Mart Kalm

Mart Kalm (born 3 September 1961 in Tallinn) is an Estonian architectural historian, Professor at the Estonian Academy of Arts (Rector from 2015 to 2025) and Member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences (Vice-President from 2014 to 2024). Biography

Mart Kalm was born in Tallinn into a family of editors. He graduated from Tallinn II Secondary School (currently Tallinn Secondary School of Science). From 1979–1984, he studied history and art history at Tartu University. In 1991, he received a PhD from the Central Scientific Research Institute of Theory and History of Architecture in Moscow for his thesis on the architect Alar Kotli. In 1998, he defended his second PhD (= Habilitation) at the Estonian Academy of Arts on Estonian architecture culture during the interwar period.

As an architectural historian, Kalm has mainly studied the work of Estonian architects in the 20th century (before and after World War II). His most important work is the voluminous “Estonian 20th Century Architecture” (2001; Grand Prix of the Estonian Cultural Endowment in 2002). He has written a monograph on architect Alar Kotli (1994; Kristjan Raud Prize) and a book about Olev Siinmaa (2011), which was accompanied by an exhibition. He was awarded the national prize in history for the compilation “History of Estonian Art”, Volume V (1900–1940), published in 2010. He has written an architectural guide, “Functionalism in Estonia: A Guidebook” (1998), and participated in the compilation of several other reference books. In recent years, Kalm has been focusing his research on the architecture of collective farms in Soviet Estonia.

In 2010, Mart Kalm became the first art historian to be elected a member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. Between 2014 and 2024 he held the position of Vice-President of the Estonian Academy of Sciences.

In 2018, Kalm was elected to the ELIA Representative Board and is also a member of its Executive Group.

Mart Kalm is married to the graphic artist Anu Kalm and they have two adult children, Gustav and Helga.