Estonian National Museum gets new home at former Soviet airbase

Paris-based architecture practice Dorell Ghotmeh Tane (DGT) has made a new home for the Estonian National Museum on the site of a former Soviet airbase.

The museum is located close to Estonia’s second city, Tartu, set within a 350-metre-long glass building that rises up from the runway of the former airbase.

Facilities within the museum building, which is made of glass and concrete, include gallery spaces, a conference hall, public library, auditoriums, classrooms, offices and storage space. It is anticipated that the space, due to open in October 2016, will host a range of exhibitions, educational activities and performances.

Among the notable characteristics of the building are its glazed facades, which are screen printed with a random pattern of white dots, engineered to both augment and distort reflections of the surroundings. In addition, the museum boasts a huge sheltered courtyard.

The museum’s design aims to take back the site as a space of culture and pleasure at the core of the local community, while also acknowledging and making reference to its sometimes troubled history.

“The building is formed by the extension of the airfield’s concrete floor, which becomes the roof of the building,” architect Dan Dorell of DGT told Dezeen. “The [roof’s] slight slope embodies the projection of a nation that is taking off from a troubled past into a new future.”

Source: Dezeen