Much of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' main building's infrastructure dates back to 1968 when it was constructed to serve as the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Estonia.

Kristjan Salk, senior specialist at the ministry's Construction and Real Estate Bureau, said the office floors where staff work lack both ventilation and cooling systems. Due to elevated security requirements, opening windows throughout the building isn't always possible.

"We basically have no ventilation in the building at all," Salk said.

The basement presents similar issues. As the water and sewage pipes also date back to the 1960s, occasional flooding occurs, he added.

While some repairs and restoration work have been done on the building and property in the past, no comprehensive renovation has taken place since Estonia regained independence.

This fall, the ministry approached the Tallinn Urban Planning Department to determine which parts of the building are considered culturally valuable and what heritage protection requirements would apply in the case of renovation.

However, Salk noted that full renovation is not yet on the table, as the state has not allocated funding for it in the coming years. A preliminary estimate from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and State Real Estate Ltd (RKAS) puts the total cost at around €40 million.

As of now, no funding has been set aside for the building's design phase or for a potential architectural competition either.

The ministry has, however, allocated several tens of thousands of euros to begin preparatory work for the process.

Since the building has never undergone full renovation, the ministry currently lacks a comprehensive overview of its condition, Salk said.

"We're currently drafting the terms of reference for the design phase. Basically, we're identifying the organization's space requirements. At the same time, we've contacted the heritage protection unit of the Tallinn Urban Planning Department to gather information about what aspects of the building are culturally significant. That way, we can take heritage protection requirements into account while testing different space planning scenarios," he explained.

Fate of the 'Sprat Can Hall'

One of the heritage-protected parts of the building is the 600-seat assembly hall, commonly known as the Kilukarbisaal — the Sprat Can Hall.

The hall got its name from the 60,000 sprat cans affixed to the ceiling. The reinforced concrete shell covering the ceiling made it impossible to install lighting from above and the wall-mounted lamps didn't provide enough illumination.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has described how, under the severe material shortages of the Soviet era, architect Mart Port came up with the idea to screw 60,000 empty, oiled sprat cans to the ceiling. The cans would reflect and diffuse light while also helping to absorb excess sound.

"The Kilukarbisaal isn't in use right now — it's not permitted to be used. Pieces are crumbling and could fall on someone; parts of the cornice have already fallen. The Kilukarbisaal is essentially just decaying at this point," Salk said.

There have been various ideas about what to do with the hall in the future, but nothing concrete has been decided yet, he added.

"Our building has very strict security requirements, which makes using such halls a challenge. We have to involve security agencies — it's not just a matter for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," he said.

Salk noted that if everything were to proceed smoothly and the state decided to allocate funding, the building could potentially be renovated by around 2030.

Tallinn heritage authorities order mandatory building study

However, a few days ago, the Tallinn Urban Planning Department's heritage commission decided that the special heritage conditions requested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not yet be granted for the building.

Carolin Pihlap, head of the department's heritage protection unit, responded to the ministry, explaining that due to multiple renovations over the decades, there is no clear overview of which culturally significant details and structures have actually been preserved within the building.

As a result, the city has required a mandatory structural and heritage study as the next step. This survey is meant to clarify the building's construction history and identify all remaining elements and structures of cultural value.

The 11-story administrative building, influenced by American-style internationalism, was completed in central Tallinn in 1968. The architects behind the design were Mart Port, Uno Tölpus, Raine Karp and Olga Kontšajeva.

The Estonian Museum of Architecture describes the building on its website as having a symmetrical facade marked by uniform ribbon windows and a vertical, windowless central section that was originally intended to serve as a backdrop for a statue of Lenin that once stood in the square in front of the building.

"The U-shaped office building features a spacious ground-floor vestibule, with walls clad in pink marble imported from Cuba to emphasize the structure's grandeur. Offices are located on the upper floors, while the top floor houses the building's technical systems. The side wings contain conference and meeting rooms and a central courtyard lies at the heart of the complex," the museum writes.

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