Alar Kotli (27 August 1904 in

Väike-Maarja Väike-Maarja is a small borough ( et, alevik) in Lääne-Viru County, Estonia. It is the administrative centre of Väike-Maarja Parish. Väike-Maarja Church was initially built as a fortress church. Climate Notable people * Aile Assz ...

- 4 October 1963 in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

) was an

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

n architect. He studied sculpture at the art school ''Pallas'' in Tartu during 1922-1923 and mathematics at the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

. He graduated from the University of technology in Gdańsk (then Free City of Danzig) in 1927 as an architect. Among the most famous and influential Estonian architects, Kotli has created several important landmarks in

. These include the

Estonian Song Festival The Estonian Song Festival (in Estonian: ''laulupidu'', ) is one of the largest choral events in the world, a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. It is held every five years in July on the Tallinn Song Festival G ...

grounds (1957-1960, with Henno Sepmann & E. Paalmann), the main building of

Tallinn University Tallinn University (TLU; et, Tallinna Ülikool, ''TLÜ'') is a public research university in Estonia. Located in the centre of Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, Tallinn University is one of the three largest institutions of higher education ...

(1938-1940, with

Erika Nõva Erika Nõva née Volberg (4 April 1905, Muuksi – 22 April 1987, Tallinn) was an Estonian architect, remembered mainly for her farmhouse designs. She was the first woman to graduate as an architect in Estonia. Biography Nõva studied at the Tal ...

), the Art Fund building (1949-1953) and the administrative building in Kadriorg park (currently the residence of the president of the Republic of Estonia) in conjunction with architect Olev Siinmaa (1937-1938). Kotli has also created many experimental apartment building projects, which were widely used after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

when there was a serious need for new dwellings. Smaller buildings (for two families) were used in the 1950s as lottery jackpots. Kotli's style has varied over the years. He has designed many functionalistic buildings in the 1930s, for example - schoolhouses in Rakvere (1935-1938) and Tapa (1936-1939). The Presidential Palace, also dating from the 1930s, can be categorised as historicism, while his 1950s and 1960s style is similar to brutalism.

Gallery

File:Palacio presidencial Kadriorg, Tallinn, Estonia, 2012-08-12, DD 04.JPG, The administrative building in

Kadriorg Kadriorg (Estonian for ''" Catherine's Valley"'') is a subdistrict in the district of Kesklinn ("Midtown"), Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. It has a population of 4,561 (). The subdistrict name derives from the Catherinethal, a Baroque palace ...

park, built in 1938, is now used as the residence of the president of the Republic of Estonia. File:Alar Kotli - kunstifond - pilt 1.JPG, Art Fund building (1949-1953) on Freedom Square in Tallinn. Under the pressure of

sovietization Sovietization (russian: Советизация) is the adoption of a political system based on the model of soviets (workers' councils) or the adoption of a way of life, mentality, and culture modelled after the Soviet Union. This often included ...

, many Soviet-style details were added to this building. File:XXV laulupidu (3).jpg,

Tallinn Song Festival Grounds The Tallinn Song Festival Grounds ( et, Lauluväljak) are the grounds on which the Estonian Song Festival is held every five years. History of song festivals In 1869 Johann Voldemar Jannsen established the Estonian Song Festival while the na ...

External links

1904 births 1963 deaths People from Väike-Maarja People from the Governorate of Estonia Modernist architects Soviet architects 20th-century Estonian architects University of Tartu alumni Gdańsk University of Technology alumni Burials at Metsakalmistu {{Estonia-architect-stub