The article focuses on gender-specific experiences of Estonian women
architects in the late Sovie... more The article focuses on gender-specific experiences of Estonian women architects in the late Soviet and post-Soviet Estonia. Architecture has been, and to a great extent still remains, a rather masculinist field, adhering to an image of heroic individualist creative genius and supporting a very demanding and uncompromising work culture. These preconceptions often make it complicated to forge different career paths or to appreciate alternative or more co-operational modes of practice. The article asks if and to what extent the unwritten rules and prejudices have affected Estonian women architects’ experiences in studying architecture, establishing their careers, combining the responsibilities of professional and private lives, and building up their image as (women) designers in a general sense. Based on in-depth interviews with 16 professional architects aged 33–92, the article also highlights the differences and similarities of practising architecture as a woman in the Soviet and post-Soviet social and economic contexts, mapping them onto findings of international feminist research in the context of both Western Europe and the former Eastern Bloc. Additionally, the article refers to the productive possibilities of oral history as a method to complement and challenge the conventional architecture historical writing as well as the intersubjective character of the narratives thus constructed.
Kunstiteaduslikke uurimusi / Studies on Art and Architecture, 2023
The article discusses spaces of care in Estonia in the 1950s–1980s, focusing on orphanages and nu... more The article discusses spaces of care in Estonia in the 1950s–1980s, focusing on orphanages and nursing homes for the elderly and the physically and mentally disabled. The planning, architecture and spatio-temporal management of those buildings is analysed as the intersection of discipline and care, as mechanisms of the categorising, segregating and disciplining of marginalised individuals, as well as a means of taking care of them. The article looks at the ideologies and means of spatial and discursive invisibility of those subjects, and demonstrates the systems of semi-hidden stratification of late Soviet society as manifested in the highly variable quality of design and spatial conditions of the residential institutions. Additionally, it also points out certain practices of spatial subversion the residents used for adapting, appropriating and challenging the spatial settings assigned to them.
Arhitektuur on traditsiooniliselt olnud väga meestekeskne valdkond, mida alal hoidvad müüdid, töö... more Arhitektuur on traditsiooniliselt olnud väga meestekeskne valdkond, mida alal hoidvad müüdid, töökultuur ja väärtussüsteem on tänini tugevalt maskuliinsed – diskursust valitseb ettekujutus arhitektitööst kui erilisest kutsumusest, mille nimel ohverdada kõik muu, ning arhitektist kui pea üleinimlike võimetega, tehnoloogiat ja filosoofiat sünteesivast individualistlikust loojast. Sellised arusaamad teevad keeruliseks nii teistsuguste karjäärimudelite ülesehitamise kui ka alternatiivsete ja koostöiste praktikavormide väärtustamise. Artiklis uuritakse Eesti naisarhitektide soospetsiifilisi kogemusi arhitektuuriõppes, enesekehtestamist kohalikus arhitektuurimaailmas, töö- ja eraelu tasakaalustamist, naissoost looja enesepilti ja suhestumist feministliku maailmavaatega. Täpsemalt vaadeldakse, kas ja kuidas mõjutavad väljakujunenud hoiakud naissoost arhitektide karjäärivalikuid ja -võimalusi ning hinnangut endale ja oma tööle. Artikli aluseks on 16 intervjuud Eesti naisarhitektidega vanuses 33–93 aastat, mis viidi läbi Eesti Arhitektuurimuuseumi 2019. a näituse „Oma tuba. Feministi küsimused arhitektuurile“ ettevalmistamise ajal. Intervjuude põhjal analüüsitakse nõukogudeaegse ja taasiseseisvumisjärgse Eesti arhitektuurikultuuri erinevusi naise perspektiivist, kõrvutades toimunud muutusi rahvusvaheliste uuringutega nii idabloki kui Lääne- Euroopa kontekstis. Ühtlasi osutab artikkel suulise ajaloo kui meetodi võimalustele konventsionaalse arhitektuuriajalookirjutuse täiendamisel ja küsimärgi alla seadmisel, aga ka sel viisil konstrueeritud narratiivide intersubjektiivsusele.
