Rakvere Vabaduse Square and St Paul’s Church Architectural Competition

The City of Rakvere (Estonia) is organizing an open international architectural competition for the design of Arvo Pärt’s Hall by reconstruction of Rakvere’s St Paul’s church and planning the surrounding area called Vabaduse Square (Freedom Square). The goal of the competition is to choose the best architectural idea that would contribute to the high quality of Rakvere City’s public space.

According to plan, the church building which is currently used as a sports venue will be transformed into a multifunctional public building which, along with its annex, will make up the Arvo Pärt Hall. The concert hall would introduce the works of Arvo Pärt as well as other Estonian classical music composers and other great figures of Estonian music, while also serving as a venue for seminars, training classes, conferences and a wide range of other events. At the moment, Rakvere does not have a hall that could provide the above mentioned functions, although there is a great need for such a building.

In order to achieve the goal of the competition, the church will have to be reconstructed, partly restored, and supplemented with an annex of sufficient size that could contain the necessary auxiliary rooms. We also consider it necessary to reorganize the surrounding urban space based on contemporary concepts and the needs of the city. There is a need to foresee an area to be reserved for constructing a new public building as one aspect of planning the competition area.

The architectural competition is open to all participants who have ideas and wish to contribute to Rakvere’s urban space. The author of the architectural design or at least one member of the group of authors of the design must have the right to provide architectural design services in their country of residence or must be a professionally certified architect.

Brief (PDF)

http://w3.rakvere.ee/hange