Valve Pormeister ''née'' Ulm (13 April 1922 – 27 October 2002) was an Estonian landscape architect who became an architect. She was one of the first women to influence the development of Estonian architecture, becoming one of the country's most inventive modernisers of rural architecture in the 1960s and 1970s.
''Estonian Art'' 1/05. Retrieved 14 February 2012. She is often known as the "Grand Old Lady" of Estonian architecture.
''Ajaloo Asakond''. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
Biography
Pormeister was born 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 ' ...
, studied briefly agronomy 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 ...
and went on to study landscape architecture in
Tallinn State Institute of Applied Art. After graduating, she first worked at the Estonian Agricultural Design Institute (1952) but soon moved from landscaping to designing buildings in Estonian Land Development Project of the National Design Institute where she worked until 1992. Despite the fact that she was a woman in a country where architecture had always been a man's profession, she gained wide recognition with her very first work, the Flower Pavilion in Tallinn (1960). Designed as an exhibition venue, the pavilion became a landmark of post-Stalinist architecture with its organic, light appearance, its transparency and its affinity to nature. Pormeister went on to design a gardening exhibition centres in Tallinn and one for a horticultural institute in Moscow (1964). In her
Café Tuljak (1964), an extension to the Flower Pavilion, Pormeister was also inspired by Finnish trends, this time by rather heavier, right-angled style with dark wooden cornices.
[ Pormeister's next important project was another Nordic-styled work, The Administrative and Research Centre for the Kurtna Experimental Poultry Farm (1966). Her careful planning, attention to detail and use of matching materials inside and out culminated in a building perfectly suited to its surroundings. It was seen by her contemporaries as being influenced by ]Alvar Aalto
Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (; 3 February 1898 – 11 May 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, see ...
although Pormeister stated she had been strongly influenced by Richard Neutra
Richard Joseph Neutra ( ; April 8, 1892 – April 16, 1970) was an Austrian-American architect. Living and building for the majority of his career in Southern California, he came to be considered a prominent and important modernist architect.
He ...
. Larger projects followed, including Saku Saku may refer to:
Places
*Saku, Nagano, a city in Japan
*Saku, Nagano (Minamisaku), a town in Japan
*Saku Parish, a rural municipality in Harju County, Estonia
**Saku, Estonia, a small borough in Saku Parish, Harju County, Estonia
*Saku Constituen ...
's State Plant Protection Station (1975), the Technical School of the State Farm in Jäneda
Jäneda (german: Jendel) is a small village in northern Estonia. It is located in Lääne-Viru County (from autumn 2005) and is a part of Tapa municipality.
History Jäneda hill fort
Jäneda hill fort was a hill fort used from the 10th to t ...
(1975) and the neo-functionalist canteen at the State Farm in Audru
Audru (german: Audern) is a small borough ( et, alevik) in Pärnu County, southwestern Estonia. It is the administrative centre of Audru Parish. At the 2011 Census, the settlement's population was 1,492.
Composer Aleksander Kunileid was born i ...
(1978). She also built two important buildings on the outskirts of Tartu: the Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Scientific Research Institute (1984) and The Faculty of Forestry and Soil Improvement of the Estonian Academy of Agriculture (1984) on the banks of the Emajõgi River.
Alongside designs, she was over the course of her life a member of many architectural and art commissions, councils and architectural competition juries, as well as a lecturer at the Art Institute (1968-1970).
Style
Pormeister's many varied styles introduced new trends in Estonia, always taking the surrounding landscape fully into consideration. She has been referred to as the primary representative of organic architecture in Estonia, using natural materials as wood, bricks and glass. Her works remain masterpieces of post-war Modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
and served as a source of inspiration for many of her contemporaries.["Valve Pormeister 13. IV 1922 – 27. X 2002"]
''Sirp.ee''. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
Her early style in the 1960s was influenced by the soft Nordic modernistic trends developing in Finland, one of the few countries Estonians were permitted to visit at the time. In addition, Finnish television could be received in Estonia and specialised Finnish magazines were also available. This explains the advent of lighter materials such as wood and plaster creating a more user-friendly appeal.
