Rail Baltica Unveils Winning Designs for Ülemiste Terminal in Tallinn, Estonia
Rail Baltica, connecting Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius with the European high-speed rail network, has unveiled the winners of its international architecture competition to design the terminal station for its starting point in Tallinn, Estonia.
Rail Baltica has unveiled the top three winning designs for its joint terminal station to be built in the Ülemiste area of Tallinn, Estonia that will serve as the starting point of the Rail Baltic line connecting the Baltic states with the European high-speed rail network. An exhibition of the competition designs is on display at the nearby Tallinn Airport Gallery.
Rail Baltica announced the international architectural competition to design its Tallinn terminal station back in May 2019, with the deadline set for 3 September 2019.
The submitted entries were evaluated by a nine-member jury headed by Riia Sillave, the CEO of Rail Baltic Estonia. The jury also included Allan Remmelkoor (Pro Kapital Eesti AS), Andrus Noor (AS Eesti Raudtee/Estonian Railways Ltd), Andrus Kaldalu (Mainor Ülemiste), Tallinn’s longtime chief city architect Endrik Mänd, Mattias Agabus (author of the structural plan of the Ülemiste area), Janis Dripe, former Latvian Minister of Culture and also an architect, as well as Danish architects Jesper Gottlieb and Thomas-Grave Larsen.
According to Riia Sillave, head of the jury, all winning designs were in line with the requirements and would all deserve to come to life. However, in the end there can be one Rail Baltica terminal in Ülemiste. „Starting next week, we will launch negotiations with the authors behind the three very unique architectural ideas in order to determine who will begin work on Rail Baltica’s new joint terminal station in Ülemiste, Tallinn,“ commented Sillave.
At the award ceremony, Riia Sillave was joined by Taavi Aas, the Estonian Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure and also the former mayor of Tallinn, to congratulate the winning designers. „I have been keeping a keen eye on the developments in the Ülemiste area and in the light of today’s winning designs, I am more than certain that Ülemiste is on its way to become one of the most attractive and synergistic, infrastructurally speaking, regions in Tallinn. What we are witnessing is the emergence of a truly multimodal transport hub for rail, bus and air transport,“ said Minister Aas.
The winning designs:
- 1st place and € 28 000 – LIGHT STREAM. Joint submission by Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) and OÜ Esplan.
- 2nd place and € 21 000 – THE ÜLEMISTE LEAF. Submitted by Innopolis Insenerid OÜ.
- 3rd place and € 14 000 – VIDEVIK/TWILIGHT. Joint submission by DBA Progetti S.p.A. and HML Project Management OÜ.
- The fourth place was awarded to the concept design titled SIHT/DESTINATION submitted by Molumba OÜ who received a € 7000 encouragement prize.
Riivo Tuvike of Tallinn Airport commented that compared to other European capitals, Tallinn enjoys a unique position, because its airport and Rail Baltica’s terminal station are located practically side-by-side, just outside the city centre. “For the second year in a row, the number of people passing through Tallinn Airport has exceeded the 3 million mark, with the added effect of 2,6% of GDP for the Estonian economy. I believe that together with Rail Baltic we can create more and faster connections between Estonia and different parts of the world that will attract more tourists, providing an additional boost to the local economy,” said Tuvike.
All submitted competition designs will be displayed to the public at the nearby Tallinn Airport Gallery until the end of the year.