New Tartu Downtown Cultural Centre (EE)

The competition entry “ROHELINE KULTUURIKESKUS” stands out from the others with its thoroughly worked out park area solution and detailed design. The architectural volume of the building does not have a dominant effect on the urban space and is solved with very exciting curved steps, which makes the spatial impact of the building volume smaller. The clear placement of the building on the side of the department store leaves a large open park area free, which increases the richness of life and creates a very strong connection between Barclay park and the riverside green space. An interesting solution is also to move the front of the building on the river side to the historical building line and thus greatly reduce the spatial impact of the car driveway on Vabaduse street. The interior of the building is well organised around a central sculptural staircase. The main drawback is the lack of a structural solution for the building and the excessive compression of the event centre and museum areas. In the building, the necessary logistics surface has been sacrificed to achieve volumetric airiness in the urban space, which makes solving internal logistics difficult. The logistics of the basement and loading areas is very incomplete and changing it can significantly change the building solution and the exterior design.