Kunstiteaduslikke Uurimusi / Studies in Art and Architecture , 2016
The article is focused on a conceptual vision for Naissaar Island (1992–1996) by Tõnis Vint in th... more The article is focused on a conceptual vision for Naissaar Island (1992–1996) by Tõnis Vint in the context of the public sphere in the making. The project may be seen as an intersection of a conceptual utopia and a pursuit of actual social intervention. The article considers the project in the context of the artist’s creative output in general, as well as in relation to contemporary international economic policies and trends, and the New Age ideology, highlighting the incoherence and ambivalence characteristic of the transition period.
Fassaadivaade ja põhiplaan on arhitektuuri representeerimise kaks kõige klassikalisemat vahendit,... more Fassaadivaade ja põhiplaan on arhitektuuri representeerimise kaks kõige klassikalisemat vahendit, mille olemuse ja parameetrid määratles hoone korrektse ja ühemõttelise esitamise nimel juba renessansiajastu arhitektuuriteoreetik Leon Battista Alberti. Kuigi tänapäevaks on esitlustehnikate hulka lisandunud 3d-mudeldamine ja uskumatu tõepärasusega ahvatlevaid keskkondi esile manavad renderdused, on kahemõõtmeline plaan ja ortogonaalne vaade siiski põhivahendid, millest lähtuvalt saab vaataja konstrueerida kujutluses reaalse kolmemõõtmelise ruumi. Nii aitab sedalaadi dokumentatsioon kujutleda ja mõista ka ruume, mis kunagi tegelikkuseks ei saanudki. Saada aimu nii sellest, millised need pidanuks välja nägema, kui ka sellest, mil moel neid saanuks
Focusing on four case studies of high-ranking Estonian architects, the article analyses the caree... more Focusing on four case studies of high-ranking Estonian architects, the article analyses the career goals and possibilities for advancement of women in design in the Soviet and the post-Soviet periods. Based on in-depth interviews and representation in mainstream and professional media, the article compares and juxtaposes the architects' public personas and self-perception as revealed in the interviews, highlighting the conditions of self-realization, organizational and design goals, networks of support and balancing the demands of high-profile design and managerial jobs with personal and family responsibilities. The cases reveal a complicated and ambivalent relationship to feminist agenda and the local specificities of the problem, delineating its possible causes from the Soviet to the post-Soviet period, and at the same time pointing towards the changes that have occurred with the transition from the socialist to the democratic state.
With so many places suddenly off limits due to the virus, rarely have we been as acutely aware of... more With so many places suddenly off limits due to the virus, rarely have we been as acutely aware of space as we have this year. As one roams along empty streets, it becomes immediately apparent that space consists not only of architecture but equally of the social life within it. Domestic living space has undergone an even more intensive and paradoxical transformation. On the one hand, everyday life has contracted immensely, confining people to the four walls of their home. On the other hand, the scope of what can be accommodated within those four walls has grown considerably to include the office, the school, the café and the sports club. Whereas many people would normally spend only a fraction of the day at home, our relationship with our domestic space has now taken on a new and considerably weightier significance.
Ideological Equals: Women architects in Socialist Europe, 1945-1990 , 2017
During the postwar period, the architectural discourses and developments taking place in Estonia,... more During the postwar period, the architectural discourses and developments taking place in Estonia, annexed to the Soviet Union in 1940 as the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (ESSR), were fairly consistent with those of the vast socialist conglomerate. The forcibly introduced, pseudo-classicism of the Stalinist period was followed by a decree of 'abolishing the excesses' from Khruchchev in 1954, implementing a decisive turn towards the rationalization and the industrialization of the building processes in addition to the development of standardized typologies for the cities and in the countryside. Yet beginning in the late 1960s, the growth and economic independence of the collective farms (kolkhozes) in addition to the establishment of a special state design office for them (EKE Projekt) brought about a unique phenomenon of progressive and imaginative rural architecture in Estonia. Here a younger generation of architects found work and were able to experiment with form, spatial program, and materials. Rural architecture was subject to relatively weak ideological controls so it is perhaps not surprising that rural building became the testing ground of innovative ideas and the setting to pursue contextual strategies that explored local identity or expressed a resistant position towards Soviet influence, and engaged in a dialogue with local traditions. The current article discusses four Estonian women architects whose main body of work was realized in rural or kolkhoz environments beginning in the early 1960s and continuing through the 1980s: Valve Pormeister, Ell Väärtnõu, Meeli Truu and Marika Lõoke.
