Children’s corner at Tallinn Airport

The situation in the children’s corner of Tallinn Airport was sad when TEMPT was invited to the rescue – in the shabby corner were some big cushioned cubes for children to stack on top of one another. Surely this was not interesting, so most of the children kept unsettling their parents or just ran around the airport. Waiting is boring and frustrating if you have nothing special to do.

Our mission was to create an area so interesting and attractive to children that even the parents would be willing to spend hours on it. We asked for some help from the creator of the Lotte cartoon character, Heiki Ernits, and he designed as “real” a Lotte-house as possible for our vision. All the small decorative paintings are also done by Mr. Ernits.

So we designed a 3-storey children’s playhouse, with everything that it implies; we built the entire house out of wooden panels and erected it in a friends industrial building. This was our first prefab building. After some testing, first by ourselves, and later by our children, it was ready – we took it apart, transported it to the airport, promptly erected the building in lightning-fast fashion and did some last minute additions without disturbing the passengers.

Waiting for a flight has never been so quick – an hour now feels like 10 minutes. Before the project we were told a three-storey children’s playhouse was impossible, but now the children get the best views of the airport from the top of the tower. There are places where kids can relax and contemplate their thoughts, there are places for creative expression. Children can run, jump and slide or, if they would like, just relax on the beanbags and watch cartoons. Now, the problem for parents in Tallinn is that children want to travel a lot more than they do.

Typology

Public, Timber

Year

2014

Location:

Tallinn, Estonia

Area:

ca 100 m2

Project Year

2014

Author:

Mihkel Urmet, Taavi Kunigas, Heiki Ernits, Pavla Franková

Client:

Tallinn Airport

Builder:

TEMPT, Argo Männik, Bruno Lillemets

Photos:

Helen Melesk