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By far the first - terrazzo above the clouds

Published

2023. 06. 06. 11:44
Hungary's first high-rise building, the MOL Campus, was handed over in autumn 2022 by the general contractor Market Zrt. The company has built a number of domestic and international office buildings, including the joint headquarters of Telekom and T-System, and HillSide Offices. It is planned to be the most innovative and greenest office building in Budapest. The experience of Mapei also helped to build the new office building of MOL Campus, which has a total floor area of 98,000 square meters and a height of 120 meters on its 28 floors. The building's design was prepared by Foster+Partners in collaboration with the Hungarian FintaStudio.

"We are in the unique position that no one has ever built such a tall building in this country" - Zoltán Végh, Managing Director, Concretin Kft.

The top floor will be a Lookout Terrace, and the floors below will be a restaurant, from where you can admire the beautiful panorama of Budapest, as the office building is not only built for MOL-csoport, the Lookout Terrace, the restaurant and the ground floor café, bistro and Visitor Centre will also be open to the public.

Environmental awareness plays a central role

The building was designed to achieve LEED and BREEAM certification, demonstrating that environmental awareness and sustainability were central to the construction process. Construction started in September 2019.

Unique interior solutions - Terrazzo over 12,000 square metres

The large glass surfaces allow natural light to flood the interior spaces. In the podium building and the elevator lobbies of the tower, the contractor used ULTRATOP cement-bonded mortar, a system that can withstand the most demanding flooring applications.

The terrazzo floors were executed by Concretin Kft. The terrazzo flooring was installed on 7.000 square metres in the entire podium building, 2.600 square metres in the tower and 1.400 square metres in the water blocks. In addition, nearly 140 staircases and 16 lifts have been covered with terrazzo.

We talked about the challenges with the company's managing director, Zoltán Végh and the product manager of Mapei Kft. resin and cementitious cladding, Sándor Nagy.

We are in the huge MOL Campus building, now in its final stretch. How did we get here, how did we start working together?

N.S.: Concretin had previously worked with our materials to provide salt protection for bridges and overpasses, and they thought they should take a look at a more beautiful world, in the direction of terraces. They began to carry out projects in Hungary that were very exclusive tasks, e.g. the synagogue in Berettyóújfalu, the Csokonai Theatre in Kaposvár, and Szent Margit and Szent Imre Grammar Schools in Budapest. These projects advanced both them and our joint work. We supported them with our technological capabilities, technical advice and application technology, while they contributed their workshop work and the enormous amount of manual labour they put into it. What's more, you also mechanised the process. I don't know how many millions you spent on purchasing machinery?

V.Z.: Around one hundred million. We tried several products from different manufacturers for the terrazzo base material, but no matter where we looked, the end result was that the Mapei ULTRATOP product was the most user-friendly. Therefore, we were only willing to bid on this project with the Mapei.

What special help was needed during the construction?

V.Z.: The Mapei has its basic products, the ULTRATOP, the base colour is Bianco White, but it wasn't white enough, so we asked them to replace the additive. They were able to solve this by manufacturing the ULTRATOP Extra White specifically for this job, which made it possible to achieve such a white finish. This was a huge help.

N.S.: Yes, there were tasks that had to be performed jointly. On the one hand, financing such a large area was not without its problems, and on the other hand, at Concretin's request, we also stored the additives, and the ULTRATOP and other various marble aggregates were delivered to the site by joint transport, so that everything would be here on time.

It is already clear from the material published so far that this project presented a number of construction challenges that no company in Hungary has yet undertaken. For you what was the big challenge in the project?

V.Z.: The tower itself was a challenge, and I think it far exceeded our fears, consuming a great deal of time and money. The winterisation of the building and our requirements were not always in harmony. I would add that the properties of the ULTRATOP is so favourable that it performed extremely well even in such extreme conditions. Measurements and experience show that the ULTRATOP can do more than the Mapei claims. The joint work of several specialist industries was also a daily struggle. Restoring the completed tasks has been an ongoing task over the past six months.

N.S.: Every aspect of Mapei was a challenge. The first serious step was to win the contract and find a cladding that could provide the exclusive surface that would suit such a building. After all, this is the first skyscraper in Hungary. Furthermore, it had to be coordinated so that, in addition to the technical content, it also complied with fire safety regulations. The ULTRATOP can do this, with an A2 rating, and can also be used in stairwells and lift shafts as escape routes. No other covering could really do this. From a logistical point of view, it was important not to overload our warehouse, as we had other tasks to perform. Nowadays, when prices fluctuate like a reed in the wind, we were able to keep our prices at the originally agreed level.

MOL Campus is said to be the most innovative and greenest office building in Budapest. How, what makes this building "green"?

N.S.: It is absolutely true for Mapei that it is trying to develop environmentally conscious products. There are some product lines where only materials that have some kind of ECO, BREEAM, LEED certification can be used exclusively. It is also very important for this house to obtain these certifications. The ULTRATOP system's construction, resins, various primers all have these certifications.

What fund did you get? Can you tell us about the work?

V.Z.: We got a screed concrete, which was preceded by a design consultation. Three key points were nailed down. One was to put XPS insulation under floated screed, because the shrinkage of these insulations is greater due to the different cross-sections than we can get away with without cracking. The second was the iron mesh we expected in the screed, and the third was the layer thickness.

As a primer, PRIMER SN two-component epoxy primer. After the epoxy resin, the surface was coated with a layer of polyurethane. Our idea was that if the screed moves or cracks for any reason, this polyurethane layer will be able to dampen this movement, thus relieving tension. MAPEFLOOR PU 410 polyurethane coating. To ensure proper adhesion, the layers were prepared by sprinkling quartz sand. Finally, we applied a layer of ULTRATOP layer, which we had already mixed with marble chips, and worked it to a thickness of 24-25 mm. This thick layer was necessary because the customer chose large-grain marble chips, and in order to see this large-grain stone pattern, we had to grind back a lot, as we had to grind the surface down to half the thickness of the stone.

Finally, we applied a surface sealant, which was MAPECRETE STAIN PROTECTION.

The stairs were made in the workshop, only the gluing was done on site.

The lifts have a very similar layering to the general surface layering, except that the lifts have a steel plate at the bottom. Each lift therefore has its own unique solution. The cladding had to be accurate to a tenth of a millimetre because it was all encased in glass. It was meticulous, delicate, very thoughtful, precise work. Not every detail is comparable to the general surface.

Which part is your favourite?

V.Z.: I liked two things about it. The stairs were a very special stunt. The other was that the client wanted to see a logo in the surface, in metal and silver. I had to find two metals that could be sanded well and withstand the heat of sanding, and a widely appreciated different color, all in terrazzo. I had to be able to sand a hard metal with a softer terrazzo material so that it was continuous in the plane ... this was a very difficult task.

ADATOK

Reference: MOL Campus
Mapei products: Terrazzo
Location:Budapest
Year of execution: 2019-2022
Investor:MOL-csoport
General Contractor: Market Zrt.
Resin terrazzo contractor: Concretin Kft.
Mapei Partner dealer: Concretin Kft.
Mapei contact person: Sándor Nagy, Károly Habling, András Doma

RECLAIMED MAPEI PRODUCTS

Terrazzo: Primer SN, Ultratop Extra White, Mapefloor I302SL, Mapefloor PU410, Mapecrete Stain Protection

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