Whose rules determine how space is used or shared? Whose identity does a room express? The home i... more Whose rules determine how space is used or shared? Whose identity does a room express? The home is the place where power relations are established and contested. The article looks at how modern living space has shaped and been shaped by gender roles in Estonia.
Paper delivered at the 13th International Conference on Urban History of European Asssociation of... more Paper delivered at the 13th International Conference on Urban History of European Asssociation of Urban History, Helsinki Aug 24th-27th, 2016
The article focuses on gender-specific experiences of Estonian women
architects in the late Sovie... more The article focuses on gender-specific experiences of Estonian women architects in the late Soviet and post-Soviet Estonia. Architecture has been, and to a great extent still remains, a rather masculinist field, adhering to an image of heroic individualist creative genius and supporting a very demanding and uncompromising work culture. These preconceptions often make it complicated to forge different career paths or to appreciate alternative or more co-operational modes of practice. The article asks if and to what extent the unwritten rules and prejudices have affected Estonian women architects’ experiences in studying architecture, establishing their careers, combining the responsibilities of professional and private lives, and building up their image as (women) designers in a general sense. Based on in-depth interviews with 16 professional architects aged 33–92, the article also highlights the differences and similarities of practising architecture as a woman in the Soviet and post-Soviet social and economic contexts, mapping them onto findings of international feminist research in the context of both Western Europe and the former Eastern Bloc. Additionally, the article refers to the productive possibilities of oral history as a method to complement and challenge the conventional architecture historical writing as well as the intersubjective character of the narratives thus constructed.
Kunstiteaduslikke uurimusi / Studies on Art and Architecture, 2023
The article discusses spaces of care in Estonia in the 1950s–1980s, focusing on orphanages and nu... more The article discusses spaces of care in Estonia in the 1950s–1980s, focusing on orphanages and nursing homes for the elderly and the physically and mentally disabled. The planning, architecture and spatio-temporal management of those buildings is analysed as the intersection of discipline and care, as mechanisms of the categorising, segregating and disciplining of marginalised individuals, as well as a means of taking care of them. The article looks at the ideologies and means of spatial and discursive invisibility of those subjects, and demonstrates the systems of semi-hidden stratification of late Soviet society as manifested in the highly variable quality of design and spatial conditions of the residential institutions. Additionally, it also points out certain practices of spatial subversion the residents used for adapting, appropriating and challenging the spatial settings assigned to them.
Arhitektuur on traditsiooniliselt olnud väga meestekeskne valdkond, mida alal hoidvad müüdid, töö... more Arhitektuur on traditsiooniliselt olnud väga meestekeskne valdkond, mida alal hoidvad müüdid, töökultuur ja väärtussüsteem on tänini tugevalt maskuliinsed – diskursust valitseb ettekujutus arhitektitööst kui erilisest kutsumusest, mille nimel ohverdada kõik muu, ning arhitektist kui pea üleinimlike võimetega, tehnoloogiat ja filosoofiat sünteesivast individualistlikust loojast. Sellised arusaamad teevad keeruliseks nii teistsuguste karjäärimudelite ülesehitamise kui ka alternatiivsete ja koostöiste praktikavormide väärtustamise. Artiklis uuritakse Eesti naisarhitektide soospetsiifilisi kogemusi arhitektuuriõppes, enesekehtestamist kohalikus arhitektuurimaailmas, töö- ja eraelu tasakaalustamist, naissoost looja enesepilti ja suhestumist feministliku maailmavaatega. Täpsemalt vaadeldakse, kas ja kuidas mõjutavad väljakujunenud hoiakud naissoost arhitektide karjäärivalikuid ja -võimalusi ning hinnangut endale ja oma tööle. Artikli aluseks on 16 intervjuud Eesti naisarhitektidega vanuses 33–93 aastat, mis viidi läbi Eesti Arhitektuurimuuseumi 2019. a näituse „Oma tuba. Feministi küsimused arhitektuurile“ ettevalmistamise ajal. Intervjuude põhjal analüüsitakse nõukogudeaegse ja taasiseseisvumisjärgse Eesti arhitektuurikultuuri erinevusi naise perspektiivist, kõrvutades toimunud muutusi rahvusvaheliste uuringutega nii idabloki kui Lääne- Euroopa kontekstis. Ühtlasi osutab artikkel suulise ajaloo kui meetodi võimalustele konventsionaalse arhitektuuriajalookirjutuse täiendamisel ja küsimärgi alla seadmisel, aga ka sel viisil konstrueeritud narratiivide intersubjektiivsusele.
