Estonian Academy of Arts

This article explores how Eastern and Western architectural practices can collaborate to create sustainable housing solutions, addressing the challenges posed by globalisation while promoting a balance between cultural values and ecological needs. Through the analysis of case studies from Estonia, Bali and West Africa, the paper examines how local knowledge can be integrated with modern technologies. The focus is on the use of local materials, climate responsive design, and energy efficiency throughout the whole process. The findings suggest that combining traditional architectural practices with global knowledge offers a pathway to sustainable housing that respects cultural identity and addresses ecological challenges. The study highlights how cross-cultural collaboration can foster innovative, sustainable architecture that meets both global and local needs.

Analyzing cultural heritage (CH) materials, particularly organic substances, is challenging due to their complex chemical composition. A key requirement in such analyses is the use of analytical techniques that cause minimal damage to the artifact while providing the maximum amount of chemical information about the materials. Chromatographic and mass spectrometric (MS) techniques give valuable information about components of the organic materials, but these typically require a microsample from the object, along with specific preparation and instrumental conditions. For CH artifacts, techniques that work directly on the surface, thereby causing minimal damage, are far more desirable. We have developed a 355 nm optical fiber-coupled laser ablation (LA) atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI)-MS system that enables the analysis of organic material directly from the solid surface of the artifact under ambient conditions with minimal surface damage. In this study, we coupled LA with APCI-Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR)-MS. The main aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of the developed LA-APCI high-resolution (HR)MS system for the analysis of five handmade mock-up materials of different paint and varnish layers and one real-life sample. The results demonstrate the analytical potential of the LA-APCI-HRMS technique, as high-quality and identifiable mass spectra were obtained for most of the analyzed materials. In the future, the developed LA-APCI-HRMS technique could be applied not only to cultural heritage but also to other fields (e.g., forensics, material science, etc.).

Abstract The textile and nonwoven industries are some of the largest and fastest growing industries in the world. However, they are also some of the major contributors to environmental pollution. Therefore, there is a need to develop more sustainable alternatives in the textile sector. The nonwoven industry faces challenges with the single-use nature of many of its products and the use of non-renewable raw materials. In light of these challenges, this study explores the possibility of alternative cellulosic raw materials for producing man-made cellulose fibres (MMCF) for nonwovens using the Ioncell technology. Specifically, straw pulp and recycled Lyocell-based nonwovens are examined. Various pretreatments are applied to remove additives and improve spinnability, such as NaOH and H 2 SO 4 treatments. The treatments and spinning conditions are optimized using a monofilament spinning unit and fibres are then produced for samples with a larger multifilament spinning unit. The properties of the fibres, including tensile strength, elongation, and orientation, are evaluated. The results show that the fibres produced from the recycled nonwovens and straw pulp exhibit comparable properties to standard Ioncell fibres. The recycling process is successful in maintaining fibre quality, making it a promising alternative for MMCF production. Graphical Abstract

Design scholars are advocating for building a deeper and more nuanced power literacy when applying participatory approaches in mental healthcare. Although actionable frameworks have been developed to identify risks, these approaches rely heavily on designers’ analytical skills and do not offer ways to understand power through multiple scales that simultaneously influence individuals and populations. If this concern is not addressed, designers might inadvertently reproduce harmful power structures. Therefore, this paper builds a Foucaultian lens of disciplinary and bio-power to reflexively analyze design fieldwork dilemmas in mental healthcare contexts from France and Estonia. It contributes to deepening designers’ power literacy by crafting a more systemic theoretical framework on power through five mechanisms, and exemplifying how designers might embody power through two instruments: objectification and normalization. Consequently, this paper reminds designers of their entanglement within the power web and informs intentional ways of rethinking design fieldwork methods by addressing the active mechanisms of power.

This paper discusses participation and its impact through the lenses of justice and, identifying burdens, questioning representation issues unwillingly created, prompting careful consideration of participatory methods and highlighting power tensions in relation to the participants. Specifically, it scrutinizes the dimensions of participation, addressing who participates, where, when, and how participation occurs. Furthermore, by investigating the ghosts of participation—the lingering effects and unintended consequences of participation—we investigate the broader implications of participatory processes on individuals and communities. This paper aims to contribute to the growing discourse of participation from a justice perspective, offering insights into how public participation can be reviewed to better serve principles of justice.

This article analyzes Baltic German religious art based on examples from Estonia in the first half of the nineteenth century, focusing on artistic networks and the reclamation of a Renaissance classical ideal. Baltic German artists such as Friedrich Ludwig von Maydell, Gustav Adolf Hippius, and Otto Friedrich Ignatius were in contact with the Nazarenes, whose ideals were inspired by Raphael’s attempt to merge art and religion. The Nazarenes influence can be seen in Baltic German religious art, which favored idealized forms and followed on from the works of the Renaissance masters. In addition to presenting religious scenes, in the Baltic context, these artworks acted as mediators of European artistic heritage. The classical ideal was thus perpetuated by a tightly connected network in which Baltic German artists joined others in re-establishing the power of the European canon of art history.

This is an in-depth study of a mimicked slotted point, carved from a cervid longbone, found in the lower reaches of the Pärnu River. The 3D digital model, created during this study, provides an interactive and innovative tool for studying the object in detail. The AMS dating places the artefact at the very beginning of human habitation in the present-day territory of Estonia. SEM-EDS, ATR-FT-IR and GC-FID/MS analyses demonstrate that this unique object was probably originally partially covered with a mixture of red ochre and some coniferous resin, possibly as hafting adhesive. As this is a detailed replica of a slotted point, it also demonstrates how people themselves saw slotted points in the Early Mesolithic, also raising the question of the purpose of this replica – was it an ordinary arrowhead or rather a ritual object?

