Open House Tallinn Tours of Local Architecture

Text Stewart Johnson
Photos Evert Palmets

Founded in 1992 in London, the “Open House Worldwide” movement has spread to over 30 cities around the world, including London of course, Rome, Barcelona, New York, Melbourne, and the list goes on and on. Tallinn is included in this list. The purpose of the movement is to offer the public greater understanding of the architecture in their urban environment…buildings you might see on a daily basis, but equally often fail to notice. Open House Tallinn offers people the chance to get guided tours of many important buildings and premises with the architects themselves, designers, and volunteers.

For two days, 11–12 October, you can get free guided tours of such places as the British Embassy, the Tallinn Observatory, BLRT Grupp’s factory and premises at the tail end of the Kopli peninsula…this is a shipbuilding and ship repair facility, so you can expect rather massive structures and machines.

The Bank of Estonia will also open its doors, so people can see where several of the controversial financial decisions of late have been made. Or the TV building of national broadcaster ERR…ever wanted to see behind the scenes of your favorite news show? Or the brand new EAMT building on Pärnu mnt, the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. A tour will also be given of the up-and-coming Orangery in Kadriorg Park.

The so-called “Super Ministry” will also be viewable on the inside, as will the infamous Linnahall, right by the sea. The Toompea Castle and Parliament building will also be open, as well as a structure that is already extremely popular among Finns: D Terminal of the Port of Tallinn. Except this time you can see what it looks like on the other side of the gate.

The full list of structures that can be toured is available here.

To learn more about this and similar topics
Events in Tallinn free tours Guided Tours Tallinn Architecture