Built environments of care from the late Socialist to post-Socialist Estonia

The project rethinks the developments in the Estonian built environment of the last forty years from the perspective of care. Based onthe intersectional feminist viewpoint, the project asks how has architecture contributed to taking care of people’s physical, emotional and social needs, and how do changes in this realm reflect the social values and their development from the late Socialist to post-Socialist period. Focusing on aspects of the built environment that have hitherto been deemed marginal like the spatial experience of disabled people; spaces of mental health; manifestations of spiritual aspirations; spaces of alternative communities; entanglements of sustainability, nationality and the vernacular; as well as normative practices in taking care of the labour forces as a backdrop, the project broadens the existing architecture historical narrative, demonstrating the strong relationship of the built environment and care as one of the central categories of a society.