02.5 Passive Design — Tallinn, Estonia

Gümnaasium — Sports Hall

A sports hall on Tallinn’s Green Belt, wrapped in louvres that open and close with the path of the sun.

Interior of the sports hall with a wavy white ceiling and louvre shadows cast across the lower wall above the green and blue court — Interior — the wavy ceiling above, louvre shadows on the wall below

A sports hall on the Green Belt

The site sits on Tallinn’s Green Belt, the band of parkland that wraps around the city’s historic Old Town. The brief was for a school gymnasium that would also serve the wider neighbourhood. The proposal sets a long, single-volume sports hall low into the park, keeping the Old Town’s silhouette intact above.

Two towers rise from the horizontal hall and echo the proportions of the medieval Old Town wall on the horizon — a quiet structural rhyme between the old city and the new.

Wrapped in louvres

The hall is wrapped in a louvre system that opens and closes with the path of the sun. In winter, it admits low solar gain across the south face; in summer it shades the interior and lets the heat dissipate through the building’s draped, wavy ceiling.

The result is a large volume that needs very little mechanical conditioning — and an interior animated by the slow, daily choreography of light and shadow.

Fig. Renders, site & drawings

Wide view of the sports court with louvre shadows cast across the inner wall and the wavy white ceiling above — Court — louvre shadows on the wall

Alternate angle of the sports court, showing the wavy ceiling spanning the full width of the hall — Court — the wavy ceiling spanning the hall

Site plan showing the proposed building's red footprint within Tallinn's historic Old Town and Green Belt — Site plan — the building’s footprint beside the Old Town

Physical site model showing the empty site between an orange-red historic district to the right and a residential block to the left — Site model — the empty site, before the proposal

Short section through the sports hall, drawn against a black sky and grey ground — Short section — the hall set into the park slope

Long section through the sports hall, showing the horizontal volume against a backdrop of Tallinn's existing buildings — Long section — the hall against the city beyond