European HansemuseumLübeck, Germany

A combination of handcrafted bricks, gothic features and a tight schedule meant designing a façade for the new museum building presented a real challenge. The same was true when it came to supporting the brickwork – the distinctive building design meant that many of the JORDAHL GmbH brackets ordered were unique, custom-made pieces.

The new building for the European Hansemuseum was designed by the Hamburg-based Andreas Heller Architects & Designers. The brief stipulated that its structural core should be contemporary in style, while the façade should blend in with the surrounding buildings from the medieval period. Together with the brick manufacturing company Petersen Tegl, the architects developed a handcrafted gas burner that was used exclusively for this project. 100,000 bricks were used in the construction; 7,000 of which were unique in form.

The unusual shape of the building and existing buildings adjacent to it meant that the gaps between the building shell and façade brickwork fluctuated a great deal. Construction regulations stipulated that the concrete structure at the gable end of the building had to be renewed. The result: the gap between the walls grew from 25 to 65 centimetres, calling for individually designed and manufactured support brackets. The waterproof concrete for drilling and mounting in the base area could only be 10mm thick, meaning that separate calculations for the position of each individual bracket had to be made.

JORDAHL was chosen to manufacture the brackets. Brackets had to be individually designed and manufactured virtually on demand over the course of the construction project. Furthermore, making the necessary calculations was often only possible once the bricklaying work was already underway.

Over several months, the parties involved worked together like clockwork. Two weeks was the maximum amount of time needed between an order and delivery date for brackets. By manufacturing the products in-house, JORDAHL GmbH could be flexible, quick to respond, accommodate last-minute order changes, and deliver all the products just in time. For the support of the brick façade, the Berlin-based company manufactured approximately 1,300 unique brackets for 233 different bracket positions (JVA+ P, PAR, E, EA, NFT, NAFT, N and NA), around 120 angle brackets (JVA+ F, FAR) and 310 parapet brick anchors (JAV), whereby the cantilevered length of individual brackets varied between 75 and 760 millimetres.