Kunstiteaduslikke Uurimusi / Studies in Art and Architecture , 2016
The article is focused on a conceptual vision for Naissaar Island (1992–1996) by Tõnis Vint in th... more The article is focused on a conceptual vision for Naissaar Island (1992–1996) by Tõnis Vint in the context of the public sphere in the making. The project may be seen as an intersection of a conceptual utopia and a pursuit of actual social intervention. The article considers the project in the context of the artist’s creative output in general, as well as in relation to contemporary international economic policies and trends, and the New Age ideology, highlighting the incoherence and ambivalence characteristic of the transition period.
Fassaadivaade ja põhiplaan on arhitektuuri representeerimise kaks kõige klassikalisemat vahendit,... more Fassaadivaade ja põhiplaan on arhitektuuri representeerimise kaks kõige klassikalisemat vahendit, mille olemuse ja parameetrid määratles hoone korrektse ja ühemõttelise esitamise nimel juba renessansiajastu arhitektuuriteoreetik Leon Battista Alberti. Kuigi tänapäevaks on esitlustehnikate hulka lisandunud 3d-mudeldamine ja uskumatu tõepärasusega ahvatlevaid keskkondi esile manavad renderdused, on kahemõõtmeline plaan ja ortogonaalne vaade siiski põhivahendid, millest lähtuvalt saab vaataja konstrueerida kujutluses reaalse kolmemõõtmelise ruumi. Nii aitab sedalaadi dokumentatsioon kujutleda ja mõista ka ruume, mis kunagi tegelikkuseks ei saanudki. Saada aimu nii sellest, millised need pidanuks välja nägema, kui ka sellest, mil moel neid saanuks
Focusing on four case studies of high-ranking Estonian architects, the article analyses the caree... more Focusing on four case studies of high-ranking Estonian architects, the article analyses the career goals and possibilities for advancement of women in design in the Soviet and the post-Soviet periods. Based on in-depth interviews and representation in mainstream and professional media, the article compares and juxtaposes the architects' public personas and self-perception as revealed in the interviews, highlighting the conditions of self-realization, organizational and design goals, networks of support and balancing the demands of high-profile design and managerial jobs with personal and family responsibilities. The cases reveal a complicated and ambivalent relationship to feminist agenda and the local specificities of the problem, delineating its possible causes from the Soviet to the post-Soviet period, and at the same time pointing towards the changes that have occurred with the transition from the socialist to the democratic state.
With so many places suddenly off limits due to the virus, rarely have we been as acutely aware of... more With so many places suddenly off limits due to the virus, rarely have we been as acutely aware of space as we have this year. As one roams along empty streets, it becomes immediately apparent that space consists not only of architecture but equally of the social life within it. Domestic living space has undergone an even more intensive and paradoxical transformation. On the one hand, everyday life has contracted immensely, confining people to the four walls of their home. On the other hand, the scope of what can be accommodated within those four walls has grown considerably to include the office, the school, the café and the sports club. Whereas many people would normally spend only a fraction of the day at home, our relationship with our domestic space has now taken on a new and considerably weightier significance.
Ideological Equals: Women architects in Socialist Europe, 1945-1990 , 2017
During the postwar period, the architectural discourses and developments taking place in Estonia,... more During the postwar period, the architectural discourses and developments taking place in Estonia, annexed to the Soviet Union in 1940 as the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (ESSR), were fairly consistent with those of the vast socialist conglomerate. The forcibly introduced, pseudo-classicism of the Stalinist period was followed by a decree of 'abolishing the excesses' from Khruchchev in 1954, implementing a decisive turn towards the rationalization and the industrialization of the building processes in addition to the development of standardized typologies for the cities and in the countryside. Yet beginning in the late 1960s, the growth and economic independence of the collective farms (kolkhozes) in addition to the establishment of a special state design office for them (EKE Projekt) brought about a unique phenomenon of progressive and imaginative rural architecture in Estonia. Here a younger generation of architects found work and were able to experiment with form, spatial program, and materials. Rural architecture was subject to relatively weak ideological controls so it is perhaps not surprising that rural building became the testing ground of innovative ideas and the setting to pursue contextual strategies that explored local identity or expressed a resistant position towards Soviet influence, and engaged in a dialogue with local traditions. The current article discusses four Estonian women architects whose main body of work was realized in rural or kolkhoz environments beginning in the early 1960s and continuing through the 1980s: Valve Pormeister, Ell Väärtnõu, Meeli Truu and Marika Lõoke.
