ELEMENTerial Pavilion for Culture

In August 2022, the Tartu city government started working with PAKK to find a suitable solution for the Tartu 2024 cultural capital pavilion.
Project executor: Algoritmic wooden architecture research group
Partner: Tartu City Government
Period: 1.08.2022-30.09.2022

A temporary pavilion, designed to hold smaller outdoor events related to the Capital of Culture status, is planned for the paved area of the city center park. The wooden shelter of about 400 square meters should accommodate nearly 300 people. The solution for the pavilion is developed in cooperation with EKA PAKK and Structural Engineering Research Group at TalTech.

"Cooperation with the research groups of the Estonian Academy of Arts and Tallinn University of Technology helps us find, in addition to good architecture, the most practical and waste-free production solution for the building. In terms of construction, the future pavilion would be assembled in modules and later dismantled elsewhere in the city, either as a whole or in parts," explained Anna-Liisa Unt, landscape architect of the Tartu city government. Unt added that the use of wood and the promotion of construction with the lowest possible ecological footprint are also in line with the values of the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024.

During the research project, we are looking for solutions on how to design a wooden shelter which:
  • is located in a paved area in the middle of the Central Park; 
  • has a size of up to 400m2, accommodating approx. 300 people;
  • is intended for organising events, planning a visibility corridor towards the stage;
  • can be assembled as modules and later dismantled elsewhere in the urban space, either as a whole or in parts;
  • follows the principles of zero-residue production.

The deadline for the concept design is the end of September 2022, after which the construction deadline and budget will be specified.

The proposed temporary cultural pavilion would be used by the city's residents as a venue for the Capital of Culture events in 2023 and 2024.

ELEMENTerial research direction investigates the possibility of a circular economy in the construction industry and applies wood industry residues in the construction of small forms. The ELEMENTerial cultural pavilion would significantly increase the current scale (the ELEMENTerial buss stop in Paide is about 10m2) and would offer large-scale solutions for waste-free design. Thus, the cultural pavilion is a continuation of the 2020-2021 product development project of cross-laminated timber production residues.