Safer Scaffolding for Bremen’s top landmarks

Every year, 37 million day visitors travel to Bremen on the River Weser to visit the historic city centre and the city’s numerous well-known landmarks such as the medieval Schnoor Quarter, the mighty Roland statue and the monument to the Town Musicians of Bremen. They stand alongside Bremen’s historic City Hall with its impressive Renaissance facade and very close to the New City Hall built in 1913, with a brick facade facing the cathedral court and the market square. It was necessary to erect scaffolding around this facade, so that the carpenters charged with dismantling and refurbishing the wooden windows could work in compliance with listed monument regulations. This task was contracted to Wilhelm Bädecker Gerüstbau GmbH, a long-established local firm, who put their trust in the new modular access system for facades AGS made by Layher. A 3D laser scan of the building served as the basis for planning. A digital twin generated by Layher’s laser scanning specialists was subsequently used to plan the scaffolding and the structural requirements.

“This construction site at the historic City Hall was our first time using the AGS System. We wanted to assemble the entire scaffolding from a secured level without any extra PPE. That is not only safer but also more efficient”, says Malik Tharia, Managing Director of Wilhelm Bädecker Gerüstbau GmbH. The three-strong construction crew erected the scaffolding, together with the associated Layher platform stairtower and the loading platform made from Allround material, little by little over a four-week period, so that the restorers could start work on one side while the scaffolding was still going up elsewhere. For the new AGS System, this was a great chance to show off what it can do at a location steeped in history.

Tradition meets modernity
The new AGS System consists of an AGS standard and an AGS guardrail, which are installed from a secured level. Two different types of guardrail are employed in Bremen: the AGS guardrail Fixx, which cannot be removed when assembled, preventing unauthorised dismantling, and the AGS guardrail, which is removed by opening the levers at a defined point, making it easier for the various trades to transport material. The matching AGS double end guardrail can likewise be assembled quickly and easily from the secured level to secure the open ends without any additional bolting.

Everything fits together perfectly
The AGS System is fully integrated into the Layher scaffolding system and is simple to combine with all standard Allround components. “In other words, we can incorporate our existing Allround material into the basic AGS structure flexibly and easily, for instance in order to close open corners with U-steel decks 45°, realise deck edges flush with the facade using TipTop brackets or scaffold recesses in the structure with larger U-console brackets. This flexibility is a hallmark of Layher Allround Scaffolding and it’s one main reason why we’re a satisfied and loyal Layher customer”, Tharia comments. Owing to the building’s special location and immense importance, the bottom four metres of the scaffolding are completely clad with Layher Protect cassettes to prevent unauthorised access to the construction site.

Reliable plans? No chance!
When buildings like Bremen’s City Hall have been regularly added to or converted and extended over the centuries, meaningful blueprints are mostly non-existent. The ability to survey structures in great detail by taking a 3D laser scan and using it as the basis for efficient digital scaffolding planning considerably simplifies the overall process. “In the meantime, scaffolding is to a large extent civil engineering through and through. It involves a lot of structural analysis, which is why we need reliable plans, flexible scaffolding material and strong partners. As a satisfied Layher customer, we benefit enormously from the broad idea underlying the Integrated System and the wide range of services on offer, which constantly make more and more things

possible for our own customers”, Tharia explains. “The 3D images from the scans are so detailed that they’re not only useful for creating very precise plans of our scaffolding. City officials are contemplating using our scans too – recycling them, as it were – to document the fabric of their buildings”, adds Lars Ukena, the site supervisor responsible for the project at Wilhelm Bädecker Gerüstbau GmbH. Digital planning as part of LayPLAN SUITE moreover makes material logistics more efficient, which is a highly relevant factor when it comes to city-centre construction sites.

Our idea of partnership
Ingo Barge and René Stender, Area Sales Manager and Regional Sales Manager respectively at Layher, are agreed: “The partnership with the scaffolders from Bädecker lays the foundation for the success of both sides”. The Bremen firm’s scaffolding specialists received instruction in the AGS System at the Layher Training Centre in Eibensbach and were thus able to profit directly from the experience of Layher’s field service personnel. “We also collaborate closely on many other projects and this particular one is an impressive example: the 3D laser scan of the City Hall was the starting point for joint planning with the Technical Office in Eibensbach”, Ukena reports. His company have upped their technical and human resources accordingly and are increasingly able to take care of digital planning independently thanks to their own draughtsman and LayPLAN SUITE software.

In and around Bremen
When Wilhelm G. Bädecker founded his carpentry business back in 1896, scaffolding was still built strictly from wood and was hence intrinsic to the company’s field of activities from the outset. Wilhelm Junior, the third generation, was quick to respond to the new challenges arising in the wake of the Second World War by switching completely to steel and aluminium scaffolding. Klöckner Stahlwerke Bremen was founded in 1954 and soon became a regular source of orders, prompting Bädecker to open a branch office in the same city. The close partnership stimulated steady growth. What’s more, the Bremen specialists are long-time scaffolding partners of the State of Bremen and at the forefront whenever public contracts are put out to tender. “Wilhelm Bädecker Gerüstbau has played a central role in Bremen’s cityscape ever since it was first set up. We’re an established company and wherever construction or refurbishment work is carried out, we’ve traditionally been responsible for the scaffolding. Famous landmarks like the City Hall, the Roland statue, churches and the port are frequently scaffolded by us too in preparation for refurbishing. We’re a Bremen firm and it’s a privilege and a duty at once for us”, Managing Director Malik Tharia answers when asked to sum up his commitment.

In 2022, Wilhelm Bädecker Gerüstbau GmbH became part of Bremer Mathari Holding GmbH, which also includes STE-BA Gerüstbau GmbH and Mathari Lift GmbH – an especially effective team in around Bremen.