Tartu Downtown Cultural Centre, Competition

Tartu, Estonia
2023

The Tartu Downtown Cultural Center is flanked by two urban corridors: A green corridor spanning from Toomemägi park to the river while a linear corridor of public institutions is linking the center with the train station, the university library, the theatre as well as the historical market hall. In order to address both of these fronts the lobby of the center is organized as a ring. It establishes the building´s perimeter as a public, visually open and engaging interface to the surrounding city while at the same time encircling four programmatic quadrants: library, museum, event center and art house cinema. Each of the quadrants is characterized by the spatial and structural organization best suitable to its specific programmatic needs. While the general public navigates the cultural center along the ring lobby the coordinate cross at the center of the building houses the infrastructural support and logistics. The outer façades of the building are oriented following the surrounding urban layout while the programmatic quadrants follow the historic Kauba street orientation tangentially merging with the ring-lobby.