Nominee for the Annual Award of the Estonian Association of Landscape Architects 2024
Landscape architecture
Juhan Teppart, Karin Bachmann, Mirko Traks (KINO maastikuarhitektid)
Design team
Helen Küppas, Kristian Kirsfeldt (Velvet); Liina-Kai Raivet
Commissioned by
Merko Ehitus
Construction
Merko Ehitus
Total area
9500m2
Design
2022–2023
Completed
2023
Photos
Juhan Teppart
Location
Pille 16/Tiiu 13 ja Pille 14/Tiiu 11, Tallinn

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The aim of the park was to meet the need for a public space connecting the community. As the economy cooled, the pace of the development of the district slowed down. This motivated the developer to allocate land for a temporary park to provide the locals with a leisure area despite the ongoing construction.

The temporary nature of the park largely defined also the landscape concept. The aim was to use all the available spatial features in the best possible way. The concrete slabs of the former warehouse were a suitable base for the central activity area to build a ball court and shelters. The piled-up hills, limestone ramp, self-generated trees and shrubbery – we wished to use their innate qualities, that is, materiality, relief and texture. Our plan to acquire a flight of abandoned concrete stairs became an extensive project of reusing concrete factory waste products. Ceiling panels and other products destined for demolition became landscape elements: a bridge over a stream, ball court edges, table tennis tables, the grandstand, sandbox, bike track and benches.

All objects and plants can be moved to another location once the temporary use is over – the outdoor gym, bike track and ball court elements can be easily disassembled and set up in a new place. The fully preserved existing greenery is self-generated and therefore deviating from the man-made norms. The woody plants – surplus nursery stock – were planted in construction containers written off by a waste management company. They contain also various perennials that tolerate well dry and sunny locations.

Text by: Karin Bachmann