Jan, 2010. WOODlife supplies Swedbank's new head office in Vilnius
Recently, Swedbank's new head office for the Baltic States took root in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania. The new head office, designed by Audrius Ambrasas Architects, is built right at the bank of the Neris river in the centre of Vilnius. WOODlife was granted the honour to deliver and install the interior flooring and the extraordinary wooden terrace which surrounds the new building.
Interior flooring
Within the new building, wooden flooring was designed for the café and the auditorium. The café was designed for 150 visitors at a time, six days a week. No need to say, the flooring and the floor finish had to be very durable and easy to maintain. Next to that, the Swedbank required the flooring had to be fire resistant according to the highest European fire classification on wooden flooring. Rubio Monocoat, our sole supplier when it comes to floor finishings, offers a primer which is finished by a fire retardant hardwax oil; the Flamaway System. WOODlife took that challenge, and managed to get a Bfl-s1 fire certificate on our oak engineered flooring as one of the first within the European Union, using the Flamaway System. The combination of the quality of our flooring, durability and fire-resistance of our Rubio Monocoat hardwax oil, made the Swedbank choose for a deeply fumed oak engineered floor with a custom made, warm brown appearance.
Exterior flooring
The space around the main building was to be designed in such a way, that it would naturally be integrated in the green surroundings on the river bank. On top of the ground floor of a part of the building (above the café and auditorium), a wooden terrace of 4500 m2 was designed to offer a stunning view over the river Neris and over Vilnius Old Town. The huge terrace shows slopes in different angles, and contains stairs with integrated illumination, flower beds and lightning globes to the spaces below. The terrace itself is designed in Ipé, a very hard and stable Brazilian hardwood. The terrace boards are smoothly planed and finished with our Rubio Monocoat Decking Oil 2C, which contains a hardener. Terrace boards with ordinary decking oils need to be maintained with a fresh coat of oil every year. Due to the hardener in our Rubiuo Monocoat decking oil, the terrace boards are free of maintenance for three years!
And more
Next to the flooring, WOODlife also delivered and installed appr. 2500 m2 of acoustic and non-acoustic wooden panels. The panelling has a gypsum core which is covered with an Oregon Pine veneer. The panels are certified according to a European A2-fire classification.
March, 2010. 
The first batch of Dutch elm timber is now ready to be processed at our sawmill in Lithuania. Because the timber is only available in small quantities, WOODlife will mainly be offering the flooring in random widths in order to obtain the best yield. Please check our website now and then; the flooring will be available in a few months. For those who are seriously interested and simply can't wait, just send us your