Architecture and Urban Design

The art of creating and building systems

Architecture creates a material framework and conditions for the functioning and development of the whole society. In a narrower sense, architecture is the art of creating and building systems.

It is often thought that an architect only designs houses, but that is only a small, albeit prominent part of the architect’s work. Architecture also includes learning about engineering, the humanities, and various software, building endless models and prototypes to create and experiment with new structures and worlds. The most important part of architectural education takes place as practical work in a studio, in an environment similar to an architectural office, where an actual project is born from the initial sketches. Theory and engineering subjects, painting, drawing and experimental studios support the studio work.

The latter is related to the laboratories of the Faculty of Architecture (3D Laboratory, VR Laboratory, PAKK) and the research work carried out in it, where it is possible to touch the fringes of space creation. There, you can acquire knowledge and specialise in restoration, landscape architecture or planning.

Our vision for the future

Architects have the difficult task of giving modern technology a commonly comprehensible material form and face in accordance with cultural expectations; create a whole from parts whose value is greater than the sum of any individual parts. Architecture is meant to constantly innovate, rebuild and offer different visions of the future – this is also one of the important ambitions of EKA’s architecture programme.

Read more about the curriculum here.

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News and events

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Open Architecture Lecture: topoScape

The 2025 Spring semester session of the Open Lectures ”City as novel ecosystem” focuses on landscape architecture and, more specifically, urban nature. The lecture series is being put together by landscape architects Karin Bachmann, Merle Karro-Kalberg and Anna-Liisa Unt, who have co-founded and edited the landscape architecture magazine ÕU for 7 years and are currently leading the project ...
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Open Architecture Lectures in Spring 2025: The City as a Novel Ecosystem

The 2025 Spring semester session of the Open Lectures ”City as novel ecosystem” focuses on landscape architecture and, more specifically, urban nature. The lecture series is being put together by landscape architects Karin Bachmann, Merle Karro-Kalberg and Anna-Liisa Unt, who have co-founded and edited the landscape architecture magazine ÕU for 7 years and are currently leading the project ...
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Conversation evening on Japanese architecture: Yuma Shinohara

Conversation evening on Japanese architecture with Yuma Shinohara  on Monday, March 10 at 5:00 PM in room A-501 The Estonian Association of Architects and the Estonian Academy of Arts invite you to participate in a conversation evening, where Yuma Shinohara, curator of the Swiss Museum of Architecture, will introduce the work of the younger generation of Japanese architects, whose ...
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Open Architecture Lecture: Élodie Degavre

Architect and film director Elodie Degavre will give a lecture “From Architecture to Cinema and Back Again” at the EKA Open Day February 27, 2025 at 6 pm in room A-400 From architecture to cinema and back again Aerial drone view of a building. Followed by a close-up of an architect speaking in front of her/his library. Are these images familiar to you? If you’re an ...
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Faculty of Architecture “Study and Shine!” Scholarships 2024

The “Study and Shine!” scholarships were awarded for the first time at the Faculty of Architecture’s traditional Long Table Party on December 20. The aim of the scholarship for a master’s student at the Faculty of Architecture of the Estonian Academy of Arts is to support the studies of one successful master’s student from each curriculum of the Faculty of Architecture in one year. ...
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The winners of the 2024 national student research competition were announced in Tartu.

In the doctoral student category, the first prize was awarded to Gregor Taul for his work “Confusions with Monumentality. Monumental-Decorative Art in Late Soviet Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania” (supervisor Anu Allas). In his doctoral thesis, Taul analyses the production and functioning of monumental-decorative art in the late Soviet Baltic States from the 1960s until the restoration of ...
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Architectural and urban design studio inspections 11. – 19.12.2024

In December, studio work reviews of the architecture and urban planning curriculum will take place: Wed, Thu, 11. – 12.12 at 9.00–16.00 room A-400 Interim reviews of master’s studios. Mon, 16.12 at 10.00-18.00 room A-400 2nd/3rd year “Hotel”. Instructors Leonard Ma, Tuomas Toivonen, Markus Lähteenmäki (theory and history course). Tue, 17.12 at 10.00-18.00 room A-400 4th year of Architecture ...
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City Scholarships (Raestipendium) 2024 in Architecture and Urban Design

The City Council Scholarship (Raestipendium) is aimed at supporting and recognising successful master’s and doctoral students in their research and studies, with a focus on topics related to the activities of the city as a local government. The research should have practical relevance in terms of organising city life and contribute to addressing specific challenges faced by the City of ...

Student Work

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