Whose rules determine how space is used or shared? Whose identity does a room express? The home i... more Whose rules determine how space is used or shared? Whose identity does a room express? The home is the place where power relations are established and contested. The article looks at how modern living space has shaped and been shaped by gender roles in Estonia.
Paper delivered at the 13th International Conference on Urban History of European Asssociation of... more Paper delivered at the 13th International Conference on Urban History of European Asssociation of Urban History, Helsinki Aug 24th-27th, 2016
Conventionally, the Estonian architecture history tends to address the late Soviet postmodernism ... more Conventionally, the Estonian architecture history tends to address the late Soviet postmodernism up to the mid-1980s, and then resume with buidlings of the independent republic from the mid-1990s. The period in between constitutes a kind of gap, and indeed, there was a remarkable decline in building activities. Nevertheless, it was a highly loaded period of active production of new social space, establishment of public sphere and public space, and rethinking of the relationship between built environment and its subject. Those processes continue to have a noted impact on our spatial and social environment up to this day. The doctoral thesis challenges this conventional periosidation of the history of Estonian architecture and art, focusing on the era between two more or less clearly defined social formations – the interregnum of 1986–1994 which must not be treated as a temporary transition on the way to ’normalcy’ but as a specific period of abundant creativity worthwile in its own right. During this dynamic era certain late Soviet practices continued while accelerated appropriation and interpretation of new western impulses took place. The transition from one spatial regime to the other did not happen as a clear and definitive cut but rather as a process that was hybrid, fluid and uneven. The dissertation demonstrates how the production of new space took place on various interconnected levels: built and planned, dreamt and imagined, performed and enacted, as well as theorised and reflected.
The monographic thesis encompasses five loosely connected case studies. The chapter Unbuilt space analyses the most vivid examples of the large amount of unrealised architecture projects and urban designs, focusing on aspects such as production of new public space, identity building and the architects’ agency. Utopian space looks at artist Tõnis Vint’s vision of a new high-rise urban settlement on Naissaar island near Tallinn, proposed as a free trade zone, considering the case in the context of international economic developments and New Age ideologies. Discursive space focuses on the two first instances of Nordic-Baltic Architecture Triennials as attempts at establishing an international platform for theoretical exchange, demonstrating the different expectations of the Nordic and Baltic participants and diverging positions regarding the issue of regional architecture in the global context. Performative space investigates the architecture and performance practices of Group T as an interconnected phenomenon, aiming at establishing temporary counterpublic spaces and an alternative concept of community to counteract the nationalistic social tendencies of the era. Institutional space looks at the renovation process of the functionalist Tallinn Art Hall as a conceptual processual work of art by George Steinmann, demonstrating the artist’s agency in establishing international transdisciplinary networks and reconceptualisating the artspace as a multivalent discursive space. The chapter also addresses the project’s inevitable entanglement with certain neocolonialist allusions and the restitutional mentality of the era, fuelled by the desire for rebirth of the pre-war republic.
The case studies demonstrate that the Estonian architecture culture from the end of the 1980s to the beginning of the 1990s was far from in hibernation: quite the contrary, it was unprecedentedly vigorous and operated in active dialogue with other processes in the production of space for the new society. Making use of the radical openness of the era, the architecture of the interregnum built upon the previous late Soviet experience and realised some of its desires. It also tested out new impulses connected with the opening up of the society. The experiments stemmed from a belief in creative individuals’ essential role in imagining future space and their right to participate in the public sphere, thus helping to keep open the discussions of possibilities. The spaces thus produced might have been intangible but they were nevertheless vital in shaping the social life of the interregnum.
