A hands-on workshop on the design and pricing of modular buildings.
How Much Does a Modular Building Cost?
Date
November 12, 2026
Time: [to be confirmed]
Duration: 2-3 hours
Location
Estonian Academy of Arts, Põhja puiestee 7, Tallinn
Exact room: [to be confirmed]
Organizer
Creatomus in collaboration with the Estonian Academy of Arts
Facilitator
Dr. Renee Puusepp
Number of participants
Up to 12 people
Description
How much does a modular school or kindergarten cost? The answer depends on many decisions made early in the design phase.
In this hands-on workshop, participants will use Creatomus’s digital configurator to assemble a modular building solution from standardized spatial modules. Participants will be able to experiment with different spatial programs, building sizes, layouts, and technical options, and see how these decisions shape the building’s preliminary construction cost. Together, we will explore which choices have the greatest impact on project cost, and how cost information can be used to support more informed spatial decisions even before detailed design begins.
The workshop is based on the design of schools and kindergartens, for which Creatomus and the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) have developed a set of initial modular spatial units that participants can use and adapt to their own vision. When registering, participants are asked to describe which educational building or other type of modular building they would like to explore in the workshop. This will allow the organizers to prepare the design briefs and necessary components in advance.
In addition to preliminary construction costs, the discussion will also touch on the building’s adaptability, life cycle, and the potential for material reuse. However, the workshop’s main focus remains on making visible the connection between design decisions and preliminary construction costs.
The workshop ties into the main theme of the Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2026, “How Much?”, asking what a building actually costs, what determines its price, and how architects, clients, developers, and manufacturers can make cost-related decisions together and more transparently.
Who is this workshop for?
The workshop welcomes architects, public sector clients, representatives of cities and municipalities, developers, contractors, manufacturers of materials and building components, and architecture and design students.
Format
A hands-on, discussion-based workshop for up to 20 participants. Participants will work individually or in small groups, and at the end of the workshop, the resulting solutions and their preliminary costs will be compared.