Client: Kreissparkasse Wiedenbrück Bank
Architect: Ludger Westkämper GmbH, Herzebrock-Clarholz
Type of works: supply of SSQ Ultra Riverstone® architectural stone with a brushed, antique finish.
The latest branch of Germany’s Kreissparkasse Wiedenbrück bank recently opened in Schloß Holte-Stukenbrock, a small town in the state of north Rhine-Westphalia in north-west Germany.
The bank plans to open seven new branches by 2015, their sleek, functional design providing easy-to-access customer service in an environment that’s in harmony with today’s hi-tech banking methods. Having decided that natural stone would be the most practical floor surface, architects Ludger Westkamper GmbH chose SSQ Riverstone architectural stone at a beauty parade where a number of suppliers, including SSQ’s agent, André Köhring of StoneConcept GmbH, presented a range of alternatives. Key factors in the final decision were Riverstone’s excellent non-slip properties and its beautifully patterned, metallic Grey/Green colour that complements the bank’s steely, modern colour scheme.
SSQ Riverstone architectural stone is a phyllite, a rock similar to slate, and is quarried at SSQ’s Represa Quarry in La Florida, central Argentina. Specifically selected rock is cut and dressed for architectural use, its physical and aesthetic properties making it an ideal choice of material for flooring, paving, cladding and stairways. Available in a choice of four surface finishes, Schulte GmbH & Co. KG, SSQ’s supplier in Germany, delivered nearly 500m2 of floor tiles in a brushed antique finish, a finish that softens the texture of the rock’s natural, riven surface
but retains its excellent non-slip properties.
Ahmed El-Helw, SSQ Chairman, was invited to the opening of the new branch and was delighted to be told by no lesser person than Kreissparkasse Wiedenbrück’s Managing Director that: “We’re so impressed with the quality and beauty of the stone used for the flooring that we’ve asked for it to be specified in the design of all future banks we are building throughout Germany.”