Tammekann’s villa (Visit Estonia).

The villa’s appearance in the 1980s after its refurbishment in the Soviet period (EAM Fk 3179).

August Tammekann (Wikimedia Commons).

Fr R Kreutzwaldi 6

• The residence of the professor August Tammekann.

6 Fr R Kreutzwaldi Street and August Tammekann

The house at 6 Fr R Kreutzwaldi is known as Tammekann’s Villa after its first owner, the geography professor, August Tammekann (1894-1959). However, the best-known person to be linked to this building is undoubtedly the internationally-recognised Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto, who designed the building in 1932. This is the only building in Estonia to be designed by Aalto, and the first project to have been completed by him outside of Finland. 

August Tammekann, the very first geography professor of Estonian descent, personally knew Alvar Aalto from the 1930s, after they met in the Finnish city of Turku. Aalto is said to have complained to Tammekann that he was lacking orders due to the economic crisis. Tammekann asked Aalto to design his home in Tähtvere in March 1932, and the architect agreed. That was followed by extensive correspondence over various issues concerning the design. August Tammekann’s Finnish spouse, Irene, was also an important participant in those discussions, as amongst other things she demanded that her room catch the evening sun and that its windows open to the west. ‘I am forced to inform you that if I cannot have my room exactly the way I want it, this house will not be built,’ she is claimed to have said. The lady of the house also demanded that the sauna have an electric stove, which was somewhat innovative for the time. The building’s design was signed off within a few months and construction work began in the summer of 1932. The family moved into the half-finished home in March 1933. Construction work still was not fully completed in 1935. Even though the house was largely built exactly as designed by Aalto, to the architect’s dismay the villa’s walls were made forty-six centimetres thick, instead of the sixty-five centimetres he had designed due to a lack of materials in Estonia. The innovative flat roof was also not fully waterproofed. The roof also caused waves amongst the locals, as many people had never seen a roof like that before and some even deemed it blasphemous.

The Tammekann family permanently fled to Finland to escape the imposition of Soviet authority in 1940. Their former home was radically changed in the Soviet period, with the villa being rebuilt into an apartment building. The building was returned to the possession of Tammekann’s descendants in 1994, after which it was purchased in 1998 by the University of Tartu. The villa’s exterior was restored in 2000 to match the initial building design. It is currently being used by the Granö Centre of the universities of Turku and Tartu. Anyone who is interested in taking a look around can book a visit to the villa.