Stora Enso again chooses white marble for main building

Alvar Aalto Hotel planned for Katajanokka site

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The wood processing company Stora Enso will replace the deteriorating marble tiles on the exterior of its main headquarters, situated in Katajanokka in central Helsinki, with new white marble.
      The office block - originally known as the Enso Building - was designed by the internationally renowned Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, and was built in 1961.
     
Stora Enso would have liked to replace the worn-out Carrara marble tiles with white granite, as it would better withstand the northern climate. However, according to the present city plan this is not possible, reports Jorma Westlund, Stora Enso’s Senior Vice President of Public Affairs.
      Nevertheless, the company hopes that the pending city plan change would make it possible to make alterations to the exterior of the building in the future, when the next repairs are due.
      For security reasons, the shabby tiles have to be replaced as soon as possible. Another alternative would be to hang safety nets along the length of the building to protect pedestrians from falling tiles.
      The rectangular building is perhaps one of the least loved of Aalto's designs, as many feel that the block is out of place in the otherwise historic milieu.
     
Another Alvar Aalto creation, Helsinki's Finlandia Hall, has been the focus of a similar tiling controversy. The building, which was completed in 1971, began to exhibit warping in its exterior marble tiles already in the 1980s. Finally, the marble was replaced by new marble tiles in the 1990s.
      In his opening speech at the Aalto Exhibition in London on Wednesday, Helsinki’s Mayor for City Planning and Real Estate Pekka Korpinen announced that a new hotel is being planned to be situated in Helsinki’s Katajanokka, right next to Stora Enso’s headquarters. The hotel will house 200 to 250 rooms featuring Aalto’s original furniture designs, and the aim is to have the project completed in 2010.
     
Behind the boutique hotel project is a Norwegian investor Arthur Buchardt, and the top-flight Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have been proposed as the designers of the building.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  New marble cladding for Stora Enso head office (30.10.2006)
  Stora Enso building plans stir up critics of Alvar Aalto (17.3.2005)

Links:
  Stora Enso
  Alvar Aalto, Barbican Centre, London - Press Release

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