Press release
14.03.2012
On a national thematic Concrete Day, the Concrete Association of Estonia announced today winners of ‘The Concrete Construction of Year 2011’ Award at an seminar event held in the Tallinn University of Technology.
Concrete Construction 2011 in Estonia is ‘Cromatico’ sound sculpture, located on the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds.
Grand Prix Award of the competition was granted to sculptor Lukas Kühne from Germany.
Constructor Award – Andrei Kervališvili, Nordecon Betoon OÜ
Builder Award – Nordecon Betoon OÜ
Concrete Supplier Award – HC Betoon AS.
‘Cromatico’ is a visualisation of chromatic musical scale. It consists of 12 concrete chambers (which illustrate one octave of the black and white piano keys). Each chamber of the concrete band shell reverberates in a different pitch.
According to the sculptor, the ‘Cromatico’ project was realised for The European Capital of Culture Tallinn 2011 in cooperation with an international culture platform Tuned City (tunedcity.net).
Comments of the jury: Very thin walls of the sculpture, poured from monolithic concrete directly on location, required extremely skilful workers. The sculpture is a complicated engineering solution, in which the artist’s vision of sounds and their travel through the chambers meet well with technical realisation.
‘Cromatico’ gives concrete a new role as an acoustic element. The quality of technical concrete work is very good. The conception’s magic lies in the factthat the sculpture consists only of concrete and of no other additional gadgets or materials. The installation has also been placed successfully into the surrounding landscape.
Aadu Kana, chairmain of the jury: Estonia has received a sound sculpture that is unique in the world. It was brought to life from the inspirational ideas of Lukas Kühne and Mikko Fritze by enthusiastic cooperation of a concrete specialist Mait Rõõmusaar (Nordecon Betoon OÜ).
It is also remarkable due majority of the project was done as pro bono by all parties, as a sincere and voluntary commitment. This is best possible advertising for concrete as such.
Special award – apartment buildings at Helme 14 (address: Helme St., Tallinn) – was granted to Arhitektibüroo JVR OÜ (architects Kalle Vellevoog and Velle Kadalipp) and to AS E-Betoonelement – based on the performance of different pretentious high-quality concrete surfaces with novel technology.
Comments of the jury: Architect and the developer have found a way to use several diverse concrete surfaces utilizing different technologies.
To enable graphic concrete representations, they have found an individual novel solution that is several times more cost-effective than the ones used before. The result is eye-catching and of high quality.
The technology of making rubber moulds for casting concrete surfaces expands the options of architects and customers in creating concrete surfaces that are visually rich.
Special award – residence building in Tabasalu (address: Lehe 8, Tabasalu, Harku Municipal, Harju County) – was granted to Palm E ArhitektibürooOÜ (architects Eero Palm and Pille Noole) and to customer Priit Altpere – for good cooperation between the customer and the architect.
Comments of the jury: Good work from the architects – at first glance it is not obvious at all that the object is an element house. The concrete surfaces and construction work are of high quality. The display of concrete surfaces inside the building have not been exaggerated; instead, concrete forms a harmonious entity with other materials. This is a home with character of its own, built with high skill and determination.
Special Award of Ehitaja magazine – to AS Kontek Int– for conducting a high-quality building work of the biological filter building at the Tallinn waste-water treatment plant.
Special Public Award of Internet portal „Ehitusuudised.ee“ (i.e. Building News, published by AS Äripäev) for the biological filter building at the Tallinn waste-water treatment plant, based of readers’ vote.
The ‘Concrete Construction of the Year’ competition, held for the twelfth time this year, aims to introduce the broad possibilities of the use of concrete to the public and recognise the people who have used this local Construction material to realise their ideas: concrete offers numerous possibilities and can be formed in countless ways.
11 works were entered in the competition this year. The competition was open to concrete constructions, structures and processes transferred to clients in 2011.
The jury of the ‘Concrete Construction 2011’ competition comprised representatives of Estonian construction associations: the Concrete Association of Estonia (Toomas Laur), the Union of Estonian Architects (Hindrek Kesler), the Estonian Association of Construction Entrepreneurs (Indrek Peterson), the Estonian Association of Civil Engineers (Heiki Meos), the Association of Construction Material Producers of Estonia (Enno Rebane), the Estonian Association of Architectural and Consulting Engineering Companies (Martin Aunin), Aadu Kana, the chair of the panel, as well as construction journalists Eva Kiisler from Ehitaja magazine, Liivi Tamm from the Äripäev newspaper and Maritta Koivisto from Betoni magazine (Finland).
The Concrete Association of Estonia is an association that promotes the use of concrete as a locally produced construction material. The association comprises 47 enterprises, organisations and individuals.
For further information please contact:
Aadu Kana, chair of the jury of the ‘Concrete Construction 2011’ competition, Authorised Engineer of Estonia
Phone: +372 50 49 477
Peeter Kokk, Managing Director, Concrete Association of Estonia
Phone: +37251 87 198 / +372 648 1918 / E-mail: betoon@betoon.org
www.betoon.org
http://betoon.org/sisu/ehitis/AB-2011-nominendid/
