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Exhibition of studio kuidas.works / 2022

co-authors: Hannes Praks, Henri Papson, Maria Luiga (kuidas.works)

The exhibition "Between Rock and Decay" by design studio kuidas.works* looked at the lifecycle of the built environment and asked if instability could also be considered as a quality in its own right by today's building industry.

The focus of the exhibition is a common phenomenon in today's architecture and construction culture, which tends to divide technologies and materials on a polar scale – stable or unstable. Reinforced concrete and laminated surfaces are valued for their durability and resistance to wearing. On the other end of the spectrum are earth and clay-based solutions that tend to be pushed aside and overlooked as they are thought to be uncertain, unsure, and unstable. With the exhibition, the design studio kuidas.works asked whether there might be room in this framework for a semi-permanent solution or a solution that only wears out under certain conditions – and could wear and tear also be quality?

Perhaps nowadays, the problem is that our solutions are too stable. We have put so much emphasis on the lifetime of the built environment that we have overlooked its ending. So, longing for the ultimate durability and permanent solutions, we are constantly overlooking the fact that the construction industry produces more than a third of the world's greenhouse gases. At the same time, there is no operational plan for recycling and reusing. With the exhibition, the studio aimed to bring ecological building materials and techniques back into the picture – to find solutions and to consider the whole lifecycle of the design or building, not just the beginning of the lifetime. The spatial experience of the exhibition can be recreated on request with suitable context and conditions provided to spread the message of the work.

*Kuidas.works is a slow-tech spatial design studio that focuses on clay-based design and construction solutions.

Photos by Tõnu Tunnel

Exhibit for Wood Works exhibition / Solstice Art Center, Ireland / 2022

co-authors: Hannes Praks, Henri Papson, Maria Luiga, Andrea Tamm (kuidas.works)

curators: B210, Alder Architects

An exhibition project for Wood Works, a collaboration between Estonian and Irish architects on the theme of wood as a material and standards that mold its use in architecture. The exhibit looks at how life is transcribed into standard floorboards and how they become a unique map of actions and events carried out on it.

In the Nordic countries, wood is the traditional material for interior flooring. Newly installed, standard wooden floorboards are like blank sheets of music with the potential to record the overtures of one family lived over many generations. As time passes, the boards come to life in a new way. Unique messages written by large and small soles appear on the standard milled boards, along with faded, cracked or curled accents in both minors and majors.

Photos by Henri Papson

pop-up space designed for an Estonian TV show / 2021

co-authors: Hannes Praks, Henri Papson, Maria Luiga (kuidas.works)

+ Estonian Architecture Awards 2021 / Laureate for best interior

+ Dezeen Awards 2022 / longlisted in Sustainable interior catecory

In the summer of 2021 the slow-tech spatial design studio kuidas.works* (kuidas? – how? in Estonian) was invited to participate in an Estonian TV series Restaurant 0 that aimed to complete a rather challenging task – to build a restaurant in 7 days at zero cost, using smart recycling. The restaurant was designed and built into the ruins of a 19th-century sausage shop in the Old Town of Viljandi, a small town in South Estonia.

Suppose a design studio is generously handed the opportunity to explore the full range of design possibilities of creating a restaurant experience from scratch with zero budget and without leaving a remarkable footprint. In that case, naturally, the question "how?" arises. By recycling the waste, we can reduce the footprint of fast consumption. However, even when materials are reused, the result can still end up in landfills or incineration. The recycling process itself can also turn out quite costly or unresourceful. Elaborating that point of view, the design team decided to extend the zero-expense paradigm in the TV show by proposing a conceptual centrepiece for the restaurant – a 15-ton rammed-earth table.

The table was an exploration into the simplest, ancient methods - created using the rammed earth technique, using only hand tools and natural materials. Tons and tons of clay were first dried in the sun, then sieved through an old spring mattress frame, carried bucket by bucket into the framework, and finally rammed into a standing height dining table. The earth was mainly of local origin and sourced from a nearby clay quarry. Typical of the Devon era, Southern Estonian earth fluctuates in yellow and ochre undertones. The darker red clay was also from the region: Lithuania. Other main materials used in the project were sand - to level the floor - and lime paint to neutralise the walls covered in graffiti.

