Pop-up Cards: Buildings in Tallinn

2026-03-14

I’ve updated the main website for twice this week.
These are pop-up cards modeled after buildings in Tallinn, Estonia.
This time, I’ve created four cards, as shown on the map.

Since I’ve covered the history and descriptions of the buildings on their respective pages on the main website, I’ll focus this blog post on the process of making the cards.

The first card I made was of Tallinn Town Hall.
There are several small notches along the roofline; this is to make it easier to fold and ensure the opening and closing motion is smooth.

I often depict sloped roofs in a stepped pattern, but if there are too few steps, it doesn’t look like a sloped surface, and if there are too many, that area becomes too thick when folded, making it difficult to fold neatly (Fig. 1). Alternatively, it might not fit properly and stick out (Fig. 2).

I used to make patterns with more steps, but lately I’ve come to think this number of steps strikes a good balance.

I also added a slight step at the edge of the roof to prevent it from ending up in fig.2 .

Next, I made the “Three Sisters”.

Since the front and side walls of this building aren’t at right angles, recreating that makes the card look bent. I know what’s going on, so it’s fine for me, but someone seeing it for the first time might find it a bit jarring.
I released this template a few days ago, but since I’ve completed another one, I’ve taken this one down. One reason I removed it was the numerous detailed cutouts, such as the stonework on the left and right sides.

It’s hard to see in the photo, but if a window is located 1–2 mm above a fold line, I’ve added a small cut line at the fold. If I don’t do this, the folding lines tend to shift.

The third card is the Great Guild Hall.

This building features four rows of arched recesses along its facade, but since it’s difficult to render them in three dimensions,
I chose to depict them by cutting out the outline.
Incidentally, the entrance on the far left isn’t the main entrance to the building; it’s the entrance to the alleyway running alongside it.

There’s a hole where the arrow points. In the actual building, there’s a staircase leading down to a semi-basement here, so I tried to represent that.

Finally, “Fat Margaret”.

Originally built as a cannon turret, this tower apparently once had a gently sloping conical roof, but now features a rooftop plaza with a café.
Around the cylinder, it left only the lower portion of the conical roof intact, which serves as a sort of railing.

To lower the rooftop floor below the level of that roof, I added several supports on either side to lower the floor, as shown in the photo. It was good that it opens and closes smoothly.