KASSISABA
Kassisaba (Cat’s Tail) is a small, yet vivid part of the city, located close to the Old Town. You can easily get there by going down the hill from Toompea and crossing Toompuiestee. The suburb’s interesting name has puzzled people for years. In Old German, the road leading from the fortress was named Katzenschwanztze. The area’s original architecture are the wooden houses, which have high limestone foundations. The houses have nice detailing, both around the windows and doors. Many of the old houses are protected, to preserve the valued milieu for generations to come.
Tallinn as a provincial town at the end of the 19th century was quite poor, and the majority of new apartment buildings were built out of wood, which was easily acquirable, easy to handle, and most importantly – cheap.
Stylistically, historicism dominated with its saw-cut wooden lace and horizontal boarding. Art Nouveau was added to this at the beggining of the 20th century.
While we still find homes with late-Art Nouveau influences and romantic details among buildings of the 1920’s (especially characteristic for engineer Wilhelm Saleman), we also find motifs with influences of functionalism during the 1930’s.
„The apartment crisis reached its climax during the first days of the Estonian Republic. People sometimes paid more for the tiny corner of a room than individuals pay now for a roomy apartment.“ Majaomanik magazine, 1920’s
Although relatively small in size, apartments in the Tallinn home still contained everything necessary for living, from a kitchen to a toilet – water and plumbling were, self-evidently, also available in each apartment.
„Building are generally only allowed to be painted in the following colours: whire, straw-yellow, light yellow, light grey, dark grey, pale rose, and malachite green, but with a great amount of white and yellowfish-grey added.“ law from the early 19th century
A door featuring a series of windows was often the most decorative part of historic suburban wooden dwellings. This old tradition also remained vital throughout the entire first half of the 20th century.
Although simple suburban dwellings and wealthy burgeois villas did nit differ all that much constructively, it was the decor, which alongside the structure‘s volume was the primary instrument for expressing class and social position.
Tallinn homes were a vernacular architectural phenomenon that emerged from local tradition, and the message of sustainability was not so important in their case. Due to its late construction period and the relatively good quality of life, the Tallinn building type was able to survive chronic negligence during the Soviet period, and is also well adaptable to modern living requirements.
text: Tallinna puitarhitektuur – Wooden Architecture of Tallinn photos: own collection Rebeka Vrbinčíková