Uploads
Papers by Ingrid Ruudi
architects in the late Soviet and post-Soviet Estonia. Architecture has been, and to a great extent still remains, a rather masculinist field, adhering to an image of heroic individualist creative genius and supporting a very demanding and uncompromising work culture. These preconceptions often make it complicated to forge different career paths or to appreciate alternative or more co-operational modes of practice. The article
asks if and to what extent the unwritten rules and prejudices have affected Estonian women architects’ experiences in studying architecture, establishing their careers, combining the responsibilities of professional and private lives, and building up their image as (women) designers in a general sense. Based on in-depth interviews with 16 professional architects aged 33–92, the article also highlights the differences and similarities of practising architecture as a woman in the Soviet and post-Soviet social
and economic contexts, mapping them onto findings of international feminist research in the context of both Western Europe and the former Eastern Bloc. Additionally, the article refers to the productive possibilities of oral history as a method to complement and challenge the conventional architecture historical writing as well as the intersubjective character of the narratives thus constructed.
quality of design and spatial conditions of the residential institutions. Additionally, it also points out certain practices of spatial subversion the residents used for adapting, appropriating and challenging the spatial settings assigned to them.
architects in the late Soviet and post-Soviet Estonia. Architecture has been, and to a great extent still remains, a rather masculinist field, adhering to an image of heroic individualist creative genius and supporting a very demanding and uncompromising work culture. These preconceptions often make it complicated to forge different career paths or to appreciate alternative or more co-operational modes of practice. The article
asks if and to what extent the unwritten rules and prejudices have affected Estonian women architects’ experiences in studying architecture, establishing their careers, combining the responsibilities of professional and private lives, and building up their image as (women) designers in a general sense. Based on in-depth interviews with 16 professional architects aged 33–92, the article also highlights the differences and similarities of practising architecture as a woman in the Soviet and post-Soviet social
and economic contexts, mapping them onto findings of international feminist research in the context of both Western Europe and the former Eastern Bloc. Additionally, the article refers to the productive possibilities of oral history as a method to complement and challenge the conventional architecture historical writing as well as the intersubjective character of the narratives thus constructed.
quality of design and spatial conditions of the residential institutions. Additionally, it also points out certain practices of spatial subversion the residents used for adapting, appropriating and challenging the spatial settings assigned to them.
The monographic thesis encompasses five loosely connected case studies. The chapter Unbuilt space analyses the most vivid examples of the large amount of unrealised architecture projects and urban designs, focusing on aspects such as production of new public space, identity building and the architects’ agency. Utopian space looks at artist Tõnis Vint’s vision of a new high-rise urban settlement on Naissaar island near Tallinn, proposed as a free trade zone, considering the case in the context of international economic developments and New Age ideologies. Discursive space focuses on the two first instances of Nordic-Baltic Architecture Triennials as attempts at establishing an international platform for theoretical exchange, demonstrating the different expectations of the Nordic and Baltic participants
and diverging positions regarding the issue of regional architecture in the global context. Performative space investigates the architecture and performance practices of Group T as an interconnected phenomenon, aiming at establishing temporary counterpublic spaces and an alternative concept of community to counteract the nationalistic social tendencies of the era. Institutional space looks at the renovation process of the functionalist Tallinn Art Hall as a conceptual processual work of art by George Steinmann, demonstrating the artist’s agency in establishing international transdisciplinary networks and reconceptualisating the artspace as a multivalent discursive space. The chapter also addresses the project’s inevitable entanglement with certain neocolonialist allusions and the restitutional mentality of the era, fuelled by the desire for rebirth of the pre-war republic.
The case studies demonstrate that the Estonian architecture culture from the end of the 1980s to the beginning of the 1990s was far from in hibernation: quite the contrary, it was unprecedentedly vigorous and operated in active dialogue with other processes in the production of space for the new society. Making use of the radical openness of the
era, the architecture of the interregnum built upon the previous late Soviet experience and realised some of its desires. It also tested out new impulses connected with the opening up of the society. The experiments stemmed from a belief in creative individuals’ essential role
in imagining future space and their right to participate in the public sphere, thus helping to keep open the discussions of possibilities. The spaces thus produced might have been intangible but they were nevertheless vital in shaping the social life of the interregnum.