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.
[2] As an architectural historian, Kalm has mainly studied the work of Estonian architects in the 20th century (before and after World War II).
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 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.
[2] In 2010, Mart Kalm became the first art historian to be elected a member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences.