Press release
17.03.2010
Today, on the 10thannual concrete day, the Concrete Association of Estonia announced the winners of the competition the Concrete Building of 2009 in the Glass Hall of the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds.
Concrete Building of 2009 – Tallink’s office building (Sadama 5/7, Tallinn):
The Grand Prix of the competition – architect Meelis Press, Meelis Pressi Arhitektuuribüroo AS.
Client Award – OÜ Fastinvest
Constructor Award – Finnmap Consulting
Builder Award – AS Merko Ehitus
Concrete Element Award – AS Tartu Maja Betoontooted,
Concrete Supplier Award – AS Rudus.
Comments by the panel: the excellent cooperation between the architect, client, builder and producer of materials results in a building that is outstanding both in terms of the architecture as well as the engineering aim. The strength of the building lies in its decorative concrete crosses whose high-quality surface leaves no room for doubts about the immense effort put into making and installing them. In interior design the clean concrete surface is demonstrated by an impressive stairwell. In spite of ample glass surfaces the building leaves the impression of a concrete building.
Aadu Kana, chair of the panel: “The most outstanding house in this competition both in terms of architecture and technology as well as the quality of concrete products and works. And obviously the most remarkable part and absolute architectural dominant of the building are the grandiose white concrete X-shaped façade ribs along with the portal of the main entrance. Meelis Press has always worked well with clients, realising his architectural aim in full. The same can be noticed in the case of his last winning work in our competition: the TTP house, which was declared the Concrete Building of 2005.
Enno Rebane, member of the panel: “Tallink’s office building proves once again that good cooperation produces good results. Besides paying tribute to the architect, the builder and others, the producer and transporter should be praised as the delivery of the fine concrete elements from Tartu may have been quite a challenge. The client has every reason to be satisfied: the house is respectable, interesting and attractive.”
Special prize for architecture – Andres Kadarik: the production, warehousing and office building of Otto Bock Estonia AS (Punane 72/Kuuli 8, Tallinn).
Comments by the panel: The goal of the architect has been to value a simple production building using an external finish that has been decomposed in an emphasised manner as well as interesting embossed and plain concrete elements. It is a pleasant architectural attempt and everything that was attempted has been nicely achieved in this building. The result is a house that is made of neat and unexaggerated elements. The most interesting part of the building is the element surface made of rubber matrixes, which resembles a bar code.
Special prize for architecture – Alver Arhitektid OÜ: underground parking lot of Liberty Square (Tallinn).
Comments by the panel: The work of the architect deserves the greatest praise for having to cope with integrating the historic strips of a wall that cover a quarter of the surface into the works and exposing them in suitable manner. It is a fair and very concrete-like structure where all concrete work has been performed with very good quality.
Toomas Laur, member of the panel: “Demonstrates concrete in a diverse fashion, especially as a construction material. Clean cast surfaces with texture suitable for the object are also visible.”
Special prize – the concrete wolf of the Dark Nights Film Festival (in front of Nokia Concert Hall, Estonia pst 9, Tallinn) – sculptor Aivar Simson and concrete work performed by AS E-Betoonelement.
Comments by the panel: a good demonstration of the possibilities of using concrete outside the circle of civil engineering works. The sculpture expands the artistic possibilities of concrete and makes the urban space more attractive. A tasteful look and impeccable production.
Enno Rebane, member of the panel: “The slightly unexpected use of concrete has been formed into a pleasant and harmonic result owing to the tasteful and concrete selection of material and the cooperation between the author and the material producer.”
The Ehitaja magazine identified the readers’ favourite of the nominees by an online survey. The favourite of the readers of Ehitajais the berth of the Port of Virtsu.
The Concrete Building of the Year, held for the tenth time this year, aims at introducing the broad possibilities the use of concrete to the public and recognise the people who have used this local building material for realising their ideas: concrete offers numerous possibilities and can be formed in countless ways.
17 works entered the competition this year. The competition was open to concrete buildings and their structures and processes handed over to clients during 2009.
The panel of the Concrete Building of 2009 competition comprised of representatives of Estonian construction associations: Concrete Association of Estonia (Toomas Laur), the Union of Estonian Architects (Ike Volkov), Estonian Association of Construction Entrepreneurs (Indrek Peterson), Estonian Association of Civil Engineers (Heiki Meos), Association of Construction Material Producers of Estonia (Enno Rebane), Estonian Association of Architectural and Consulting Engineering Companies (Andres Saar), AS Kunda Nordic Tsement (Aadu Kana, the chair of the panel), as well as construction journalists, i.e. Eva Kiisler from the Ehitaja magazine, Liivi Tamm from the Äripäev newspaper and Maritta Koivisto from the Betoni magazine (Finland).
The Concrete Association of Estonia is an association that promotes the use of concrete as a domestic building material. The Association comprises 52 enterprises, organisations and individuals.
Further information:
Aadu Kana, chair of the panel of the Concrete Building of 2009 competition, Senior Adviser, AS Kunda Nordic Tsement
Phone: +372 6209657; +372 5049 477; e-mail: aadu.kana@knc.ee
Peeter Kokk, Managing Director, Concrete Association of Estonia,
Phone: +372 6481918; +372 51 87198; e-mail: betoon@betoon.org
