Diffusion of European Modern City Planning around 1910: Transferring and Implementation of International Knowledge in Tallinn,Estonia

Abstract

This article examines the implementation of international urban planning in Tallinn in the 1910 within the frame of concepts of transferring knowledge, cultural orientations, borrowing, and synthesizing. This article focuses on the side of the commissioner—Estonian liberal municipal politicians who gained power in Tallinn City Council and became the main driving force in developing modern planning. Among other important actors, the organization of house-owners and some individuals emerged. Actors were highly motivated in implementing international urban planning for they connected the modern planning with ideas of developing Tallinn into modern European city and national capital. The international planning competition was organized in a possible high professional level and it resulted with the project “Greater-Tallinn” by Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen in 1913.