Tallinn’s Old Town reimagined in bold new architecture exhibition
A new exhibition at the Estonian Museum of Architecture is exploring how Tallinn’s Old Town could grow in the future. Called Greater Old Town. 12 Visions, it presents a dozen bold ideas for expanding the historic city centre. The show runs until May 3 in the Rotermanni Salt Storage building.
The exhibition fills the second floor of the old salt warehouse with 12 large sand dunes. Each dune represents a different artist’s vision for extending the Old Town beyond its current borders. Together, they form a conceptual boundary along the railway line in central Tallinn.
Visitors can walk through spaces designed to mimic the city’s old bastion belt. The layouts and environments encourage debate about how urban development should balance history with modern needs. Curator Villem Tomiste compares the project to a roadmap, mixing short-term steps with long-term goals and guiding principles. The aim is not to pick a single plan but to spark conversation. By bringing together contrasting ideas, the exhibition pushes residents and planners to think differently about the city’s future shape.
The Greater Old Town. 12 Visions exhibition remains open for another week. It offers a chance to see how artists imagine Tallinn’s core could evolve. The museum has not released the names of the 12 contributing artists.