The used volumes of clay and sand could easily be reused, but even if the rammed earth table were left in ruins, the materials used would not burden the environment, and the table will slowly but surely fall apart and disappear. In total, less than 1% of the materials - just the tableware - require recycling later on. Materials used for the tableware were wooden trays made from old floorboards from the site, bowls cut from 3-litre glass jars, steel plates, and sleeves of copper tubes used as drinking glass stands.

The pop-up restaurant was built to host 12 guests for a one-night-only 4-course dinner. The standing table aimed to support presence and awareness, adding attentiveness to the dining experience as it won't let you forget where you are and why. Coming out of the comfort zone is the prerequisite for understanding ecological problems, which was the undertone of the whole show. The design does not have to be about comfortability. It can and should be used as a tool to draw attention, as the design and building industry has one of the heaviest footprints. So whether turning to simple technology is convenient or inconvenient, or whether there are other solutions, is the central question of the concept of this work.

Photos by Tõnu Tunnel

Screenshots from the aired show https://etv.err.ee/restoran-0

interior design

co-authors: Hannes Praks, Linda Zupping

The International house of Estonia asked us to design a office that would refer to the characteristics of Estonian nature. Although the space was quite small, we decided to interpret the clients wish creating a denseland- scape of underwood, where one could wander around. The rough wooden beams that are poured into concrete offer visitors different wiewpoints, work as space separators, but also table legs and spotlight holders. The meeting rooms showcase natural thorn panels, and experimental coffee- and mycopanels created in Estonia.

International house is a service center for internationals in Estonia (one- stop-shop) to communicate with the state, to receive counselling and to create a network.

photos: Tõnu Tunnel

concept & interior / 2017

Team: Kreeta Aidla, Oliver Rull, Jörgen Alunurm, Siim Karro, Andrea Tamm

KAPA paper shop is a community shop located next to new building of Estonian Academy of Arts. It is also curated by the students of Academy. 

KAPA sells paper, all kinds of art supplies but also a selection of hardware store supplies. The interior is flexible so that the shop could also be flexible for organizing workshops and monthly exhibitions.  At the same time, the movable transparent shelves on blue steel grid aim bring full attention to the presented prroducts

interior design / 2020

co-author: Siim Karro

The spatial concept of UBER Tallinn office aims to offer different possibilities for individual but also teamwork. The soft aesthetic of the plan derives from the need to better complement the irregularity of the constructional beams of the ceilings.

To keep the small 200 m2 space visually open semi-transparent curtains are used to offer a possibility to divide the room. The working area is divided roughly in three parts by different flooring materials. The individual working desks for the four employees are planned next to the glass facade, raised kitchen and lounge area in the middle of the office. Two meeting rooms offer different settings for various discussion and presentation scenarios - a cozier meeting room with a soundproof glass wall to the working area and a more formal and enclosed meeting room. The Green Light area offers a place for formal discussion at the standing table, the waiting area seating at the facade is overlooking the inner courtyard terrace.

Photos by Kertin Vasser

Exhibition design / 2019

International exhibition “Future Materials”, main exhibition of Design Festival 2019 (Disainiöö 2019) showcased new materials created by designers of Holland, Hungary and Estonia.

Estonian exposition brought together new materials developed by scien- tists, enterprises, designers and architects. The exhibition showed how the notion of resources and material development are going through changes due to environmental crisis. The authors explored across disciplines how in the future waste materials could be used, drawing knowledge from her- itage technologies and nature, how to make use of biotechnology and what kind of high-tech materials are made by using nanoscale.

Material I exhibition popped-up next in Estonian Academy of Arts.