Late 1960s and the 1970s buildings are characterized by daring and bold visions in layout and volumes, sloping surfaces and diagonal lines. She was liable to innovations in architecture and thus began exploring neo-functionalism.
In the late 1970s and during the 1980s her works blended in with the Estonian architectural scene. Her designs also went through post-modern movement. The sensitivity towards building environment and the exploitation of architectural heritage suited her principles well.
During the 1990s, Pormeister designed a number of reconstruction and renovation plans for her previously erected buildings. Towards the end of her life she planned several memorials.
Work
* The Flower Pavilion (1960)
* Café Tuljak (1964)
* The Administrative and Research Centre for the Kurtna Experimental Poultry Farm (1966)
* The canteen-administration building of the Audru Collective Farm (1973)
* The Saku State Plant Protection Station (1974)
* The Technical School of Jäneda State farm (1974)
* The Maarjamäe memorial (together with Allan Murdmaa and Henno Sepmann, 1975) and landscape modeling
* The main building of the Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Scientific Research Institute near Tartu
Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...
(1984)
* The Faculty of Forestry and Soil Improvement of the Estonian Academy of Agriculture (1984)
Awards
*Soviet Estonian award for the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds and Choir Stand (1965)
*Soviet Estonian award for landscape architecture and the main building at the Kurtna Poultry Experimental Station (1967)
*Honoured Architect of Soviet Estonia (1967)
*State Award of the Soviet SSR for designing of the Saku Saku may refer to:
Places
*Saku, Nagano, a city in Japan
*Saku, Nagano (Minamisaku), a town in Japan
*Saku Parish, a rural municipality in Harju County, Estonia
**Saku, Estonia, a small borough in Saku Parish, Harju County, Estonia
*Saku Constituen ...
, Kurtna and Vinni
Øyvind Sauvik (born 3 February 1976), better known by his stage name Vinni, is a Norwegian musician and hip hop artist.
Biography
Born in Arendal, Norway, Sauvik moved with his parents to Tanzania when he was three years old, as they worked w ...
communities (1971)
*Estonian National Lifetime Achievement Award for Culture (2000)
*Order of the White Star
The Order of the White Star ( et, Valgetähe teenetemärk; french: Ordre de l'Etoile Blanche) was instituted in 1936. The Order of the White Star is bestowed on Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic ...
, Fifth Class (2001)
Personal exhibitions
* In the Flower Pavilion, 1972 for Valve Pormeister's 50th Anniversary
* Valve Pormeister. Moderniser of Estonian Countryside. Exhibition from March 8 to April 17, 2005 in the Museum of Estonian Architecture
Estonian Museum of Architecture ( et, Eesti Arhitektuurimuuseum) is an architecture museum in Tallinn, Estonia. It is located in the Rotermann quarter. The museum is a member of ICAM.
History
The museum was established on 1 January 1991 to do ...
.
Personal life
For a short period Valve Pormeister was married to interior architect Valter Pormeister. Her long-term partner was architect Henno Sepmann
Henno Sepmann (12 February 1925 Tartu – 24 September 1985 Moscow) was an Estonian architect. Eesti kunsti ja arhitektuuri biograafiline leksikon (EKABL). Tallinn: Eesti Entsüklopeediakirjastus, 1996. Page 472
In 1952 he graduated from Tallinn ...
. The elder sister was Elgi Reemets, an applied artist.
Photos
Valve Pormeister
The National Archives of Estonia photo database. Photo: Olav Tuulik, 1967
Valve Pormeister, architect of the Estonian Land Development Project
The National Archives of Estonia photo database. Photo: Gunnar Loss, 1971
Literature
*Jänes, Liina: ''Valve Pormeister - Eesti maa-arhitektuuri uuendaja, näitus'' (Estonian rural architecture innovator, an exhibition), 2005, Tallinn, Eesti Arhitektuurimuuseum, 96 pp. .
References
External links
Liina Jänes. Position of the "Other": The Architecture of Valve Pormeister
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pormeister, Valve
1922 births
2002 deaths
Architects from Tallinn
Estonian women architects
Estonian Academy of Arts alumni
Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 5th Class
Soviet architects