Architecture studio led by Villem Tomiste, Stuudio Tallinn, renovated the central square of Võru, one of Estonia's youngest towns.

The city center was, already when it was planned in 1785, marked by a square where we found the market with a church on each side. The main intention of the project is to revive and animate the historic central square of the small town of Võru, making it once again a meeting and leisure place for locals and visitors.
Stuudio Tallinn divides the vision of the central square in two. On the one hand the stationary urban space and, on the other hand, the dynamically evolving program marked by the development of urban fixtures. In this way, the square and its elements compose the existing urban space based on functionality.

The program connects the fixed elements of the square in a wide field of activity, thus, the joint action that is created through the new square endows the pre-existing and semi-abandoned buildings with new content.

The public urban space is understood in the project as a constant change generated by the neighbors, therefore, the program of the square is in the permanent renewal that is reconfigured and reconstructed by the neighbors, achieving new events with the help of urban contraptions in the square.
 

Description of project by Stuudio Tallinn

The aim of the Võru Central Square project is to revive and enliven the historic central square of the small town of Võru.

The plan with enumerated plots of one of the youngest Estonian towns was compiled by land surveyor and cartographer Carl von Bonset in 1785. The plan was drawn with a regular street grid and right-angled blocks. The town centre was marked by a market square with a church on either side together with a seminary, bank, taverns and shops. At the beginning of the Soviet occupation in early 1950s, trees were planted on the market square to hide the churches. Typical of the age, the greenery was never maintained and so within a decade, the heart of the town became a shady park. After its renovation, the central square of Võru became once again the core of the town as it used to be during its planning – a place for encounters and leisure for locals and visitors.

The vision of the central square is divided into two – the stationary urban space or the operating system and the dynamically evolving programme marked by the development of the Urban Gadgets.

The square with its elements is based on the existing urban space and the established functionality highlighting the landmarks and the valuable trees. The operating system connects the fixed elements on the square into a comprehensive field of activity. The synergy created by the new square provides the half-abandoned buildings with new content.

The public urban space is a constantly changing event generated by the locals. The square is a programme in permanent renewal that is reconfigured and redeveloped by the residents. For the generation of new events, there are Urban Gadgets on the square – to reinvent each moment. This is merely the beginning. The Urban Gadgets will turn the operating system into an event space.

The streets and the square are brought to the same level. The zones of the square, parking area and roads are divided and marked by small sized granite paving stones in two different colours. The surface of the stone is designed to be coarse as the square is tilted and in winter smooth paving would be uncomfortably slippery in nordic climate.

The Urban Gadgets that are constantly in motion are built of steel and painted in two contrasting colours, which highlights the shape of the objects and at the same time is easily visible and recognizable. The mobility of the Urban Gadgets creates a space similar to a living room where furniture can be alertered to suit an occasion. This provides a more inviting and cozy urban space.

Plant communities have been designed for the greenery surrounding the existing large trees, resembling those of the forests surrounding the town, and so wild berries can be harvested from them in autumn. In addition to flowering plants, herbs are also planted in the planters, citizens forage lemon balm from the central square for their herbal tea.

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Architects
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Stuudio Tallinn. Architect.- Villem Tomiste.
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Project team
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Risto Aim, Mirko Arras, Kaija Arroval, Helen Batista, Edgar Kaare, Kristo Klementi, Raiko Palm, Siim Porila.
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Area
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18,000 sqm.
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Dates
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Competition.- 2015. Project.- 2016-2018. Built.- 2020.
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Location
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Võru, Estonia.
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Photography
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Villem Tomiste (1975) is an architect who trained at the Estonian Academy of Arts (MSc Arch 2000), and pursued further training at Tallinn University of Technology as well as the Department of Architecture at KU Leuven, Belgium. He co-founded and ran the collaborative architecture office Kosmos with Ott Kadarik and Mihkel Tüür between 2002 – 2012, and has been practicing solo at Stuudio Tallinn since 2012.

Villem’s portfolio includes public and apartment buildings, private houses, landscape design and urban planning. He has won awards at more than 100 architectural competitions. In addition to competition works and commissions, he has instigated several projects and urban visions, and published numerous articles polemising on the topics of architecture and urbanism. He was the originator of the international Tallinn Architecture Biennale (TAB), curator of the first biennial exhibition and acts as chairman of the TAB round-table to present day.
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Published on: June 28, 2021
Cite: "Reliving a former meeting place. Võru Central Square by Studio Tallinn" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/reliving-a-former-meeting-place-voru-central-square-studio-tallinn> ISSN 1139-6415
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