Tov Frencken

Methods of Analysis & Imagination

Work in Progress: Developing Architecture for Agency in Tallinn

An architectural exploration in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, on how to develop a vacant and unfinished concrete structure in a cooperative and bottom-up way, into a mixed-use living environment. Providing people and their communities with more agency to shape their physical surroundings and their lives. Distilling principles for agency from research allowed for the design of an incremental, modular, flexible and self-built system that allows filling in the failed Porto Franco development at the harbour, which was supposed to be 150,000 m² of commercial space but was never finished after a major corruption scandal came to light over which the government fell and the prime minister had to step down. Leaving the city with an unfinished and unused space and the opportunity to redefine the role of the architect and the way in which we develop the environments around us.

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