Artiklis uurime Eesti looduse ja kultuuri kaitsel tekkinud teravaid vastasseise, mida osalejad on mõnikord nimetanud sõdadeks. Näitejuhtumid ulatuvad pühapaikade kaitselt metsa ja linnalooduse kaitseni. Vaatleme artiklis, kuidas vastasseisud on arenenud, milliseid argumente kasutatakse ning millised konflikti osapooled neis eristuvad. Meie eesmärk ei ole otsida konfliktidele lahendusi või neid ennetada – selle asemel soovime mõista, miks mõnikord muutub looduse ja kultuuri kaitse sõjakat retoorikat kasutavaks konfliktiks.
 Summary
 This paper studies examples of the protection of natural or cultural objects in Estonia developing into sharp conflicts during the past couple of decades. Various mechanisms have been developed to avoid, prevent and solve conflicts, yet sharp oppositions still occur. Our aim is not to provide yet another methodology of conflict solving, but rather to look behind it: who participates in such conflicts, what their reasons and arguments are, what kind of rhetoric they use. Such an approach proceeds from Juri Lotman’s suggestion that it is not agreements, but contradictions that make a dialogue fruitful. 
 The case studies discussed in the paper range from folkloric sacred sites to the protection of forest and natural objects in urban environments. In all examples, we could observe the presence of two parties that we call the ‘developers’ and the ‘protectors’. In all cases, the developers found themselves in the middle of a conflict they had not foreseen and could not handle, as their only purpose was to develop the initial project, be it a building, forest clearing or the like. In terms of conflict management, ‘developers’ have always been followers of the conflict, reacting to it, but not leading it. The other side, ‘protectors’, consists of an amorphous group of people, some of whom are local inhabitants, while others participate in the protection because of their world view, moral or ideological reasons. In all cases observed it is the ‘protectors’ who lead it to a conflict – mostly as they are un-institutionalised, and thus less visible, so in order to become an equal partner and force developers into a discussion, they use conflict rhetoric and methods. Conflicts are usually expanded in public and on social media in the form of short and easy-to-read messages. Mediatisation is the main characteristic of contemporary conflicts and is adopted by both sides. 
 Our cases demonstrate that a clear and uniform narrative is important in order to control a conflict and make the other side accept it. Protection of folkloristic sacred sites has been guided by Maavalla Koda, a representative body of a leading contemporary pagan organisation in Estonia. Likewise, protecting forests from clearcutting has been directed by grass-root organisations. In the case of the folkloric sacred sites, the protectors have been successful and the developments have been stopped in almost all cases. Avoiding forest clearcutting has not been so unambiguously successful, but the aggressive rhetoric and active public campaigns have certainly influenced the public opinion in Estonia. Other cases, in which there have been no organisations in the background and that have lacked a common narrative, e.g. protecting a white willow in Tallinn’s suburb of Haabersti, have not been successful. Due to the missing common narrative and lack of a leader, several persons or groups were trying to act as leaders and distribute their message, which ended with a mixture of dissimilar statements, which eventually led to the protectors losing their credibility.
 The core of such conflicts lies in a collision of different worldviews, characterised by opposing rhetoric, in which one party is using economical reasoning, while the arguments of the other are based on nature conservation, protecting of cultural and national values, and mixed with spiritual claims. Such different standpoints lead any discussion into a situation of opposition in which a compromise and solutions are difficult or even impossible to find. However, in Metsapoole the local dwellers, who acted against the State Forest Management Centre, deliberately excluded any spiritual arguments. Choosing rational rhetoric let them speak the same “language” as the Forest Management authorities and the conflict ended with a reappraisal of the plans of the State Forest Management Centre.
 There certainly are multiple reasons why conflicts arise in protecting natural and cultural objects. In addition to differences in world views, the effects of NIMBY attitudes or personal disagreements are obvious. Still, often the cases follow a similar pattern in which the conflict is brought to the public and is guided by social media and media rules. In this process, emotional arguments become more important than rational ones, which deepens the gap between the two sides involved in the conflict.

Focusing on four case studies of high-ranking Estonian architects, the article analyses the career goals and possibilities for advancement of women in design in the Soviet and the post-Soviet periods. Based on in-depth interviews and representation in mainstream and professional media, the article compares and juxtaposes the architects' public personas and self-perception as revealed in the interviews, highlighting the conditions of self-realization, organizational and design goals, networks of support and balancing the demands of high-profile design and managerial jobs with personal and family responsibilities. The cases reveal a complicated and ambivalent relationship to feminist agenda and the local specificities of the problem, delineating its possible causes from the Soviet to the post-Soviet period, and at the same time pointing towards the changes that have occurred with the transition from the socialist to the democratic state.

Following the dictum: “Form Follows People” two Danish offices used patterns generated from pedestrian movement to create the infrastructural layout when redesigning Copenhagen’s Nørreport train station. A choice that was praised by a unanimous jury and municipal client who were eager to present the winning proposal as being shaped by “the people.” However other readings are possible, the design can also be seen as a striking architectural gesture where the public is both framed as a vital prerequisite yet at the same time as the unaware producers of space. In order to understand this reasoning, this essay looks at the “human oriented approach” the offices adopted for the Nørreport project. This entails discussing the project as somewhat participatory and tracing its references back to the research on pedestrian movement done by Danish architect and urbanist Jan Gehl in the 1960s. An approach that now 50 years later can be seen coinciding with a shift in city planning where municipalities and planning offices readily embrace designing for more loosely defined subjects such as pedestrians or simply “people.” As the argument for the design only formally maintains the social agenda of participation, this essay asks whether the project could instead be read in terms of system design and its participatory practice understood in a cybernetic sense as feedback and input, and as such, if the project ultimately could be perceived as a “post-participatory” project.