Nokia Arena, situated in the center of Tampere, Finland, stands as an architectural marvel designed by Studio Libeskind in collaboration with the Finnish ARCO Architectural office.
This remarkable sports and entertainment venue showcases a unique design featuring curved aluminum slat facades that encircle the building, tilting at various angle. The complexity of the building’s shape and the texture of the slat facade presented a unique challenge in designing for manufacture and assembly (DfMA).
Geometria undertook on the responsibilities of fabrication modeling, assembly drawing generation, and fabrication data creation, as requested by the building’s façade contractor, HakaPks Oy. This collaboration played a pivotal role in the successful realization of the project.
Working with a curved outer facade and a polygonal interior steel support frame posed a unique challenge, requiring careful consideration of the transition from straight to curved elements. The decision to construct elements as straight and then bend them added another layer of complexity, demanding meticulous modeling to create the curved slats and subsequent ‘unrolling’ for fabrication.
The bending process involved the use of specially designed fasteners with dynamic length adjustment. Geometria provided the construction team with precise distance values for each fastener. This enabled the team to set up the correct curvature, ensuring the final outcome aligned seamlessly with the intended façade curvature surface.
Due to transportation limitations, the individually unique slats were divided into elements, resulting in 832 distinct assemblies out of 9,848 unique slats. Geometria managed this complexity by providing detailed coding, fabrication data, elementation assembly drawings, and façade installation drawings for each element.
For the fabrication of each slat, GEOMETRIA supplied a fabrication file directly compatible with the Schüco 5-axis aluminum milling machine. Through optimization or nesting, Geometria determined the quantity of aluminum slats required for ordering and provided the final nesting configuration for fabrication, minimizing material loss.
Our involvement also extended beyond the façade slats to include designing perforated sheets, their support structure, and slanted fiber concrete paneling on the stairwells.
The project’s success was recognized with the Tekla BIM Award 2022 Suomi and Baltics, a testament to our commitment to innovation and precision in this collaborative architectural achievement.
Client: HakaPks Oy, Facade Contractor
Main contractor: SRV Rakennus Oy
Architects: Studio Libeskind, ARCO
Structural design: Ramboll Finland Oy
Structural steel support frame: SS Teracon Oy
2021
Tampere, Finland
Hakapks Oy (facade contractor)
finished
Facade area about 15.000 m2
Consulting, Fabrication