Revisting Lasnamae:
a 21st Century Response to the Soviet Master Plan
Team Members: Takafumi Inoue and Sabrina Ramirez-Diaz
This project draws
from two earlier Master Plans for the city of Tallinn. Firstly, from Eliel
Saarinen’s 1913 Grand Master Plan for the City of Tallinn, Estonia: from its
proposed 4 mile long sunken channel, its mass transit system and its civic
squares. And secondly, from the 1970’s Soviet Master Plan’s grand urban ambitions.
Two seminal influences in the shaping of the city, but in turn, re-imagining
them for Lasnamäe’s and Tallinn’s contemporary context and needs. Despite all the great
intentions, when the Soviet Union fell, and Estonia regained its independence
the district of Lasnamäe was left unfinished. Today, Lasnamäe is considered a
dormitory district, as only residential buildings were built –and its
sub-centers remain disconnected by the very thing that was intending to connect
them.
The goals that this project took on were:
1. Continue the Soviet Plan with an agenda that served Lasnamäe’s contemporary context
2. Provide the financial mechanism necessary to allow for a revitalization of the district in a way that is feasible and sustainable
3. Stimulate a community oriented urban environment
The goals that this project took on were:
1. Continue the Soviet Plan with an agenda that served Lasnamäe’s contemporary context
2. Provide the financial mechanism necessary to allow for a revitalization of the district in a way that is feasible and sustainable
3. Stimulate a community oriented urban environment
