Words From Good Associates

“On a winter evening, as you quietly walk along the historical streets with the snow pleasantly crunching under your feet like in a fairy tale, you look around – a pleasantly soft light covers the cold stone walls and creates a feeling of warmth.”

Anyone who has walked in Tallinn’s Old Town never forgets the experience. Tallinn’s Old Town is undoubtedly one of Estonia’s most significant treasures, which is becoming increasingly valuable as time goes by. The Tallinn town walls and towers have kept the Old Town in a cold but secure and lasting framework. Now we’ve been able to breathe life into this established framework by adding a bit of light. Today’s solutions have provided an opportunity to decorate and unify the magnificent structures that are under heritage protection so that as dusk arrives, a fantastic view of our architectural pearl is revealed.

Kalle Klandorf
Tallinn Deputy Mayor

“I’m very happy to have participated in the town wall lighting project from the inception of the idea to its completion.”

In 2017, I was able to compile the first international lighting-related competition in Tallinn and I was totally convinced that it would be successful when I was still on the jury learning about the winning project. The Lighting Design Collective from Finland designed it. The project, with its conceptual poem, was enchanting and demonstrated how lighting design, like a good fairytale, can be used to elucidate and tell a story. The concept of the lighting design acknowledges the value of the Old Town’s milieu; it is simple and honours the citizenry – the mysterious whisper of light. This same feeling of success has continued throughout the long and cold nights spent testing the lighting, until the final completion of the project.

Eva Tallo
Chief Specialist, Urban Environment and
Public Works Department of Tallinn City Government