The new Amos Rex art museum with its contemporary exhibition spaces was to be located in a protected building environment under the Lasipalatsi square and partly under Lasipalatsi itself, one of Helsinki’s most prominent functionalist buildings; and so the worksite required strong special skills from our professionals.
Kreate’s contract included all earthworks and foundations of the site as well as water pressure slabs, supporting old structures and construction of municipal engineering. Additional challenges were the implementation of a trench 15 metres below the groundwater level, supported by a steel piling wall, and the creation of a worksite in a location with a small surface area but a large difference in height.
The old chimney of the thermal power plant in the middle of the Lasipalatsi square became one of the most special details of our worksite. The chimney was left in place when the thermal power plant below it was dismantled. The protected chimney was supported by bored piles on load transfer structures. We excavated the area below the chimney to get the space required by the new structures. Excavating to a depth of six metres, while taking into account the bored piles supporting the pipe, was one of the most challenging work phases at the site. The piling was carried out by the special foundation construction professionals of our co-ownership company, KFS Finland. Our work also extended under Lasipalatsi, which was completed in 1936. We supported the protected building by solutions such as jet grouting and special structures that could be tensioned.
In this unique foundation construction project, we did 30,000 m³ of excavation, 12,000 m³ of quarrying, as well as 2,500 m² of support walls and jet grouting.
The customer was Fastighets Ab Glaspalatset, and the contractor was Haahtela. The contract time for Kreate’s portion was from January 2016 to December 2017. Amos Rex was opened to the public in August 2018.
