Brick Pavilion for Company Hagemeister

Trier University of Applied Sciences and Company Hagemeister, a large producer of clinker brinks in Münsterland, having been collaborating since winter semester 2014/15. This close work is shown in Hagemeister’s donation to fund a professorship. Professor Böhm has focused on building and design with solid construction materials, particularly focusing on the use of brick and concrete.

Inspired by field trips to Hagemeister's clinker brick factory in Nottuln and by working with the artist Martin Kleppe, a visiting faculty member who shared his experience with large sculptures and experimental architecture made of clay and textile-reinforced concrete, students had the idea to research the potential of clinker bricks for their university project. This research aimed to create new usages for a 2,000-year-old construction material. Students designed a new entrance pavilion for the clinker brick works which reflected the philosophy of the company: high-tech in conjunction with the knowledge of the old kiln masters. The entrance pavilion employed construction techniques involving a thin brick shell reinforced with carbon fiber textile. The material thickness of the structure is no more than 7 cm and from outside, only bricks are visible. A layer of bricks hides the carbon fiber textile and the cement grout, so that the viewer only sees a "simple" brick structure.

In November 2018, the research and development project was successfully completed and the students were able to accompany the project from the first pencil sketches and experimental modals, through the laboratory tests, the building application process with the local government and the erecting of a complex formwork scaffolding to the completion of the structure.