Curatorial Exhibition “How much?”

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The notion of cheapness occupies a paradoxical position in architecture. It is rarely a quality the discipline openly aspires to, yet low cost remains one of the most persistent demands placed on construction. Cost, therefore, often becomes a dominant value in architecture, reducing the built environment to systems of cheap efficiency, calculated through the logic of the Excel sheet. This exposes a widening gap between the resources available and the value expected from architecture. The curatorial exhibition of the Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2026 brings this gap to the foreground and asks how it might be critically addressed through architectural means under the overarching question “How much?”  

This inquiry begins with Tallinn’s Linnahall, the monumental modernist structure hosting the exhibition. Long abandoned yet continuously debated, the building itself embodies the Biennale’s central theme: reconstruction is considered too expensive, demolition equally so, while the postponement of decision steadily accumulates further material and cultural cost. Linnahall thus becomes more than a venue – it acts as a curatorial agent demonstrating that “how much” cannot be reduced to numbers on an Excel sheet, but unfolds as a spatial, political and temporal condition, as well as a question of value.  

Linnahall materialises the Biennale’s inquiry into the relationship between constraint, cost and architecture, and limitation through its very structural and microclimatic realities. The exhibition unfolds in proximity to the legacy of the monumental civic investment, reactivating the building’s original main entrance as the gateway to the exhibition, its public spaces and interiors.  

It sets off by unpacking the critical dimension of contemporary Excel architecture and the ways cheapness operates as one of its embedded imperatives. These first encounters – with both the building and the questions raised by TAB 2026 – establish a moment of critical reflection. As visitors move deeper into the building, the exhibition brings to the stage various architectural responses to grapple with these conditions. Within the iconic belly of Linnahall, the curatorial exhibition traces out a full-circle moment: showcasing works that refine, adapt and uncover opportunities where thoughtful design can, in fact, align with the demand for cost efficiency and affordability.  

Overall, the exhibition gathers works ranging from critiques of architecture’s financialised condition to practices meaningfully exploring the gap between cost-optimised construction and value-oriented architecture. Rather than offering a singular answer to the question How much?, TAB 2026 opens it outward – inviting visitors to reconsider what architecture truly costs, how constraint can simultaneously open new perspectives in architecture and the forms of value it can produce.

Exhibitors and Projects

Estonian Collective Exhibit
Estonian architecture offices respond to the question: Which intelligent construction solution are you proud of, where restricted conditions still allowed architectural expression? 

studio TAKK (Spain/New York)
TAKK is an architecture and design studio based in Barcelona and New York, founded by Mireia Luzárraga and Alejandro Muiño. The studio’s work critically engages with the integration of ecological frameworks into architectural discourse and spatial production, aiming to develop new material and political imaginaries for the built environment. TAKK operates at the intersection of professional practice and academic research. In 2025, they served as the curators of the Catalan Pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. TAKK’s work has received numerous accolades and is part of prominent international museum collections and exhibitions. 

asphalt / Kollektiv für Architektur (Austria)
asphalt is an architectural practice working across research, teaching and construction. They discover the potential of existing spaces and structures while questioning established dynamics. A central concern is to represent and spatialise the contradictions and complexities of the present. asphalt is driven by a passion for creating spaces that meet the demands of our time, understanding architecture as a living, flexible system that generates momentum for progressive change. Through their work, the office actively advocates for transformation in the architecture and construction industry – towards a socially, economically and ecologically just and sustainable practice. These principles equally shape their own ways of working. 

baubüro in situ (Switzerland)
baubüro in situ plans on site – with people, with the existing, with the local surroundings. Our offices in Basel, Zurich and Rolle are united by a shared commitment to creating a built environment that is liveable and sustainable. Through participatory processes and a respectful approach to existing resources, we develop projects that deliver lasting value. We work with the principles of the circular economy to actively help shape the future of construction. In doing so, we draw on the collective expertise and network that has emerged through our organic growth and years of pioneering work. Prioritising environmental goals over profit, we create spaces that foster a sense of belonging, conserve resources and demonstrate how sustainable architecture can work in practice. 

