Ülemiste Water Treatment Plant x Open House Tallinn 2023

Ülemiste Lake and its water hold significant importance for Tallinn. The legend of the “järvevanake” (the old man of the lake) who plans to flood the city for a long time has not arisen without reason. Since the 1920s, the Ülemiste water treatment plant has been situated by the lake, where water from the lake goes through a process lasting nearly 15 hours to become the tap water that reaches homes in Tallinn.

The oldest part of the water treatment plant is the building of the Tallinn Filter Waterworks designed by Erich Jacoby, completed in 1927. This was Estonia’s first functionalist-style building and consists of a five-story chemical building along with filter buildings to the west and machine and pump buildings to the east. The Tallinn Filter Waterworks building is one of the most significant achievements in industrial architecture from the 1920s. Notably, it features reinforced concrete foundations supporting the “seenvahelagedega” (in-wall) ceilings of the clean water reservoir and sedimentation basin.

Meeting point: In the parking area within the water treatment plant premises.
Tour journey: Direction of water flow in the plant, old filter waterworks building.