Talin’s Tower

Symbolic of modernity, a rival to the Eiffel Tower in Paris.


Structure was to be created from industrial materials, steel, iron, glass…A main helix spiralled down 400m and the framework was meant to house three/four suspended structures. The base was a cube, designed for lectures, meetings, would rotate on a central axis once a year. The second level would rotate once a month, the third once a day. A radio tower at the top would be used for news bulletins and propaganda material. This is an example of the desire at this time to show power and strength; though it was intended to be built, the building materials were simply not available in post-Revolution Russia, especially in the context of widespread poverty.

The work was never realised - It only existed in model form for two exhibitions. The model was made using only two drawings the majority of the structure being invented in situ or from memory, only five poor quality photographs exist of the actual model which was destroyed shortly after the last exhibition in 1920.

Advanced computer graphics allow to visualise this never constructed tower in the urban context.

The Amber Room

Touted as the 8th Wonder of the World.
The Amber Room represented a joint effort of German and Russian craftsmen. After several other 18th-century renovations, it covered more than 55 square meters and contained over six tonnes of amber. It took over ten years to construct.

The only original color photo

The Amber Room was looted during World War II by Nazi Germany and brought to Königsberg. Knowledge of its whereabouts was lost in the chaos at the end of the war. Its fate remains a mystery, and the search continues.
A reconstructed Amber Room was inaugurated in 2003 in the Catherine Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

However, there’s a possible discovery this year.

But the digging was halted.