Estonian National Museum (Estonia)

From airbase to museum

The Estonian National Museum in Tartu, Estonia, was completed in 2016. With its 6,000 square meters of exhibition space, it is the largest museum in Estonia. The museum facilities include gallery spaces, auditoriums, a conference hall, classrooms, public library, offices, and storage space for the museum's collections.

In total, 34,000 cubic meters of concrete were used to build the 350-metre-long building that rises from the runway of a former Soviet airbase near the city of Tartu. In 2016, the Estonian National Museum won the “Concrete Building of the Year” Award conferred by the Estonian Concrete Association. The award ceremony was held on March 14th (Concrete Day) at the Estonian National Museum.

According to the jury, the museum is an original building with contemporary architecture that creates new connections with its environment and elegantly highlights the advantages of concrete as a modern structural material. “This building possesses an ambitious architecture that is rooted in concrete and is composed of a grand dialogue between concrete, steel and glass,” said jury chairman Aadu Kana. “The quality of the concrete work is also excellent - and on what a scale! All the way to the rooms at the back, the ‘dark’ storage facilities, and the hand-polished concrete stairs, each and every person working on the construction of this building has done an outstanding job. It stands as a true homage to the Estonian people!”

Heidelberg Materials Kunda AS delivered the cement for this project.