The Natural History Museum has launched a new €3 million tender to find a contractor for one of the largest projects in Estonia's museum sector in the past decade.
The museum is seeking a contractor to design the new permanent exhibition and to implement it based on that design at the newly built wooden Nature House in Põhja-Tallinn. The two-part tender has a total value of €2,812,950.
Egle Hecht, acting director of the Estonian Museum of Natural History, said she hopes to see companies from both Estonia and abroad that have previously carried out similar museum projects among the bidders for the permanent exhibition tender.
"This is a very large international tender for Estonia's museum sector, the likes of which was last carried out more than 10 years ago when the Estonian National Museum was established," she said.
The previous tender failed.
"A total of three bids were submitted for the first tender for the core exhibition, but unfortunately none of them qualified. As these were predominantly some of the world's leading creative agencies specializing in exhibition construction, which often do not participate in public procurement tenders, it turned out that they misunderstood the tender conditions and made mistakes when submitting their bids. With the new tender, we hope to avoid similar situations," Hecht said.
The acting director said the museum's new core exhibition will tell the story of the coexistence of nature and humans through Estonia's natural environment. It is hoped it will be "more ambitious and exceptional than before in terms of its concept, size and execution."
"In every chapter, humans are one of the characters, equal among others. Alongside well-known and visible species, we emphasize the richness of microscopic life and its coexistence with other living organisms. We talk about different relationships in nature, also touching on, for example, how rich biodiversity influences culture and language, and vice versa. The new permanent exhibition offers something for all age groups, being accessible and taking different visitors into account," Hecht said.
The museum is also planning a separate children's exhibition, where they can learn about nature in a way that supports their natural curiosity.
Natural History Museum to fully open in 2028
The tender consists of two parts: the permanent exhibition and the exhibition for young children.
"We will open the children's exhibition together with the museum's first temporary exhibition in 2027, meaning there is less time to complete it, while the permanent exhibition will open in 2028. That is why the tender has been divided into two parts," Hecht said.
The acting director said the museum will open its doors with its first exhibition in 2027, as planned from the outset, although the exact date is not yet clear.
"Once the Taru Nature House is completed, the museum will only then begin moving into the building and constructing and setting up the exhibitions. The completion of the building will allow us to begin creating the exhibition," Hecht said.
The expected final deadline for the design and exhibition construction work under the procurement contract is April 6, 2028.
The deadline for submitting bids is in one month's time, on November 23. The work will be financed from external funds (the Cohesion Policy Funds Implementation Programme 2021–2027) and the Environmental Investment Center's environmental program.
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