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CASE STUDY

HEKA Apartment building

The apartment building "Heka" in Helsinki won the Concrete Structure of the Year 2014 award for a skilled and demanding architectural and structural design as well as high quality of implementation.

The lace-like façade of the building and its tower is an impressive landmark in the Jätkäsaari environment, visible all the way to downtown Helsinki.

The competent use of concrete and the good cooperation along all the construction value chain has produced an architectural masterpiece built with a high standard of construction technology. The building is full of strong architectural expression, conveying emotions.

Concrete has been used in a lot of different ways. The possibilities offered by this material are particularly showcased on the facades. The facade on the ten-storey tower part and full apartment-width balcony wall has been executed with fibre concrete as a lace-like structure.

The fibre-concrete facade solution is based on a precast unit manufactured from glass fibre reinforced concrete with a new production technology. It can be used to produce cladding units of various sizes and shapes and three-dimensional units.

The white concrete facades of the external sandwich walls of the building feature three different types of mould finishes: graphic concrete, sandblasted and ground finish. The different structures of the facade reflect light in different ways making the facade puzzle-like, without traditional unit division.


03 November 2016


Key Facts

  • Country: Finland
  • Year of completion: 2014
  • Floor area: 7000m2
  • Client: City of Helsinki Housing
  • Architectural design: Architect Huttunen-Lipasti-Frost Ltd
  • Structural engineering: Engineering Jonecon Ltd
  • Main contractor: NCC Construction Ltd
  • Precast Concrete Supplier: Ämmän Concrete Ltd
  • Fibre precast concrete manufacturer: Rieder Smart Elements GmbH and Seroc Ltd