VARES (Estonia)
VARES is an international interdisciplinary residency for spatial practice, whose main task is to seek, find and create alternative spatial practices that are not based on market logic, but rather on the desire to create spaces and places that enrich everyday life, empower the local community and town of Valga. We are interested in finding ways to practice slow architecture, critically rethinking the discipline of architecture, learning and resurrecting vernacular and traditional crafts, gathering old and used materials and creating a place for lifelong learning for architects and spatial artists. 

Avarrus Arkkitehdit (Finland)
Avarrus was founded in 2008 by Pauli Siponen and Niilo Ikonen and joined by interior architect Laura Karhunen in 2018. The studio is based in Helsinki, Finland and works with a special focus on renovation projects and larger architectural design projects as well as experiments with traditional construction techniques. Their portfolio ranges from new constructions to renovations, and varying scales from interiors to urban planning, amongst them for instance the Punavuori Stables, nominated for the 2023 Finlandia Prize for Architecture. Sustainability, adaptability and collaboration are key aspects for all of Avarrus Architects’ projects. 

HouseEurope!
HouseEurope! presents a short film addressing vacant office buildings and speculates about three possible strategies to reuse in the light of housing and resource pressures.  

HouseEurope! is a community-driven non-profit for the built environment, founded in 2023, translating practical competency into policy and advocacy. It brings together people and organisations from across the value chain: from architects and engineers to contractors and material suppliers, from developers and investors to lobbyists and policymakers. Our work is rooted in direct experience within the building industry. We come from inside the practice, and this practical positioning is our core strength. We understand how decisions are made, where the limitations actually lie, and how, together, we can produce systemic change. That’s why we foster multidisciplinary dialogue and learn from each other to identify the biggest levers for change. 

Mantas Peteraitis Architecture Studio (Lithuania)
Mantas Peteraitis graduated from Vilnius Technical University’s Architecture and Urbanism in 2002. After a post-study period working in London for several architectural practices, since 2009 Mantas has operated under the studio name Implant Architecture. He has been involved in and completed independent architectural and exhibition design commissions, as well as collaborated with various artistic practices. Recently, Mantas has settled in Vilnius, Lithuania, and established his studio with a focus on the technological and aesthetic sustainability of his spatial practice and its impact on the broader community and ecosystems. Some of his most notable recent international works include ‘Mountain Pine Alphabet’, an installation part of a broader exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2023, and an exhibition of architecture and object design for artist Lina Lapelytė at Lafayette Anticipations in Paris in 2022. 

Márton Pintér (Hungary)  
Márton Pintér presents a film addressing the compromises architects face in relation to cost, quality, market pressures and professional responsibility.  

Márton Pintér is an architect, creative director and university lecturer. He graduated from the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design and later completed his doctoral dissertation at the Breuer Marcel Doctoral School. He co-founded Alfield with his former professor Péter Pozsár, an architectural agency and academy that challenges conventional disciplinary standards and makes architectural knowledge accessible to everyone. In 2025, he curated and designed the Hungarian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. His works spans architectural projects, competition counter-proposals, critical writing, lectures and public debates.

Secretary (Sweden)
Secretary is an architecture practice founded and directed by architect Rutger Sjögrim and theorist Helen Rix Runting, joined by Josefina Martens. Operating across a range of media, Secretary’s work explores the capacity of architecture to support a dignified life at the scale of the population in the late welfare states of the twenty-first century. We make architecture that is political, experimental and infrastructural. Secretary has designed housing, industrial buildings, interiors, master plans, regional data archives, published books and essays, and undertaken concept design for film. The practice’s work spans multi-media installations, writings, research and education, often in collaboration with other practices from various spatial and artistic disciplines.

Tõnis Savi (Estonia)
Anthony Clay Bureau is a Tallinn-based architecture and interior design practice founded by Tõnis Savi in 2014. The bureau works across architecture, interiors, public space and early-stage spatial consultation, with a particular interest in how buildings meet the street and how everyday environments shape the way people live, move and gather. ACB is small by choice, allowing direct involvement by the founder in every project, while drawing on a wider network of collaborators when needed. Alongside architectural practice, Savi’s work connects closely with mobility, street design and human-scale urbanism.  

