Flower shop
The building crammed into a small lot in the Old Town was completed in 1983 and was one of the first postmodernist structures in Estonia. Architect Vilen Künnapu has concealed the volume of a practical business building with the facade screen constructed on the street level. It has playful postmodernist form language, while also generates an imaginary connection with historical facades of the Old Town. In Soviet context, it was an extraordinary building, because the prevailing declarative modernism did not allow any deviations from utility.
Interior designer of the building Mari Kurismaa also designed the script LILLED PÄRJAD (flowers, wreaths) painted on the wall. Vilen Künnapu, who has always insisted on the metaphysical aspect in architecture, wanted to emphasize the word “wreaths”, which had to create a break in daily hustle of the business street, referring to the transience of life. Mari Kurismaa does not remember exactly, based on which font she drafted the words, but it was probably Helvetica. In the course of manual re-drawing, the forms have changed a bit and resemble the font Favorit of Dinamo, which was released only 40 years later.
