Blank Space: Exploring the Sublime Qualities of Urban Wilderness at the Former Fishing Harbour in Tallinn, Estonia

Abstract

The gradual relocation of industry and other related activities out of the core areas of cities often results in voids in the urban structure—spaces that are ‘left over’. These places—in transition between their past and future functions—are landscapes with no formal spatial arrangement or current use. Their state of limbo often allows for a variety of informal and spontaneous uses that may enrich the urban structure, albeit temporarily, with their diversity. However, they are usually shown as blank areas on city planning maps with a status of awaiting some future use: thus the space is considered to be empty. As a case study, the temporary in-between status of a disused and abandoned fishing harbour in Tallinn, Estonia, is documented, in order to present and discuss ways of analysing both positive and negative aspects of dereliction in a post-Soviet context. This blankness, the paper concludes, is an opportunity and a quality, not always a vice but in some cases a virtue and that the rich content of derelict places is worthy of consideration in city planning.