Architect
Elina Amann, last edited on 17.10.2022
Name:
Maarja Nummert
Life Dates:
b. 1944
Country:
Employers:
Special design office of the Ministry of Building Materials Industry (from 1969)
Estonian Rural Construction Project (1975)
Humana project
OÜ picoproject (1999)
Field of expertise:
Architectural design
Education:
Awards:
Sirbi Architecture Prize (1986)
State Prize of the Estonian SSR
Maarja Nummert was born on April 24, 1944, in a community called Antsla in southern Estonia. She inherited her interest in art and architecture from her father and applied to the Estonian State Art Institute, where she was accepted in 1964. She graduated as an architect in 1969 and was assigned to the Special Design Bureau of the Ministry of Building Materials Industry according to the Soviet system.
After that, she worked at the Estonian Rural Construction Project (Eesti Maaehitusprojekt), like Valve Pormeister, from 1975. There she found her competences for designing school buildings and made it her trademark. Later, during the period of Estonian independence, she worked at the Humana Project, where, without the dictates of the Soviet administration, she gave free rein to her creativity and continued to design school buildings. Since 1999, Nummert has worked at the OÜ Pikoprojekt.
Nummert specialized in the elaboration of educational facilities. She was awarded for her works in the rural towns of Ääsmäe, Noaroots, Kolga and Uhtna for designing the schools. Her design stands out from the standardized forms and systems of other school buildings. She used glulam as a construction material for her designs. A well-known work by Nummert includes the Aruküla Primary School (Aruküla Põhikooli) in the small municipality of the same name. The architect also created a restoration design for Tallinn Service School (Tallinna Teeninduskooli) in 1946, as well as the vocational training school Tõnismäe Secondary School (Tõnismäe Reaalkooli). In the projects of renovation she was hired by school administrations because she knew how to enlarge the spaces of the buildings without demolishing the building. Narrow hallways and small rooms with small windows became bright large spaces. She designed both the façade and the interior spaces and associated equipment in her school construction projects.
The architect also designed the Salem Church in Tartu in 2000, a project that stands out among her works for its design and unique interior acoustics. It is reminiscent of the traditional Estonian architecture of sacred buildings.
Furthermore, she created designs of residential or office buildings and stores.
Nummert’s works always reflect a certain playfulness as well as closeness to nature. In 1986, she was awarded the Sirbi Architecture Prize and the Estonian SSR State Prize for her rural school buildings in Kolga and Uhtna.
Main image:
Fig. 1: By Ad Meskens – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69524601 (last accessed on 17.10.2022)
Fig. 2: By Hardmen9 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27132094 (last accessed on 17.10.2022)
Fig. 3: By Mona-Mia – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 ee, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21205571 (last accessed on 17.10.2022)
Fig. 4: By NOSSER – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=98119478 (last accessed on 17.10.2022)
Fig. 5: By Aulo Aasmaa – https://web.archive.org/web/20161013182920/http://www.panoramio.com/photo/23797870, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12753876 (last accessed on 17.10.2022)
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