Same Difference

Adjacent to Soosaar’s film is Mari Volens’ photo series, capturing fragments of Lasnamäe’s buildings and vegetation. The photos focus on plants, with framing that slices through surrounding buildings, obscuring the precise locations. The presence of additional buildings remains indiscernible, and the isolated plants offer no hint of their planting pattern. Yet, a subtle contrast between the two subjects emerges: the buildings appear older, while the saplings seem younger. The pared-back nature fades against the backdrop of monumental architecture.

To make way for modern Lasnamäe, the original landscape had to be erased. Without firsthand experience, it is hard to comprehend the scale of land that was excavated in one area and transported elsewhere as fill. Many former sites and natural features live on in today’s neighbourhood names. For instance, Tondiraba was once a swamp, drained and excavated around the channel’s path, with peat replaced by soil. While past ideals of human-centredness and accessibility still hold value, innovative architects are now more mindful of the existing urban environment in their planning.

Following the Soviet Union’s collapse, construction in Lasnamäe stopped. By then, most planned micro-districts, along with schools, kindergartens and limited commercial spaces had been completed. Yet parks and public buildings – especially the centre envisioned for Tondiraba between Mustakivi and Laagna also discussed in Soosaar and Meelak’s discussion – remained unfinished. Since independence, parks have been gradually developed, reclaiming patches of wild nature in Lasnamäe, though the destroyed marshes and heaths are lost. The title of Volens’s series, Same Difference, underscores the artificiality of both nature and architecture in these images, strictly governed by rules.