MILITENCE – From MILITary ENClosures to civic spatial practices in Estonian islands Saaremaa and Hiiumaa

The objective of the MILITENCE research project is to write—for the first time— an architectural history of how military enclosures were re-opened and revived through civic spatial practices in the post-Soviet era. Using as examples the paradigmatic sites of the Estonian islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, which served as strategic frontiers during the Cold War, the study foregrounds how former military enclosures, marked by the imprint of Soviet occupation (1940-1991), are transformed through civic spatial practices of care and repair. The paradoxical closed-off military ecology characterized by preserved biodiversity, toxic contamination, and derelict infrastructures is gradually changed into becoming more-than-human commons. The project proposes to understand these novel civic spatial practices as “transitional care”. It advances two key contributions: firstly, it fills a gap in architectural historiography, which has largely overlooked these sites, despite their profound significance in Eastern Europe and Eurasia; secondly, it rethinks architectural history through the lens of care, analyzing highly invisibilised civic practices of care, repair, maintenance, and reuse. These two innovative approaches complement each other, as they expand Eastern European architectural history specifically, while at the same time enriching the emerging global discourse on care in architecture. As the Estonian case is a paradigmatic example of reviving former military enclosures, the research project establishes a new transferable framework for studying such sites globally. In light of the current geopolitical tensions in the Baltic Sea and the rapid re-militarization along NATO’s Eastern border, this study sheds light on how contemporary civil societies are challenged by the security imperatives calling for preparedness for war and the climate imperatives for cultivating life-sustaining, more-than-human commons through transitional care for former military enclosures.