Estonian National Museum
After Estonia declared its independence in 1991, the country committed to building a new national museum, both a symbol of the nation and a place for preserving collective memory. While many countries chose to convert historic buildings into national museums, Estonia made the bold decision to construct a new one and launched an international architectural competition.
The selected site is located in the Raadi district, northeast of Tartu. It carries strong historical significance: between 1920 and 1940, it hosted the first national museum in a former manor belonging to a German noble family. After 1940, the site was occupied by a Soviet military base covering approximately 692 hectares. The original museum building was destroyed, and its collections were dispersed across the country.
A long military runway cuts through the landscape, leaving behind a powerful yet complex legacy. Rather than erasing or ignoring this past, the project chooses to embrace it. The new museum aligns itself with the runway and extends its axis, transforming this historical trace into a symbolic gesture that carries Estonian memory into the future.
The ground gradually rises from the former Soviet runway and seems to lift toward the sky, turning history into architecture. The building thus becomes an extension of the landscape, physically embodying memory.
Can the past ever truly be erased? Even painful histories endure and shape the future. Titled “Memory Field,” the project acts as a vessel of collective memory, intended to pass it on to future generations. It redefines a once-occupied site and reconnects it with a shared cultural future.
Designed by former practice Dorell.Ghotmeh.Tane/Architects, the Estonian National Museum is a museum of history and ethnography comprising exhibition spaces, an auditorium, a library, educational facilities, offices, and storage areas.
