The Rapla KEK workshop
In 2013 from 20th to 25th September NGO Linnalabor (The Urban Lab) organized together with Dutch group Failed Architecture a workshop to review the history and possible re-use of former Rapla KEK office building in Northern Estonia town called Rapla. The workshop was held as part of the programme of 2013 Tallinn Architecture Biennale (TAB).
Failed Architecture was invited to TAB to conduct a 5-day workshop on an iconic piece of soviet-era architectural heritage. The theme of the Biennale was ‘Recycling Socialism’ – exploring and studying socialist and modernist spaces and ideas.
The exhibitions of the TAB took place in several physical remnants of soviet times including the former headquarters of the communist party (currently ironically housing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and Linnahall (formerly named V.I. Lenin Palace of Culture and Sport), a colossal music/sports venue built in 1980 for the Moscow Olympics sailing regatta held in Tallinn, nowadays in an severe state of decay, largely abandoned and unused except for military training and some corners of it functioning as office space and recording studios.
The subject of the research workshop was the KEK-building in Rapla, a town just south of Tallinn. Originally built as the administrative building for a collective building organization for collective farms/kolkhozes (KEK in Estonian).
The building has been regarded as iconic since its construction and is still, despite currently being partly abandoned, famous amongst architecture experts as well as the general public This is also reflected in the fact that it will most likely be nominated a national monument in 2014. Notwithstanding its widespread recognition, the KEK-building is currently struggling to find new users, providing a financially viable plan for the future as well as solutions for its rapidly deteriorating physical state. Therefore, Failed Architecture was invited to break down the history of the building within its physical and societal context, with the help of around 25 participants from different backgrounds who applied to take part in the workshop. A particularly interesting aspect of this workshop was actually staying and sleeping in the building, which contributed to the experience of the building, the analyses and the group dynamics.
Failed Architecture applied their methodology, which has been used for many cases in different environments. They divided the participants into five subgroups, focusing on the built environment (architecture, plans, physical state, etc), the social context (demographics, use of the building, social issues, etc), economics (national and local economy, business activity in the building, financial structures, etc), reputation (media coverage, appreciation of users, locals and outsiders), or politics (political developments on several levels). The participants were asked to find as much as information – from statistics to old photographs – for the period 1960-2020 in order to reconstruct which developments, events and decisions influenced the fate of the building and to speculate on possible future scenarios. The results were collected, filtered and organized on a timeline.
In order to focus the research and bring in extra knowledge, ten experts were invited to talk about the building, the architect, soviet times, local political, cultural and economic developments, rural development after re-independence, and local planning aspects.
The result was a 10-meter long timeline showing the life of the building within its various, interconnected contexts.