The television tower has acquired the meaning in people’s memory of the last fortification in the restoration of Estonia’s independence. The colourfully flashing tower nowadays indicates the arrival of a new age. This persistent call signal is apparently aimed at the sea and perhaps at everyone who is interested in rising high above the daily routine for a moment. This is also an historical building in today’s terms. What restrictions does this set, or does it inspire instead? Is the television tower also an architectural monument? Andres Kõresaar (AK): No, it isn’t, but it is on the DoCoMoMo list, so the competition entries were submitted at the time to DoCoMoMo for expert analysis. What were your priorities and values, what to preserve and what to change? AK: The carcass of the tower itself, in other words the concrete structure (1975–1980) is valuable. The architectural appearance is created by the usable storeys at the tip of the tower and the diagonal ribs under it, meaning David Bassiladze’s architectural language. The stained glass by Dolores Hoffmann (1979) is worth preserving in its entirety in the interior. We changed the location of the stained glass due to a shift in the location of the central position of the door. This did not exactly please the author. The entire entrance area has been altered due to the fact that the pools there, which were in use during the summer, stood empty all winter long. The other point was that approaching the tower through the tunnel concealed the view of the tower. There was a control building at the entrance gate so that when you got out of the bus, you went into the control building and from that moment on, you no longer saw the tower from the outside – changing this concept was one of the main things that we dealt with.
ganics – the mushroom as an organism that grows in nature that has grown extremely large. Did you go to familiarise yourself with analogous towers? AK: Yes, we went to Berlin – the tower spins. It makes one complete rotation in one hour. Then we also went to Stuttgart and Plymouth. All those towers are situated in the city centre, in the middle of events, everything all around is exciting. Tallinn’s television tower is outside of the city. Back in its day, the location was chosen from among five potential sites, of which two were absurd: one on Naissaare Island, and the other where the tower presently stands – at the bottom of a valley on damp soil where it is difficult to affix a foundation. The decision of that time to build it a long distance outside of the city came from the KGB, since it was an object of the infrastructure that had to be defendable. Does the tower sway as well? Everything cannot be planned in life, the forces of nature come into play. AK: Not particularly. Under storm conditions it does sway up to 30 cm. It is more a question of how you feel. But construction work at high altitudes required thoroughness in thinking it through. This brought another separate dimension to the project. Heavy objects could not be hauled up using the old elevator, so we had to rely on a container outside at the end of a cable, which in turn depended on wind and rain.
There is an architectural and a museum aspect to this. What is displayed in the television tower? AK: The architectural change is in what was put into the entrance, which leads directly to the second storey. And the safe, winter tunnel can be used in the summer as an exit. The other architectural change is the first storey, where we put more rooms to use than before, and of course, both tower storeys. Now the entire 21st storey is an exposition storey, and the 22nd storey is a restaurant, and Elion servers occupy a small sliver. There can be up to 100 people up in the tower according to fire safety regulations. You can view the exposition of the television tower’s history on the second storey while waiting for the elevator – the humorous 3D film about the tower by Tanel Toom. And up above is an exhibition introducing Estonia – from Louis Kahn to Arvo Pärt, with Skype as well. A rotatory robot shaped like a mushroom associated with the romance and longing for outer space in the time when the tower was built is the motif that runs through the design of the exhibition. It is also associated a little with or-
Ruumipilt 2012
tallinn’s tallinn television tower
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