Puurmani arch bridge was chosen the Concrete Building of the Year

The Estonian Concrete Union announced the winners of the competition “Concrete Building of the Year 2007” today, on the 8th Concrete Day in the conference centre of Swissotel. The Concrete Building of the Year 2007 – Puurmani arch bridge (across River Pedja, on the 148th kilometre of Tallinn-Tartu road): The main prize of the competition – the engineers Siim Idnurm, Juhan Idnurm. The prize of the client – Road Administration, the prize of the constructor – AS Merko Ehitus, the prize of the supplier of the concrete – AS Rudus.

The comments of the jury: the most complicated step of the construction performed under the management of AS Merko Ehitus was the concreting of the arches and lock part of the deck board which was performed for the purpose of equalization of the loads simultaneously from both coasts. The construction of the planking erected on that previously and in guarantee of the stability the construction solution of the auxiliary bridge based on the bottom of the river had a significant role which required additional soil research and assessment of the impacts resulting from the waterflow and distribution of the loads. Pursuant to the concreting of the arches of the bridge the interim posts resting on it were established. Prior to the concreting works of the deck board the whole base planking was removed, the refillings of the surrounding of the coast posts were performed. The concreting of the board was carried out for the purpose of unifying the load falling on the arches simultaneously from two opposite coasts.

Aadu Kana, the chairman of the jury: “The arch bridge harmoniously melted to the environment is made more attractive by the high-level concrete surfaces.”
Heiki Meos, member of the jury: “The attractive is the right one.” Emil Urbel: member of the jury: “The right is the attractive one.”
Toomas Laur, member of the jury: “The configuration snatchable with eye and good concrete cast.”

The special prize of the architect – Siiri Vallner, Indrek Peil and Sten-Mark Mändmaa – Tartu Lotte kindergarten, Ida str. 8. As no attractive views are nearby, the building has rather the nature of turn-in. The centre of the kindergarten is the hall and its surrounding play corridor. The circle corridor has been designed with the continuous landscape, where the mountains, valleys, swamps and streams provide the joy of discovery for the children. The part of the hall and play corridor is covered by the girders (cassette ceiling) made of exposed monolithic concrete, concrete walls of the hall and bell-mouthed light wells are made of board-pattern concrete. The building reminds of the bloom of the flower from the upper view. Six wings split as the petals from the core. The pattern of the outer wall of the building has been achieved by using many different-shaped windows which skilfully demonstrates the architectural possibilities of the ferroconcrete to be mounted. Aadu Kana, chairman of the jury: The warm and cosy atmosphere has been created with concrete surfaces suitable for the kindergarten. The original ferroconcrete elements with the triangular windows used in outer design make the total building more interesting.

The special prize of the client – Nordmet Invest OÜ – the apartment building at Selise str 26 in Kakumäe in Tallinn. The main task of the architect by establishing the apartment building (Meelis Pressi Arhitektuuribüroo AS) was to create the building which would fit in with the construction type of the area improved by today (private houses and row houses) regarding its scale and mood. The precondition was that the facade of the house would be divided into small bodies and the form treatment were as light as possible. The use of concrete and wooden surfaces with scaffold pattern contributed to the achievement of the rusticity characteristic of the sea-side buildings. Aadu Kana, chairman of the jury: The concrete surfaces of excellent quality and the outlook well suitable with the surrounding.

The special prize of the constructor – AS Merko Ehitus – private house in Nõmme.
The fortunate solution of the object in the already established environment. We acknowledge the skill of the architect Martin Aunin to create the exceptional new residence with bold form which at the same time fulfils its function to the fullest as the home of the family living there. The distinguishable object has been performed uniformly and professionally regarding the details, the ways of usage of different valuable materials and new technical solutions. The white monolithic concrete surface with fine-sawed scaffold planking dominates on the facade of the building and partly in the interior. White concrete surface in different form could be found around the house. The white terrazzo element boards have been installed to the terraces. The hard-covered pavements in the front garden are covered with “sparing concrete-pavement” made of white cobblestones. The monolithic concrete socle of the periphery fence and the pavement laid out of concrete stones in the street take Nõmme pines into account and become the integral part of the house. Aadu Kana, chairman of the jury: the share of the concrete in the building is nicely in proportion and the good quality concrete surfaces have been fit in with the rest of the furniture to create an integral solution.

“Eesti Päevaleht” chooses the favourite of the newspaper readers out of the nominees in the course of the online-questioning for the third year. The prize of the favourite of the readers of Eesti Päevaleht went to the Estonian Virtual embassy in Second Life environment. The editorial board of the magazine “Builder” issued for the third year the special prize – to the architectural agency of Nord Projekt AS – for the twin towers of Tornimäe (Tornimäe 3, Tallinn). The arch bridge of Puurmani won the reader-voting in the portal of Delfi. The album of the nominees of “The Concrete Building of the Year 2007” opened in Delfi Pilt was watched approximately 30,000 times. The online-voting of the readers of the newspaper “Äripäev” was won by Tallinn synagogue. The total of 2842 persons participated in online-voting.

The competition “Concrete Building of the Year”, organised this year for the eighth time, has been started to introduce the wide-scale usage possibilities of the concrete for the public and acknowledge these people who have used local building material – tractable concrete ample of possibilities – for the implementation of their ideas. 25 works were received to the competition of this year. The concrete buildings given over to the client during 2007 and the constructions and procedures used therein could be submitted to the competition.

The jury of the competition “Concrete Building of the Year 2007” consisted of the representatives from the associations of the Estonian construction sector – Estonian Concrete Union (Toomas Laur), Union of Estonian Architects (Emil Urbel), Estonian Association of Construction Entrepreneurs (Mati Laurson), Estonian Association of Civil Engineers (Heiki Meos), Association of Construction Material Producers of Estonia (Enno Rebane), Association of Estonian Project Agencies (Mauno Inkinen), AS Kunda Nordic Tsement (Aadu Kana, chairman of the jury), also the representatives of the construction journalists – Eva Kiisler from the magazine “Builder”, Teet Reier from the newspaper “Äripäev” and Maritta Koivisto from the magazine „Betoni” (Finland).

The Estonian Concrete Union (established in 2004) is the association promoting the use of the concrete as the local building material including 53 companies, organisations and private persons.