SALTO Architects (Estonia)
SALTO Architects presents a work related to Tallinn City Theatre, addressing the costs, constraints and architectural value involved in working with heritage and urban complexity.  

Salto Architects is a Tallinn-based office established in 2004 and led by Maarja Kask and Ralf Lõoke. Their designs range from installations and triggering temporary objects to public buildings with significant social dimension and large scale built environments. In their practice Salto has taken particular interest in the meeting points between architecture, landscape design and art. Significant part of their works is made up of public buildings, where a critical and interdisciplinary approach plays an essential role, e.g. Tallinn City Theatre, Viljandi State High School, Baltic Film and Media School, Estonian Road Museum, Tallinn Cruise Terminal, Fotografiska, Paide State High School, Saku Gymnasium to name some of the most critically acclaimed works. Salto Architects have also gained international attention and received awards for their installations and temporary objects, e.g. a prophetic Estonian exposition Gas Pipe at the 11th Venice Biennale of Architecture, the No99 Straw Theatre in Tallinn, critical infrastructural installation Fast Track in Russia, Tallinn Art Hall Lasnamäe Pavillon, Heat Wave in Cité de la Mode et du Design in Paris and others. Salto has received 2 Estonian National Culture Awards, 10 Cultural Endowment Awards and 4 Estonian Association of Architects Annual Awards.

Bimberg&Frenz (Belgium)
Bimberg&Frenz present a project examining literally currency and its relation to architecture. It re-evaluates the relationship between Euro banknotes and spatial representations of money, value and exchange.  

Amelie Bimberg and Lea Frenz completed their architectural studies in 2020. Since then, they have worked for international offices including BeL – Sozietät für Architektur, Kawahara Krause, OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen, AgwA, Bruther, l’Atelier Senzu, and Experience Paris. They have also worked as teaching and research assistants at Leibniz University Hannover and RWTH Aachen. Together with Jantje Engels, they held a year-long interim professorship in design and methodology at the University of Siegen. In parallel, they founded the ongoing collaboration Bimberg&Frenz, based between Brussels and Paris. 

Max von Werz Arquitectos (Mexico)
Max von Werz Arquitectos is an architecture practice based in Mexico City, with recurring attention to residential and hospitality projects. Founded in 2013, the studio approaches each commission from its particular conditions rather than a fixed style, seeking work that is practical, sensual and attuned to its environment. The practice has built in Mexico, Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden, with each project rooted in its locale. Across these contexts, its work treats tradition and modernity not as opposites but as continuous. The practice is less concerned with novelty than with belonging to the place and time it inhabits.  Max von Werz Architects presents a project addressing affordable housing, envisioning how new development and existing residential typologies can be integrated in Mexico City. 

O–P  (New York)
Founded by two young architects working across New York, Jakarta, and Singapore, O-P, run by Eugene Ong & Andri Putri, is driven by a shared ambition to rethink architectural experiences by challenging conventional assumptions of value, atmosphere, and craft through perspectives shaped across multiple cultural and urban backgrounds. We started without fixed methodologies, but believe in approaching each project as opportunities to question how and for whom architecture is designed, constructed and built for. Our work seeks to spark delight, encourage participation, and center economic realities to engage the wider public, through attention to materials, details and the everyday systems that structure contemporary life. 

SEE:4C. South-Eastern Europe: 4 Cities (Belgrade, Podgorica, Skopje, and Tirana)
This research project investigates the legacy of socialist mass housing built between the 1960s and 1980s across Belgrade, Podgorica, Skopje, and Tirana. Analysing these residential complexes through the lenses of Timing, Legacy, and Agency, the project rethinks architectural value beyond extractive market logics, highlighting the social and environmental wealth of their active communities. This multi-nodal collaboration unites the Politecnico di Torino with four South-Eastern Faculties of Architecture (University of Belgrade, UKIM Skopje, University of Montenegro, and Polytechnic University of Tirana). Supported by the TNE-DeSK framework and funded by the Next Generation EU programme, the partnership leverages shared research to bridge architectural heritage conservation with European green transition objectives.