On the other side, it houses a wastewater treatment plant, whose operation affect the peninsula's wetlands through eutrophication processes. These contrasting realities—of ecological protection and industrial impact tell a story of intertwined cycles, revealing the challenges of balancing urban metabolism with natural ecosystems.
This project explores these dualities through maps, narratives, and visual representations, highlighting how human intervention reshapes landscapes over time. By researching these processes, my aim was to reflect on the coexistence of urban infrastructure and ecological systems, trying to understand their mutual influence.
The Paljassaare Peninsula, originally two separate islands, has been reshaped over the past 150 years. This change was caused by dredged material from Tallinn's port construction and the land slowly rising about 2 mm per year due to post-glacial pressure release. It hosts a special conservation area and is also used to accommodate a wastewater treatment facilty.
During the Soviet period, it was occupied and closed for people because of military purposes, all original vegetation was removed and the area was erased from the maps.
Over the past 20 years, the wastewater treatment plant on the Paljassaare peninsula has expanded, eventually erasing much of the wetland terrain that peninsula consists of, contributing to ecological challenges. It has become a dumping site for much of Tallinn’s solid and liquid waste, with its core now occupied by the city’s wastewater treatment plant. Necglect over the years contributed to the return of many natural species, especially birds and reeds now sharing their space with heavy infrastructure and with the biological waste of Tallinn.
In particular, the wastewater treatment plant now occupies the core of the Peninsula and faces the newly established natural reserve, located at the top end of it.
The leftovers from the treatment facility such as cyanobacteria are blooming in the Baltic sea and are largely influencing the fragile ecosystem of the peninsula through eutrophication. By this, the different cycles and ecosystems (both natural and urban) are getting more and more intertwined.
In Paljassaare, there are 40 Scottish highland cattle. They are placed on a beach meadow which presents an environment where many species coexist together. Heritage or semi-natural communities are defined primarily as open, traditionally managed meadows without trees or wooded areas. Natural communities, such as forests and bogs, do not need human help to survive. On the contrary - the less a person interferes in their development, the better. Semi-natural communities, on the other hand, persist only during human activities, through mowing and grazing. Grazing cattle present one of the most effective methods for restoring meadows and increasing their biodiversity. Estonia is at the forefront of the world in preserving semi-natural communities.
The cattle are working there to maintain the landscape in the framework of the Finland-Estonia coastal areas project Coastlife Net. Restoration of this meadow began in 2017 when reeds were removed and surrounding bush was cut down. The same has been done in the years following as well, since beach meadows require an ecological community with open, low plant life. A 3.5 km cattle fence was erected around the area in 2018, the same year, the first Highland cattle arrived at Paljassaare.
Today, close to 40 Highland cattle “work” in the city and help to control the spread of reeds. As I found out from my interview with Matis Mägi who is a coordinator of defense management works for Tallinn Environment and Municipal Board, they belong to a farmer in Harju County, with whom the city has a contract for grazing the animals from May to October.
The animals are brought to the coastal meadow in the spring and taken away in the autumn. Outside this period, the animals are kept on their home farm, where "they are cared for as usual."
Scottish Highland cattle are one of the most suitable breeds for grazing natural grasslands due to their low maintenance requirements and resilience in various weather conditions, making them valued for managing seminatural habitats. They are able to thrive in the extreme climatic conditions, prosper and perform well, where other breeds would fail.
As I found out from the interview, not only cattle are working in this area: "In addition to grazing the coastal meadow, we also apply reed cutting for meadow restoration since reeds grow very vigorously in this coastal meadow area and the animals alone cannot keep the reeds under control."
One major impact of human activity on the Baltic Sea is the release of treated wastewater. In Tallinn, all wastewater flows to a water treatment plant at the end of the Paljassaare peninsula before being released into the sea. This complex process affects both the peninsula and the Baltic Sea, with broader political and economic implications for the city.
Every household contributes to the plant’s bacterial load, influenced by factors like daily routines, weather, cultural habits, and economic growth.
The plant struggles with processing active sludge, which requires one and half year treatment to become compost, yet its use is restricted by legislation to use it for fertilization.
Unprocessed sludge is stored in large stocking yards and when it is raining molecules of phosphates and nitrates leak into neighbouring wetlands, leading to eutrophication and overgrowth of reeds, occupying most of its surface, displacing native flora and fauna. It also forces the plants to adapt in a way that only the strongest species thrive.
The wastewater treatment plant adjusts its operations to neutralize bacteria that harm human and animal health. When this is not fully possible, treated wastewater is discharged into the sea and there are penalties for the managing company. The treatment process also produces natural gas, used locally for heating, which would be otherwise released into the atmosphere.
