The tallest building, the longest bridge, the largest stadium… The more a country’s economy develops, the more extraordinary construction projects become. As a result, breaking records often becomes part of the construction industry’s history and a way to put cities on the map and increase their attractiveness to both residents and visitors. The Consolis Group boasts many examples of noteworthy projects that have broken records. We have listed just some of the extraordinary projects that used our high-performance precast concrete products:
1. The Most Sustainable Office Building in the World
2. The Tallest Hotel in Finland
3. The Longest Road Tunnel in Finland
4. The Largest Shopping Center in Denmark
5. The Longest Viaduct in the Netherlands
6. The Largest Logistics Centre in Estonia
7. The Largest Shopping Mall in Belarus
8. The Largest Swimming Complex in Romania
VBI, Consolis’ Dutch subsidiray, participated for its client OVG Real Estate, in the construction of The Edge, a 40,000m² office building in the Zuidas business district of Amsterdam. . The project aimed to consolidate Deloitte’s employees from multiple buildings throughout the city into a single spot, and to create a ‘smart building’ to act as a catalyst for Deloitte’s transition into the digital age. The British rating agency BREEAM gave the building the highest sustainability score ever awarded: 98.36 %. The office building, Deloitte’s corporate headquarters, is one of the world’s most sustainable and ‘smartest’ buildings, able to constantly monitor its energy consumption and adapt through new technologies and innovation. Smart lighting, solar panel roof, energy and rainwater reuse, the Edge uses 70% less electricity than comparable office buildings. The building has contributed to increasing Deloitte’s attractiveness as an employer and candidates are applying for job offers at Deloitte Netherlands because they want to work in this specific building.
The architect, Cees den Ouden from OeverZaaijer Architects, was looking for flexible solutions in the layout in order to keep the building sustainable. VBI’s expertise in this field and the advantages of the Flexibel Comfort solution met the archtiects’ expectations. VBI’s hollow-core flooring systems, based on large spans of 16 meters, enabled the construction of spaces using less material and adaptable for future use. The assembly of the elements was quick, at a pace of 7 working days per floor.
> Read more on Vbi.nl
Parma Oy, Consolis’ Finnish subsidiary, helped to build the tallest hotel in Finland. Solo Sokos Hotel Torni hotel tower, stands at 88 meters high and as such is the tallest hotel in the country offering a stunning view of Tampere and its lake. The modern high-rise building is strategically positioned next to the central railway station and it’s a perfect combination of history, modern architecture and art. Parma supplied precast sandwich panels for the facade and partition walls, as well as hollowcore slabs for the roof. The facade was treated with a special black pigment for an innovative surface design. Using sandwich elements for the facade enabled a reduction in the construction time by two months and resulted in a more cost-effective project overall.
> Read more on Parma.fi and on Consolis.com
Parma Oy produced and has already delivered 7,000 concrete elements for Finland’s longest road tunnel: the Tampere Rantatunneli tunnel. The 2.3 kilometre tunnel is the longest road tunnel ever constructed in the country. It aims at improving the flow and safety of traffic in the area. Parma’s involvement in the Rantatunneli tunnel is extensive: the company provided the safety barriers for the full tunnel length as well as wall elements and noise reflecting walls. The walls were decorated by famous local artists and form the longest art gallery in Finland. All elements were manufactured in Parma’s Kangasala factory.
Thanks to the efficiency and skills of all the teams involved, the tunnel is expected to be open to the public in early 2017, six months earlier than originally planned.
> Read more on Parma.fi
Because of its location, size, variety and unique shopping experience, Field’s was the first shopping center significantly different from existing centers in Scandinavia, designed with the emphasis on quality, simplicity and, above all, light. Opened in March 2004, Field’s is still the biggest shopping centre in Denmark and one of the largest in Scandinavia, with a total shopping area the size of 18 football pitches and 110 shops. With a total surface area of 146,000 m², Field’s shopping center has a shopping area on two floors including restaurants, a leisure area, offices, a multiplex cinema and a 3,000-space car park. Spæncom, Consolis’ Danish subsidiary, supplied 12,000 concrete elements, amounting to a staggering 110,000 tons of concrete over three years. Spæncom provided a full range of concrete elements including hollow-core slabs, walls, columns, beams, TT-plates and facades. At the time, the order passed by the developer, Steen & Strøm for the shopping center was nothing less than the largest single concrete order in Denmark.
> Read more on Spaencom.dk
Spanbeton, Consolis’ Dutch subsidiary, provided the precast concrete elements for the development of the Westrandweg motorway that that runs from Schiphol Airport to the western Amsterdam harbour area. One of the key challenges of the project was the 3.5 km long viaduct, the longest in the Netherlands. The 10 km long motorway has also considerably improved traffic flow around Amsterdam.
> Read more on Spanbeton.nl and on Consolis.com
AS E-Betoonelement designed, provided reinforced concrete elements for Maxima Logistics Centre, the biggest logistic centre in Estonia. The 45,000 m² building will accommodate dry, cold and container storages with 130 goods delivery platforms that will serve about 300 vehicles a day. Equipped with the newest warehousing technologies, the logistics centre will facilitate more rapid deliveries of goods to the stores, resulting in even greater freshness and quality for the end-customer. The building was designed by Nord Projekt AS and the contructor was Rand & Tuulberg Grupp AS.
> Read more on Betoonelement.ee
Betonika, Consolis’ Lithunanian subsidiary, participated in the construction of the largest shopping mall in Belarus. The whole area of this commercial and administration buildings measures 53,000 m² and the hypermarket takes up 10,000 m² of that space. The investor is Belarussian “Millenium Group”, and the architecture by Minskgrazdanproekt. The shopping mall is today a popular meeting place in Minsk with many amenities for kids and families.
Betonika produced precast elements including walls, columns, beams, stairs and landings. The production process was divided into three stages. Production came to an end in May/June and construction is being finalized in October/November 2016. The unique forms of the facades and different frameworks were very demanding, and the complex logistics and project management were also challenging.
> Read more on Betonika.lt
ASA, Consolis’ Romanian subsidiary, is building for its customer MBS Group the largest swimming complex in Romania. The complex is located at the north of Bucharest, in the city of Otopeni. This exceptional swimming complex will welcome national and international competitions for swimming, water polo and diving. The sport center counts six pools: one olympic pool of 1,350 m² , one diving pool of 450 m², one workout swimming pool of 414 m² and three additional public swimming-pools.
ASA is producing the precast concrete elements for the project: columns, slabs, beams and stairs. ASA also participated in the assembly of special anti seismic joints, at the base of the structures. The Otopeni Swimming Complex will be finalized in 2017, but some of the elements produced by ASA have already been assembled.
Read more on ASA’s Facebook page
