Waterfront apartments, Tallinn

Once a large submarine factory and seaplace harbour, Port Noblessner has been transformed into a bustling residential seafront quarter with restaurants, bars and offices.

For these nautically themed apartment buildings KOKO Architects specified our Gotland Grey Limestone for much of the exterior façade due to its attractive grey-beige colour tones and also because of its very high levels of frost resistance. A high resistance to repeated freezing and thawing cycles is necessary when considering the use of natural stone for exterior use in Scandinavia and the Nordic region.

The Gotland Grey façade panels for this project were made in dimensions 600 x 300 x 30 mm. The reason for the thickness of the panels was because it was necessary to cut a groove into the center of the long edge of each panel so that they could be installed by sliding onto a metal supporting frame. Air can then easily circulate behind the façade panels which allows them to dry out quickly after rainfall. For this reason, ventilated façades are generally more common than non-ventilated façades when using natural stone.