In February 2019 the owner of a badly aging mosque contacted Steni to reclad the building. The building originally had ceramic tiles on the exterior which had fallen off or were taken down.
This challenging project involved taking 10,000 high-resolution photos of every ceramic panel from the original façade, each panel unique in design. These images were used by Steni to digitally recreate 400 tiles and match them perfectly.
This Steni Vision Custom remodel is an exceptional example of the designability, longevity, and weatherability of Steni Composite Stone Rainscreen Panels.
When they saw the Steni print and learned of Steni’s quality and warranty, they chose Steni Vision Custom.
The Blue Mosque is one of the most challenging projects we’ve had. My first contact with the building owner was in February 2019. Steni has been working with the owner on several large Steni Colour projects over many years. So, he was familiar with Steni, and had trust in Steni. Since the mosque is unique in Oslo, the Cultural Heritage Management Office was involved in the process. When they saw the sample Steni sample tile and were told about Steni’s quality and 60-year warranty, they chose Steni Vision Custom.
In February 2021, Steni’s digital creative partner M2uur, represented by the owner Freekje Vervoord, received the façade drawings, pictures, and measurements to begin digitally reproducing the tiles. It was a massive undertaking. Every panel had to be tiled to make sure the lines in the design were perfectly aligned from one panel to the other. It was a lot of back and forth during the process, but M2uuur is the perfect partner for such a challenging delivery.
WSP designed a new solution for the façade that both satisfies the Norwegian climate and retains the original façade expression.
In 1999, the Blue Mosque in Oslo had its façade decorated with tiles from Iran. Because the tiles were not frost-proof, the façade quickly developed problems in the years that followed. The building dates from 1995 and is already listed on the city antiquities list of buildings worthy of preservation, as it is one of the few mosques in Oslo and Norway. WSP designed a new solution for the facade with Steni that satisfies the large fluctuations in temperatures and frost/thaw cycles of the Norwegian climate, retains the original façade expression, and offers a long warranty.