Curators: Kärt Ojvee, Annika Kaldoja, Marie Vinter (Stuudio Aine)

Graphic design: Mirjam Varik

seasonal public installation / 2016

co-author: Ann Press

+ Core77 Design Awards Built Environment Award 2017 / Student runner up

+ Core77 Design Awards 2017 / Community prize

+  Estonian Architecture Awards 2017 nominee

+ Estonian Architecture Awards 2017 / People's choice award

The Soviet district Lasnamäe, in Estonia’s capital city Tallinn, was built in the late 70s, has fallen into stagnation. A vast traffic channel was built, the road, the bridges are built buit the locals are still waiting for the tramline, just as the nowehere leading concrete stairs.

In the summer of 2016, Lasnamäe’s urban plan got a new mid-term solution and barley field was seeded on the stairs. The idea of a barley field installation came from history—barley was the earliest crop grown in Estonia and was grown in the area of Lasnamäe in circa 500-600 BC. Because the culture of barley growing was brought to Estonia from Russia, and the tramway stairs mark the border between Estonian- and Russian-speaking districts, the art installation carried an idea of integration. 

The installation offered the district a new puff of life—young, verdant seedlings growing and turning into a ripe yellow barley field, reminding us of the cycles of nature and life. The aim of the barley field was to bring some contrasting softness, some life and progress to this industrial area, but also to encourage the locals to take steps towards changing their neighbourhood, instead of waiting for the authorities to do it, given that the tram has still not arrived after over 40 years. This project was founded by a crowdfunding campaign, built and cut with the help of volunteers. The soil—45 tons of it—was carried on the stairs bucket by bucket. 

By the end of September, the crop was ripe and we held a harvesting party for the stair-field. The harvested crop was made a gift for the crowdfunders; some if it is now living a new life as jewelry, while some of it was taken to a laboratory for tests that will calculate air pollution levels of the area. The project inspired locals and authoroties to enliven the traffic channel with 38 flowerbeds that will from this summer on flourish seasonally.

Photos by Tõnu Tunnel and Markus Tamm

video: https://vimeo.com/181689206

lecture series and workshops

co-curators: Jüri Kermik, Hannes Praks, Maria Helena Luiga, Linda Zupping

Symposium of Interior Architecture and Spatial Design (SISU), is organised in every two years by Estonian Association of Interior Architects. For the first time, the topic of the symposium was chosen with a two-staged curatorial competition. The winning proposal was called Actual / Tegelik.

The focus of SISU 2019_Actual was on the physical presence of our craft. This time we decided to investigate strategies for spatial intervention, making and production through educational practices that combine direct engagement and participation in the creation of physical space. We looked at the tactile-sensorial experience a space can provide, we explored material design through the lense of interior architecture and were inspired by the words of a long-time professor of EKA Interior Architecture department, Estonian interior architect and designer Vello Asi, who said that space should always be designed from inside out. 

From 12 to 14 June 2019, we invited interior architects and students of the field as well as professionals and students from neighbouring fields - architects, designers, etc - to join us for a three-day exploration of the interior architecture and spatial design process at the Põhjala Factory on Marati St, Tallinn. We started with an empty space and will together - in the form of workshops and lectures - build up SISU Symposium 2019, split 50:50 between workshops and lectures.

photos by Kairi Rand

summary-sketches of lectures by Sandra Mirka, Allan Kukk, Vera Gonchugova, Katerina Balakina

A modular floater / 2016

Built during international summer school “5th season: Wilderness”

Co-authors: Alden Jõgisuu, Andres Mutis, Berglind Erna Tryggvadóttir, Brigita Kasperaitè, Dan Theman Docherty, Finlay Barge, Gabriel Müller, Gerda Kaasik, Kadri Erdel, Kristiina Veinberg, Laura Müürsepp, Siim Karro, Stefano Prevosti, Triin Mänd, Tuva Ina Sofia Björk

Supervisors: Sami Rintala, Pavle Stamenovic, b210 Architects, Hannes Praks

Soomaa (Estonia) is a mixture of boglands and meandering rivers that flood over seasonally, mostly in spring, when the water raises several meters higher for weeks. The water flows over flood-plain grasslands and forests and covers fields, forests and roads, disrupting connection with the rest of the world. Locals and visitors use boats to navigate the altered territory, but the students took up the challenge to see what types of floating space they could create, responding to the needs of people in the area.

