Tangvall Arena – A Building for a Fire-Safe Future

“The vision was to let the shopping centre form a neutral base for the point houses above. The four point houses each have their own composite appearances. Common to the four point houses are the windows, doors, and sliding doors, says Gabrielsen. She continues:

“Each point house consists of a single material, which helps to reinforce the architecture and the design choices made. For House A, Rockpanel Woods was our final choice”.

Fire Safety Meets Visual Aesthetics

In Norway, there has been a long tradition of building with wood. But for Tangvall Arena, an alternative material was chosen for House A than originally planned.

“For House A, cladding made from wood was planned, but the supplier could not meet the fire requirements stated in the fire report. Therefore, it was necessary to find another material”, explains Gabrielsen. “It was not easy to find a replacement for the desired wood appearance. Civil Architect Gabrielsen insisted that even if wood panelling could not meet the requirements, it should look like light wood. The contractor and builder Mur i SØR and Gabrielsen chose to use Rockpanel Woods for House A. The flexibility and appearance of Rockpanel Woods offered several advantages during the construction project.

Mur i SØR worked intensively to find solutions and we ended up choosing Rockpanel. The material in these panels is lighter, which made it easier for us to cut, put up good fittings, and adjust as needed. They provided good, neat, minimalist solutions”, adds Gabrielsen.

From Wood to Compressed Basalt Stone

Harald Helland, Area Sales Manager at Rockpanel, has a lot to say about the product. The facade panels are unique because they look like wood but offer entirely different properties.

The panels have a very natural appearance and look just like wood panelling, but the most important difference from wood is that it is a much more fire-safe material made of stone wool. In addition, it is a material that requires minimal maintenance, contains no toxic substances, and is not affected by moisture, Helland explains.
Merete Asskildt Gabrielsen is very satisfied with the results, both practical and aesthetic.

The solutions turned out well! I quickly fell for Rockpanel Woods because of the colour spectrum, and it made it natural to choose these panels for this project. It was much closer to our desired appearance and offered many solutions. I have been out on inspection and it has turned out very well! Tangvall Arena is a modern building with good sustainable materials, a building for the future, says Gabrielsen.

The entire construction consists of building phases I & II, of which building phase I is completed and in use. The completion of building phase II is planned for December 2024.