Between Monumentality and Fragmentation

3+1 architects won the Rail Baltica Tallinn terminal architectural competition in 2014. This provided the architects with the opportunity to be in real-time contact with the most monumental recent spatial changes in Estonia—our connection with the European railway network.
They will get first-hand experience of the process that a relatively small terminal with a gross floor area of 2000m2 can initiate beside, below and above itself and also the spatial, economic, political and socio-cultural changes it can generate on a wider scene and larger scale.

Architects have collected all of the archival fragments from the past two years that are either directly or indirectly related to the terminal: the so-called linear park between the terminal and airport, the tramline between the railway station, airport and city center, the new entrances to the airport, the plan of the bus station, various versions of Ülemiste “Smart City”, the new cultural center, and the discussions around the identity of the present and future shopping center in the context of the changing public space. They found ourselves surrounded by a world of various fragments that all have a strong impact on the terminal before we had even begun to design it.