The project proposal with which DGT won an international competition back in 2005 was called "Field of Memory". It was the architects who proposed to build a museum that is extremely important for national identity on the Raadi field. Here, on the very outskirts of the city, there is a military airfield, known since the early 1910s and abandoned in the late 1990s. He became a kind of witness of the 20th century, such a difficult century for Estonia.
Moreover, the Estonian National Museum was founded almost at the same time, in 1909, and was initially located very close to the Raadi estate. But the first rear was destroyed during the Second World War and was no longer rebuilt, so it was difficult to choose a more symbolic and precise place for new construction.
The hangar stretched along the runway, 356 meters long and more than 70 meters wide, literally grows out of it. He naturally continues the canvas, forcing the lake and breaking away from the past, rushing into the heights by as much as 15.4 meters. This take-off looks especially impressive in the dark, since the volume is made of glass. The schematic drawing of a cornflower (Estonian national flower) on the panel, according to the architects' plan, should also resemble frosty patterns on glass, so that the building looks no less organic in winter.
The new museum, which cost 63 million euros, is said to be the most modern in form and content in Europe. The entrance to it is located from a high end, overhanging like an airplane wing. As if a kind of funnel, it "pulls" visitors inside. The total area of the building is 34,000 m2, but only 6,136 m2 will be occupied by the actual exhibition space for 140,000 exhibits valuable from the point of view of the history, culture and ethnography of the country.
In addition to halls, a storeroom and a museum store, there is a conference hall, auditoriums, offices, a restaurant, a cafeteria and an educational center. The expansion of functions and the public orientation of the project should give impetus to the development of an important, but still quite deserted place.
