It is used as a dyeing and printing mordant, as a paper sizing, as an accelerant in the setting of concrete.

Aalto differed from the first generation of modernist architects (such as Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier) in his predilection for natural materials: in this design, "wood was first introduced into an otherwise modernist setting of concrete, white stucco, glass, and steel".

The only area that he opened was around the precariously leaning Stone 56 (the western stone of the Great Trilithon), an area measuring approximately 17 ft by 13 ft. The task proved more difficult since only small areas could be dug at a time for the pouring and the setting of concrete.