2022Based on the results of an EU research project, Lasa Marmo secures the contract to renovate the façade of Finlandia Hall
Finlandia Hall in Helsinki is a concert and congress building completed in 1971 according to a design by architect and urban planner Alvar Aalto. Today it is one of the landmarks of Finland's capital. According to the architect's plans, the original façade was entirely covered with Carrara marble. This marble is very soft due to its chemical, physical and mechanical properties. As it turned out, it is hardly suitable for the exterior cladding of buildings, especially in northern European countries with very strong temperature fluctuations. Already in the 1990s, the severely deformed marble slabs from the first construction phase were replaced with new slabs of Carrara marble. 20 years later, a large part of the façade slabs had deformed again. Many slabs had bulged and expanded, and in addition the marble had broken out of the anchors in many places and become unstable. As early as 2000, the SP Swedish National Testing and Research Institute (RISE), in partnership with 16 other research institutes in nine European countries, started the EU research project TEAM (Testing and Assessment of Marble and Limestone) with a budget of over 4 million euros. Within the framework of the research project, which is scheduled to last several years, 75 sample slabs from 15 countries were tested in the laboratory for their properties.
Although it was by no means certain from the outset that another marble would be used for the façades of the Finlandia Hall, the clients and those responsible for the building finally decided in favour of white marble of the LASA BIANCO NUVOLATO® variety due to the results of the EU research project and thus the exceptional hardness and flexural strength. In March 2022, the renovation of the exterior façade of the Finlandia Hall began with LASA marble from the White Water quarry (Weißwasserbruch). In the light of the good order situation, Lasa Marmo invested around € 1.4 million in 2022 to renew the machinery in the White Water quarry.
