PANEL DISCUSSION | War is pounding at the door: what must the construction sector do now?
Bringing together architects, developers, construction professionals and public sector representatives, the conference explored a central question: what needs to change in construction to ensure that buildings provide effective protection during a crisis? In the Crisis Research Centre’s view, shelter provision must be integrated into building design, but a space that meets the requirements does not automatically provide a workable shelter.
“A shelter is infrastructure, but it can only provide effective protection when the space, access arrangements, technical systems and people’s actions all work together. At the design stage, we need to ask detailed questions about who will open it, how people will reach it and who will actually prepare it for use. These arrangements need to be worked through and practised repeatedly, as they are among the key issues facing local authorities today,” said Nagel, Head of the Crisis Research Centre.
For developers and designers in Estonia, this means incorporating the building’s emergency functions into the design brief before its main spatial arrangements are finalised. Users’ needs, accessibility, maintenance and the effects of power and water outages must all be considered early on. A multipurpose space can serve everyday needs and provide protection during a crisis, provided there is a realistic plan for making it ready for shelter use. This can also reduce the need for costly alterations later. For existing buildings, the question of how costs are shared is particularly pressing: are the expectations placed on owners matched by the knowledge, technical support and funding they need to meet them?
Watch the full panel discussion.
“Delegating responsibility does not create capacity. If an apartment association is expected to assess its premises, draw up an emergency plan and carry out building work, it must also have access to expert advice and a realistic means of funding that work. The state needs to establish a properly resourced funding scheme to support shelter provision systematically and consistently, rather than leaving it dependent on grant rounds with limited budgets. More broadly, civil protection needs a clear, long-term model for sharing costs,” Nagel noted.
The Crisis Research Centre believes that further improvements in shelter provision must be informed by practical experience. Construction costs across different building types, problems encountered during design and findings from exercises must help to improve guidance, funding schemes and, where necessary, the requirements themselves.
“Success must not be measured solely by the number of shelters built, but by how many people have access to protection they can actually use. If an exercise reveals that a space cannot be cleared in time or that an essential arrangement does not work, those findings must be used to address the shortcomings before that protection is needed for real,” said Nagel.
Photos and video: conference and panel discussion held on 8 October (Marko Mumm/Kinnisvarauudised.ee, 2026).
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