During the summer school  deep and intensive examination into the minimum (spatial) necessities for humans in extreme conditions was carried through, studying the unique context of the area, where the landscape is severely altered by flooding rivers at least once a year.

We designed and built in 10 days three floating structures—a shelter, a fireplace and a sauna— as a response to the challenging environment, a project called VeeTee (Water Way)  Two of the three objects are opened to the public use, testing how experimental infrastructure could provide for the needs locals and visitores. However, one of the structures—the sauna—did not persist the testing, and sunk to the watery depths. 

article in dezeen: https://www.dezeen.com/2016/10/10/floating-wooden-pavilion-veetee-students-estonian-academy-arts-flooding-soomaa-national-park/

Sauna TIGU / SNAIL

Vilnius, Lithuania / 2018

Joint design & built workshop of Estonian Academy of Arts Interior Architecture Department and Vilnius Academy of Arts

Tutored by: Hannes Praks, Andrea Tamm, Rokas Kilčiauskas, Audrius Dimavičius

The sauna is titled as “Snail” due to the gesture that each person is forced to make to enter and use the hot space. To enter the wooden cabin you have to bend over and then re-emerge in the area saturated with boiling air. There are no access doors, but only an open and lower corridor designed specifically to avoid heat loss. 

It took the students of the Estonian Academy of Arts EKA and the Vilnius Academy of Arts four days to develop a concept into a prototype, and open a public sauna in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia. Why a sauna? Because for students of spatial design, sauna proposes a unique design task with engineering, basic functionality, constructional physics and ergonomics challenges – whilst also being poetically captivating as a sample of a Northern European spatial typology.

Guidelines for users: TIGU sauna is a gift to all Lithuanians and visitors; it welcomes all polite and responsible users, who take care of the space and are happy to use the space at their own risk.

Students: Kaarel Kuusk, Päär-Joonap Keedus, Eeros Lees, Monica Mustjõgi, Kelli Puusepp, Elis Rumma, Rimtė Raudeliūnaitė, Gabrielė Šidlauskaitė, Giedra Virbickaite, Ieva Glumac, Agnė Rubytė, Aurelija Kniukštaitė

Photos: Päär Keedus

link to Domus article: https://www.domusweb.it/en/design/2018/12/10/a-totally-open-sauna.html

Sauna in Tulkarem, Palestine

no budget, low tech unplanned immediate intervention / 2016

Team: Madli Maruste, Hannes Praks, Martin Saar, Monica Knoll, Gerda Kaasik, Katarzyna Zachara, Andrea Tamm + local volunteers

Estonian Academy of Arts Master programme studio WILD 1 took MA students to Israeli-occupied Palestine. The goal: to get a proper feel of a politically tense space. In addition to visiting refugee camps and local universities, the Interior Architecture department decided to take spatial action. In January, a rare cold wave hit Palestine, to which the students suggested a quick and easy Estonian remedy: let’s build a sauna. The sauna was designed and built from materials found on the streets of Ramallah. With substantial help from the art community of Tukarem City, we managed to break the record of the fastest sauna ever built in Palestine, and the record now stands at 5 hours. This might in fact be the first plastic film covered sauna in all of the area. 

Master thesis exploring ways to repurpose ruins with the help of nature / 2017

Supervisors: Keiti Kljavin, Leena Torim, Edina Dufala-Pärn, Hannes Praks

Interor Architecture department, Estonian Academy of Arts 

Master thesis “Rewilding the abandoned” explores the qualities of different natural layers in urban context, examining unmaintained, overgrowing abandoned spaces as a ground for urban wilderness. Inspired by growth and decay happening simultaneously – architecture working in collaboration with nature – the thesis is introducing designed demolition as a reverse approach to reconstruction and a tool for opening vacant buildings up for public again.

By offering an alternative approach for intermediate use, the case study project focuses on Ice Arena wing of Tallinna Linnahall that is meant to be fully demolished and rebuilt in same volume. “Rewilding Linnahall” is a phase-by-phase demolition concept, that emphasizes natural and spatial changes in urban landscape, offering visitors different experiences throughout the seasons.

Thesis theory

The research material