Resonance, a limestone and plywood pavilion at the Tallinn Architecture Biennale

This year's Tallinn Architecture Biennale has a theme that sounds blunt: How Much? It invites a conversation about money in architecture, and its central pavilion answers with a budget brief. Resonance, by Shanghai- and Tokyo-based Aru Ma- Architects, won the festival's competition and is built from what the studio calls "ordinary materials": rebar, rope, limestone and plywood. The idea is that a sense of luxury can come from limited means.

The pavilion is a square courtyard that turns inwards, offering a pause from its busy spot on a traffic island outside the Estonian Museum of Architecture. The studio describes it as a carefully balanced tensile structure, with a limestone core acting as ballast, and talks about a space shaped by light, wind, sound and gravity. Kertu Johanna Jõeste of Stuudio Täna, this year's curator, praised its "radically simple" techniques. Everything is designed to come apart easily once the festival ends.

The biennale has run every two years since 2011, and earlier central pavilions included one partly designed by the public and a bus shelter made from reclaimed materials. This edition runs until 30 November 2026, so there is still time to step inside before it is taken down; pair it with the main exhibition on the same theme.

Our summary of a story from Dezeen, published 15 October 2026. Read the original

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