Postmodern residential buildings on the architectural exhibition

On the 3rd floor of the library, from 5 December, you can view the exhibition "Bold and Beautiful: Estonian Residential Architecture of the 1980s" from the Estonian Museum of Architecture. Through photos, drawings, and descriptions, curator Triin Reidla presents the most interesting examples of postmodern residential buildings.

The exhibition showcases houses designed from the late 1970s to 1991 in four residential areas: the so-called Architect's Quarter and Ihaste in Tartu, the Rehe Street area in Viljandi, and Ilmandu village near Tallinn.

Postmodern aesthetics entered the Estonian architectural scene in the mid-1970s, and by the 1980s, it became the defining style of the decade, bringing with it a bold and playful architectural language that contrasted with the harsh modernism of the time. A more individualistic approach to building design allowed for the creation of colorful and detailed public buildings, as well as individual houses using the vocabulary of the era. One of the ideals of the style was low-density construction, consisting of family houses or townhouses, in contrast to the widely spread apartment buildings with their monotonous grey rhythm.

The exhibition, which covers the Architect's Quarter and Ihaste, is primarily a showcase of Tartu postmodernism, and the exhibition space itself, the University of Tartu Library, also belongs to the same era. The building, designed by architects Kalju Valdre and Mart Kalling, and interior architects Ülo Sirp and Linda Arikese, and completed in 1982, fits well with the theme of this exhibition.

According to Triin Reidla, a doctoral candidate at the Estonian Academy of Arts, the architectural works of this era are more likely to be valued the greater the temporal distance, as the residential buildings that once evoked mixed feelings are now part of our architectural history. The exhibition is based on Triin Reidla's master's thesis "Such an Ugly House! Postmodernist Residences and the Problem of Their Valorization," defended at the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2020.

The exhibition is a creative research component of Triin Reidla’s doctoral dissertation at the Estonian Academy of Arts. The exhibition design was done by Koit Randmäe and Brit Pavelson.

The exhibition is open at the University of Tartu Library until 31 January 2025.