Noblessner light tower adorned by a lighting installation called Pesa (Nest)

An installation that combines metal and lighting art called Pesa is now located on top of the Noblessner port complex’s former lighting tower. The work commissioned by Merko was created to give new life to the urban space and encourage similar beautification of old and disused industrial sites. Pesa is the first part of a potentially more extensive public urban space design project.

Inspired by a drawing of a stork’s nest by a five-year-old girl Stina, the lighting installation atop the disused port complex tower can be found on Peetri Street. The work can be viewed from Noblessner’s grounds and by users of Kalaranna Street.

Pesa was executed by a team from the design agency Velvet and an Estonian lighting design studio UN-LIKE. The bare “branches” that comprise the nest are actually pieces of metal left over from Merko construction projects, which were painted the same colour as the tower.

When we build our residential projects, we expand the meaning of quality Merko homes to the surrounding fabric of the city. We create a sense of place and meaning, with new landmarks that make use of the local possibilities and building on the rich history.

“Alongside striking architecture and quality of the apartments, themselves, people increasingly want more out of the living environment as a whole. The more distinctive and the greater the ‘wow’ factor, the more possibilities it offers, the more memorable the elements near the homes, the more meaningful the local community’s narrative. Noblessner is a beautiful example of symbiosis between the historical and the progressive in the service of a new contemporary urban space,” said the CEO of Merko’s residential development branch Merko Kodud, Indrek Tarto.

In cooperation with BLRT Group, we have been developing the homes on a historical submarine shipyard at Noblessner since 2017. Today the development has 505 apartments and 42 commercial spaces. Noblessner has become a port complex that is frequented by the public and capitalizes on its seaside location. An architectural competition is under way to elicit designs for the next crop of new homes and the surrounding urban space.

For a closer look at the latest homes to be completed in Noblessner, visit www.merko.ee/allveelaeva.

Photo by Tõnu Tunnel