 plot Põhja pst 33, near the Linnahall building. The contest for the new city was met with a great interest, 81 agencies and architects were willing to present an entry. Of those, 79 met the competition criteria and 47 presented their conceptions by the end of January this year, among whom the international jury chose the best 9. By May 15 the finalists handed in their final solutions. The jury assembled in June 3-4 and chose the winner and two runner-ups. The verdict was preceded by a thorough analysis, but the final decision was unanimous.
The international idea contest was jointly organized by the City Planning Department and the Union of Estonian Architects. The international jury was presided by the vice mayor Taavi Aas. The members of the jury were: Head Architect of Tallinn Endrik Mänd, Administrative Director of the Tallinn City Office Viljar Meister, head Architect of Riga Janis Dripe, architect Tarald Lundevall from Norway, architect Peter Wilson from Germany, architects Martin Aunin, Tiit Trummal, Kalle Komissarov, and Andres Levald as a substitute member.