MEADOWS IN ESTONIA
Heritage meadows species are native to Europe, dating back to the Pleistocene era when large herbivores maintained open and semi-open grasslands, long before humans appeared.
These semi-natural habitats are now among Estonia’s most endangered. By the 1990s, most heritage meadows in Europe were destroyed, but they still exist in Estonia. These communities peaked in the 19th century when farms carefully managed meadows and forests for economic and aesthetic value. Wooded meadows, a key part of Estonian farm landscapes, reflect centuries of sustainable land use, with some taking a hundred years to develop and being able to persist for thousands of years.
That is why they are also important objects of heritage culture with connection to local people, representing also an aesthetic value.
There is a lot of folklore associated with the wooded meadow, especially local legends.In folk songs, the meadows are bright and beautiful places, which are associated with something beautiful and romantic.
Heritage meadows have an exceptionally high species diversity. They are an important habitat for nearly 700 plant species. 76 plant species have been found growing on 1 m2 - it is one of the densest plant communities in the world in terms of species richness. This richness is also creating good living conditions for a large part of other species such as fungi, lichens, and also important habitats for many orchids.
Such great species richness is developed through regular and very long-term mowing, keeping the plant layer even, so that no species can dominate and overshadow the others.
When humans no longer care for these communities, they will overgrow, declining in richness significantly. Junipers, reeds, trees, or shrubs will take over the grasslands and all the great biodiversity is lost.
These communities are also threatened by fertilisation, overgrazing, because every meadow can be different, soil, landscape etc. can have specific properties requiring individual treatment and measures.
In the photos on the left you can notice how is the landscape changing over the years with the grazing practices.
EUTROPHICATION
Wetland birds have been forced to the peninsula's edges, while some resident birds have adapted to the wastewater treatment plant’s mechanical pools, which offer frost-free, nutrient-rich water year-round due to bio-gas-powered heating from sludge digestion. This artificial ecosystem crosses the boundary between natural and industrial spaces, with birds becoming integral to the system. The pools are part of a bio-technological matrix monitored in real-time, combining wastewater purification and sludge biodigestion with drones and sensors, constantly adjusting its operations to maintain balance.
The eutrophication of Paljassaare's internal wetlands, combined with similar trends across the Baltic region, has led to increased biomass and algae blooming. Reduced oxygen and light levels lead to widespread water contamination as decomposing organisms pollute coastlines. Currents carry and concentrate large amounts of decaying matter in specific areas, causing intense smell.
In the photos on the right you can notice how the lake got smaller and smaller over the years.
TWO SYSTEMS
Despite this, years of neglect have allowed natural species, particularly birds and reeds, to reclaim parts of the landscape that they now share with heavy infrastructure and with the biological waste of the city.
"The two systems embody two forms of contrasting but also strangely similar forms of conservative ideology. As such they not only refuse to collaborate, despite their intense molecular exchanges, but also both refuse to recognize and embody an active role in the future of the city of Tallinn. This condition has prevented the Peninsula to evolve an urban identity and therefore to become an engine of renewal for the future city of Tallinn."
In the photos on the left you can clearly see the destinction between grazed meadow and reed over grow around the lake.
The Anthropocene Isle project by ecoLogicStudio, showcased at the 2017 Tallinn Architecture Biennale, reimagines Paljassaare Peninsula as a hybrid ecological-urban system. The project integrates the peninsula’s wastewater treatment plant and natural reserve into a "bio-informational landscape" that combines natural and human-made processes. Central to this vision is the concept of distributed intelligence, where infrastructure and natural systems collaborate dynamically rather than existing as separate entities.
"The idea that the landcape has its own distributed intelligence, the infrastractural elements such as wastewater treatment plant could become embeded into the fabric of the landscape itself"
By viewing contamination as a morphogenetic force, the project proposes transforming waste into a resource, with bio-digestive ecosystems filtering pollutants while generating energy and nutrients. The landscape becomes a self-regulating, adaptive system monitored through real-time data, creating a circular economy for Tallinn's waste and water systems
"bulit environment no longer separated, but becoming part of the new urban form"
In my search for similar practices I found The 100-Year Master Plan for Cornwall Park in New Zealand which integrates grazing livestock within an urban park to connect ecological stewardship, and public engagement by maintaining cattle and sheep in the park.
They are built on the Principles such as Kaitiakitanga (stewardship as guardian of the deep links between humans and the natural world) or Turangawaewae (a sense of belonging) emphasize respect for the land and animals while enhancing accessibility and knowledge-sharing.
They recognize the land "as a precious resource, where the geology, soils, plant, and animal life is embodied in the landscape, and where the ground is understood as a precious resource (Boffa Miskell and Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, p. 15)."
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