The award-winning, red part of the façade of the concert hall in Bjergsted cracks. The costs must be borne by the concert hall itself. – That is the price for being innovative, says the concert hall director.
The shades in the red wall are the recessed glass concrete slabs, which now have to be replaced. Photo: Stavanger Concert Hall
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—-The cracks were discovered more than a year ago. Photo: Stavanger Concert Hall
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– The cracks were discovered gradually, says director Per-Harald Nilsson in Stavanger Concert Hall.
It was NRK that wrote about the case first. Read the whole case at NRK.
More than a year ago, the first cracks were discovered. Sintef was hired to investigate the cracks in the facade of the concert hall in Bjergsted and in January this year the report came out:
Chemical reaction
– There has been a chemical reaction in the glass concrete that causes it to expand and crack. It is the shiny pieces of glass that have reacted chemically, says director Per-Harald Nilsson in Stavanger Concert Hall.
– It is not frost blasting, it is a chemical reaction, he emphasizes.
The report also concludes that the crack formation will continue.
– There will be more, says Nilsson.
An experiment
When the concert hall was to be built, the architects wanted to freshen up the red part of the facade with a material that had more color play than what red concrete provides.
In an experimental process, red and shiny pieces of glass were mixed into the concrete. The goal was a fresher red color. Now it turns out, however, that the shiny pieces of glass in these facade panels react chemically with the concrete.
The aerated concrete plan has also been used indoors, and there have been no cracks here.
—-The glass concrete slabs on the façade consist of red and shiny pieces of glass mixed into the concrete. Now the clear pieces of glass have reacted very badly with the concrete, which has led to cracks. Photo: Stavanger Concert Hall
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– An assessment was made at the time as to whether there was a risk, precisely because this was a new method. Therefore, it was only done on 5-10 percent of the red part of the facade, says Nilsson.
Must take the bill
The director will not criticize the choice made at the time:
– This is some of the price you pay to be innovative. The architects received the concrete award for this solution at the time, says Nilsson.
Now he is clear that the concert hall must choose a solution that is more lasting than ten years. But he does not yet know what the solution will be. Nor what it will cost to replace the concrete slabs.
– It will take several years before we are done with this, Nilsson says.
Professionals must first assess the extent of the damage and find solution alternatives, before the decision is made.
– It is the concert hall that owns the problem and it is we who must solve this, he says.
– Can you ask the State for financial support?
– To the extent that we can ask our owners for financial help, it is the county and the municipalities we must go to. But we have not come this far.
Stavanger Concert Hall was budgeted to cost 1.2 billion, but the accounts ended at just over 1.3 billion kroner. The concert hall was completed in 2012.
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