Krull Quarter

Brief Information

The Krull Quarter did not grow on an empty plot, but on top of the former Franz Krull machine-building factory, founded in Reval in 1875. Today it is an office, residential, and historic quarter in Kalamaja between Kopli Street, Volta Street, and the railway. Its meaning is best understood not through its new use, but through the way industrial buildings from different periods stand side by side.

Workshops from the time of the Russian Empire, buildings made of flagstone from the period of the Republic of Estonia, and postwar reinforced-concrete blocks with facades of calcium silicate brick or concrete panels have been preserved on the site. Five properties in the quarter are listed in the Estonian Register of Cultural Monuments as architectural monuments. That is why the place is interesting as a former factory site where new construction stands alongside concrete traces of production rather than erasing them completely.

What to Notice Right Away

It is worth comparing the materials and forms of the old factory buildings. The three-bay workshops along the internal street recall basilicas: this form makes an industrial building look like a large public building. The forge workshop shows an earlier layer: massive unplastered flagstone walls, a stepped gable, a central bay window, and rounded red-brick lintels over the windows and doors combine a utilitarian function with historicist decoration.

The warehouse reads differently: its walls are built of massive limestone blocks, the windows are separated by buttresses, and the gable roof has already received a more modern covering instead of the original structure. The fitting and assembly workshop is important as a trace of alterations: the original basilica-like building was changed with extensions and given a second floor in calcium silicate brick. The cast-iron fence with an ornamental grille, tall pillars, and oval gate finials adds the boundary of the former factory to the workshops.