Brick – for some, one building material among many. For others, a source of passion and a way of life. Jörn Hebrok belongs to the latter species. He is a brickmaker, clinker brick manufacturer and graduate ceramics engineer – some might call him a brick guru. In any case, one thing quickly becomes clear when talking to Hebrok: this man not only loves the subject of bricks; he lives it, literally breathes it.

For Jörn Hebrok, there is no better building material. He can talk for hours about the unimaginably diverse details of his bricks and their production and manages to transport listeners into the fascinating world of bricks. As a passionate brickmaker, Hebrok’s enthusiasm for the subject is always palpable and almost infectious.

The beginnings of Hebrok’s private brickworks date back to the beginning of the last century in the Lippe region, when the numerous itinerant brickmakers of the time began to settle down. Initially concentrating on the classic brick colors – red, yellow and black – Jörn Hebrok, who holds a degree in ceramic engineering, finally began to develop other colors in 2008. The inspiration for this came from our neighboring countries, as the brick-loving Netherlands, for example, has been using bricks in varied, innovative colors for much longer than we have.

Initially ridiculed for this, Hebrok now offers an extensive portfolio of different color shades and stands out from the range of other brick manufacturers for this reason alone. Hebrok has the right clinker brick for every building project. Another unique selling point is the advice provided by Hebrok’s private brickworks. Clients and architects benefit from the comprehensive specialist knowledge, an unmistakable feel for color and aesthetics and the experience gained from countless completed projects. Two of these projects are presented below as examples:

For the building of the new library in Heidenheim, designed by Max Dudler, the original “apricum” water-struck brick was used; a solid brick with the typical original appearance of a water-struck brick from the Hebrok brickworks. It is precisely the small imperfections, production-related grooves, some cracked surfaces, chipped edges and more that make these bricks so charming, as they ultimately lend a façade vitality. Functionally, these visual features do not limit the waterstruck clinker brick. Frost protection is ensured at all times and a homogeneous load-bearing capacity is guaranteed across all batches. The special feature of the library façade in Heidenheim is the perforated brickwork on the front gables of the building. Reinforcements made of flat steel would have had to be used as load-bearing walls – an impractical and expensive solution due to the need to manually process a large number of STEIN. Ziegler Hebrok solved the problem in a simple way in close consultation with architect Max Dudler: The front gables were designed with double shells. Instead of a load-bearing wall with a curtain wall, a free-standing façade independent of the rest of the structure was used, in which individual clinker bricks were simply omitted to achieve the desired perforated pattern – the building inspectorate and architects were equally satisfied.

“We worked closely together. We couldn’t find a comparable clinker brick on the market: in terms of the iridescent color, the feel and also the technical properties.”

Max Dudler, architect of the new municipal library in Heidenheim

Find out more about the new city library in Heidenheim here!

Cologne’s Clouth Quartier with the Clouth#9 shared housing project is another of the many construction projects equipped by Hebrok. The building, designed by the Dortmund office ARCHITEKTUR.DLX, is exemplary of the depth of individualization that is possible at Hebrok. It’s not just about the material, format, firing and bond of the clinker bricks, but also about seemingly minor details such as the color and texture of the joints. With a keen eye for detail and the expertise of a ceramic engineer with heart and soul, Managing Director Jörn Hebrok prefers to provide advice himself – and did not miss out on this project either.

Historic clinker brick façades predominate in the Clouth quarter anyway. It was obvious that the history of the former Clouth works in the Nippes district should also be continued in the choice of façade material. The decision was made in favor of the original “arundo” waterstruck brick. Its basic color is flaxen yellow, with individual strong accents and varying nuances adding vibrancy. Because the incidence of light is restricted by the surrounding buildings, the storeys of Clouth#9 are of different heights. The lower floors have slightly higher ceilings so that a sufficient amount of light can enter there too. A clever psychological trick, because the higher ceilings give the impression of more spacious rooms, even if less light enters there. In order to translate these different storey heights into the façade in a visually plausible way, Hebrok produced the clinker brick in two different formats. This allowed the different storey heights to be compensated for by the design of the façade – in this case with aesthetically pleasing bands and border layers.

As an outwardly visible sign of the solidarity of the building community, some of the clinker bricks in the entrance area of Clouth#9 feature the dates of birth of the residents. The special degree of individualization that is possible at Hebrok becomes clear here. Bricks embossed in this way are repeatedly requested, not only to refer to the residents, but also, for example, to immortalize donors on a building who made its construction possible in the first place. Hebrok will continue to supply embossed bricks for Clouth#9 in the future, namely whenever there are new additions to the building.

“We found exactly the brick we were looking for at the Hebrok brickworks.”

Sebastian Franssen, Managing Director at ARCHITEKTUR.DLX

Find out more about the Cologne shared housing project Clouth#9 here!

On the website of Privatziegelei Hebrok, you will find an extensive product portfolio and lots of information about bricks and their production. Practical tools such as the “Klinkoskop” make it easier to choose the right brick using realistic visualizations, which can even be used to simulate different angles of light incidence. High-quality textures of many products are available for download.

Don’t miss the video format “Jörn Hebrok meets”, in which Jörn Hebrok discusses current issues in brick architecture with contemporary architectural personalities:

Here you can find another project that was equipped with clinker bricks from Hebrok:
Berghöfe project in Frankfurt-Riedberg