Project description
The Isokylä multifunctional building Puhto, built on-site in Kokkola, Finland, is fun and sensible, colourful and concrete-grey, enabling working in peace and encouraging communality- all at the same time. Instead of traditional school premises, today’s trend is to build multifunctional spaces that will find use by the surrounding community even outside of school hours. Modern day-care centres and school buildings should also be easily convertible to multiple uses. In addition, school buildings should be comfortable, encourage learning and because they occupy a central position in their community, be architecturally significant. Puhto, a multifunctional community centre, meets all these requirements hands down. A particularly demanding section of the project was during the drywall installation. It was challenging to achieve the desired level of sound insulation in a part of the building. It was important to insulate all joints for sound to ensure that no air leaked through gaps in the seam.
Contractor
WasaCon Oy
WasaCon is in 1996 founded Finnish private-owned construction company with active operations all across Finland. Offices of the company are located in Vaasa and Kokkola. Company size is 120 employees and turnover about 40 MEUR. WasaCon is part of WasaGroup corporation. WasaCon’s knowhow covers all aspects of construction from earthworks to demanding industrial buildings. Services of the company are: Turnkey construction, Commercial, Industrial, Public and Renovation buildings, Facade repairs, Earthworks and Residential buildings.
Key Achievements
- Key to success was “We do this together” team spirit in the organisation, which was created in the very early state of the construction site. The team was accompanied by a representative of the client / developer / designers / administrators / authors and also the suppliers.
- Good co-operation between suppliers and designers was in very important role.
- Co-operation was made only with reliable suppliers.
- Material choices were very strict and only reliable and well-known brands were used. In this case may also be mentioned that lots of Saint-Gobain Group’s products were used.
- Contractor is able to show how an energy-efficient, functional school building, or any building, for that matter, is built right at the first time without fears of indoor climate problems.
Key Challenges
- There were a lot of schedule challenges: e.g. Heating had to be turned on for 9 months since inception. Also the end phase of construction cleanliness class P1, meant that the building must be clean before ventilation unit protections can be removed and functional tests can begin- two months earlier as accustomed to.
- Sound insulation requirements were very strict between classrooms, technical work area and language class. Also moisture management was very important from the beginning of the construction. Everything possible has been done to ensure that the school will be a healthy building.
- There was strict monitoring throughout the entire project cycle, but the site manager was an experienced professional and held the reigns perfectly. For the company whose previous experience was mainly from industrial and commercial premises, as well as renovation, this project of approximately 18 million was a big one.