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Landscape architect, architect
Elina Amann, last edited on 14.10.2022
Name:
Valve Pormeister
Life Dates:
1922 – 2002
Country:
Employers:
Estonian Agricultural Project “Eesti Põllumajandusprojekt” (until 1964)
Estonian Rural Development Project “Eesti Maaehitusprojekt ” (until 1992)
Lecturer at the ERKI (1968 – 1970)
Jury work for architectural competitions
Field of expertise:
Landscape architecture, architectural design, education
Education:
Awards:
Soviet Estonia Award for the planners and builders of the Song Festival Grounds, Song Festival Pavilion and Flower Pavilion (1965)
Large Silver Medal and Small Gold Medal of the Exhibition of National Economic Achievements of the USSR (1971)
Cultural Award of the Republic of Estonia for Lifetime Achievement (2000)
Valve Pormeister was born in Tallinn on 13 April 1922. Her birth name was Valve Ulm and she spent her childhood in the village of Peedu near the capital Tallinn. There she learned skills for her future profession as a landscape architect at an early age, as her family had also been involved in agriculture. Her father was a farmer and her mother a gardener. At the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn, Pormeister (then Ulm) decided to study garden and park design and graduated in 1952.
The Estonian landscape architect worked on an agricultural project (Eesti Põllumajandusprojekt) until 1964. During these first years as a landscape architect, she participated in competitions. Among them was the participation in the reconstruction of the pavilion of the Estonian SSR at the Exhibition of National Economic Achievements in Moscow in 1959, where she received the third place. With great success was the participation in the Exhibition of National Economic Achievements of the USSR for the design of floral exhibitions in Moscow and the participation in the landscape design projects there. In 1971 she received the large silver medal and the small gold medal.
Later, she participated in rural development in Estonia (Eesti Maaehitus project) until 1992. At the same time, Pormeister served as a jury member in architectural competitions, lectured at ERKI and organised horticultural and floral exhibitions.
Through her working style and design in landscape architecture, clients also recognised the potential in her as an architect. Based on Nordic Modernism, Pormeister specified the use of landscape and natural materials, such as brick, wood or plaster, and created a unique architectural design fused with the knowledge of landscape design. Her style is formed by asymmetrical building structure, low-pitched roofs with asymmetrical cuts, combinations of different materials, courtyards and outdoor fireplaces. Her designs were inspired by the respective landscape and integrated the building into it. Her unusual style was only approved by the Soviet government with special exceptions. The buildings became more sculptural and robust around 1970, but she remained true to the reference to the natural environment.
The originality of her designs is probably related to Pormeister’s lack of architectural training, which enabled her to develop an architectural style beyond doctrine.
Pormeister’s first and most famous building is the Flower Pavilion (Lillepaviljon), which was completed in 1960. The windows, as well as the natural materials of the pavilion, create a relief between the trees. For the Flower Pavilion, the landscape architect received her first prize five years after the work was created – the Soviet Estonia Prize for the designers and builders of pavilions and festival grounds.
The architect began to create further works after this success. These included her own residence and numerous country houses and garden houses. In 1964, she expanded her first work with a restaurant. Café Tuljak is understood at the time as Finnish-influenced carnival architecture and today as Soviet retro style.
She designed the entire plan of the Botanical Garden in the capital Tallinn (1963). At the same time, she designed the outdoor sculpture garden of the Kadriorg Art Museum in 1966.
A pattern of commissions can be discerned for which the garden architect was selected. The buildings were mainly influenced by the context of agriculture. The office and residential building in Pärnu of the Estonian Rural Development Project (1966) and The Technical School of Jäneda State farm (1975), as well as the building of the Estonian Agricultural University in Tähtvere (1981) are works by Valve Pormeister.
In the late 1970s and 1980s, Pormeister’s work was integrated into the Estonian architectural landscape, which also underwent a postmodern development.
Towards the end of her life, she designed a number of monuments.
Main image:
Fig. 1: By Ren12 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 ee, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16814221 (last accessed 14.10.2022)
Fig. 2: By Avjoska – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5120663 (last accessed 14.10.2022)
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