This research project investigates the everyday experiences of Russian minority residents in Lasnamäe, a Soviet-era panel housing district in Tallinn, Estonia. Contrary to dominant Estonian-speaking media portrayals of the area as placeless, anachronistic, and inhospitable, the study uses ethnographic fieldwork to reveal the district’s social and spatial complexity. It focuses on how residents carve out pockets of habitability in response to persistent public stigma and alienating memory discourses. By analysing mundane acts of spatial appropriation within the incomplete urban fabric — particularly around mikrorayon centres and tühermaa (terrain vague) — the thesis demonstrates how such spaces sustain post-Soviet sociality and minority identity. Ultimately, it calls for greater sensitivity in redevelopment processes, recognising the latent value of these underappreciated sites as guides for shaping meaningful public space in Lasnamäe’s future.