Estonian Institute in Hungary
FUGA Budapest Center of Architecture, 1-25 March 2018

The Estonian Forest and Wood Industries Association’s exhibition showcases the main building types, tendencies and most remarkable individual buildings of Estonian wood architecture. The exhibition spans several centuries, and provides an abundance of exiting examples of the various uses of wood in modern architecture.
The country of Estonia is one of the world’s richest in forests: nearly half of its land area, or 2.2 million hectares, is covered by woods. 40% of the wooded land is state-owned, 26% are conservation areas. On the latitude where Estonia lies, wood has been the most important building material for thousands of years. It is easily accessible and makes for a more comfortable living space than stone houses. The dominance of wood only came to an end in the 20th century: it became the least appreciated and used building material during the Soviet occupation. The 21st century brought the renaissance of wood and today about half of Estonia’s buildings are built of wood again. These are mostly single-family homes, but there are also more and more wood-based commercial buildings, as well as residential buildings and cultural facilities. Wood is back in fashion and it serves as an inspiration to architects.