14.01.2025

The new Baumeister editorial team

Building design

Baumeister

Change in the Baumeister editorial team: Jessica Mankel and Tobias Hager take over the editorial management of the architecture magazine. She in a supporting role, he on an interim basis. Photo: GEORG Media

Tobias Hager, Chief Content Officer at GEORG Media, is now in charge of the Baumeister editorial team. Jessica Mankel, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Digital, will support him.

The BAUMEISTER has a new editor-in-chief in Tobias Hager. With immediate effect, the Chief Content Officer has taken over the management of BAUMEISTER together with Deputy Editor-in-Chief Jessica Mankel.

Both have started work immediately and will ensure that readers, customers and partners are reliably looked after and that the journalistic standard meets all requirements. In the coming weeks and months, new concepts will be tested and ideas implemented. Here are a few words from the two of them.

Jessica Mankel, Deputy Editor-in-Chief:

It was August 2020 when Dr. Fabian Peters took over as editor-in-chief of the Baumeister. I had the pleasure of working with him for the three years or so he was at GEORG Media until August 2023. We produced a total of 37 magazines, three curated issues, exciting projects, numerous talks and award ceremonies in the editorial department. Just a small selection of my magazine favorites are our beautiful “Bauen mit Holz” series 2020, “Brickcollage”, “Ladenschluss” and of course “Südtirol” from June 2022.

However, Baumeister and I have known each other since 2019, when I started my wonderful journey at GEORG Media. One of my particular highlights was being promoted to Deputy Editor-in-Chief of all brands, so I focused entirely on our digital presence. For example, I was able to develop our BAUMEISTER Instagram account into the Instagram account with the highest organic reach of German-language architecture media and recently even increased the online reach of BAUMEISTER by up to 300%. But I will also always remember the success of the extensive online specials on glasstec and the design issue with Studio Other Spaces.

However, the seat to my left is now unusually empty; the editorial team is missing a valued colleague and it is not easy to say goodbye to Fabian. Fabian, thank you for the time we spent together and I look forward to the next coffee date with you.

The next few months will show how Baumeister will continue and how the brand will change in the coming years. I’m excited and looking forward to new adventures – with you and you at our side.

Jessica Mankel
j.mankel@georg-media.de

Tobias Hager, Chief Content Officer and Editor-in-Chief of BAUMEISTER adds:

‘BAUMEISTER is not just any architecture magazine. In addition to the impressive history of the trade magazine, BAUMEISTER stands for first-class journalism and a very special and incomparable view of the world. I am delighted and honored to now lead this brand as editor-in-chief alongside my other management duties.

But let’s not kid ourselves. The media world is not an easy terrain and there are a lot of great German-language and international architecture magazines. What’s more, the architecture and construction industry seems to be maneuvering straight into a hurricane-like crisis. But because that’s not enough, publishers are massively affected by inflation and the shortage of skilled workers. Many of you will know and unfortunately feel what I am writing about.

It is time to set the course of Baumeister again ourselves and to proactively shape the future of one of the oldest architecture magazines in the world with courage, curiosity and, above all, passion. It is precisely this challenge that I would like to take on and master together with the great editorial team at Baumeister.

Over the next few weeks and months, we will take a lot of time to put the magazine concept and many other areas of the brand to the test and reorganize many things.

At GEORG Media, I am not only responsible for the content and strategy of all brands, but above all for all digitalization issues. In recent months, we have given our brands a website relaunch and currently operate some of the most modern and, above all, fastest magazine websites in the media world. I am extremely proud of this and above all grateful to the many great colleagues who have supported me in the realization of these sites. First and foremost is certainly Jessica Mankel, who as deputy editor-in-chief of all brands is primarily responsible for digital matters. Together, we will now take on the challenge of BAUMEISTER and use the positive spirit from the many projects of the past three years at GEORG Media to develop BAUMEISTER back to the top of German architecture journalism and further expand the largest German-language magazine network in the planning world.

Having been responsible for all of our brands, including BAUMEISTER, for over three years, I was also able to spend a lot of time with the former editor-in-chief, Dr. Fabian Peters. All the editors-in-chief of the company report directly to me. Mr. Peters and I have had numerous meetings and discussions together and I am aware of his commitment to the print magazine. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his commitment and look forward to the new, additional tasks. Jessica Mankel, the entire editorial team and I will do everything we can to meet the high expectations of our readers and shape the future of the Baumeister. You can look forward to exciting issues, even more stories and insights on our website and you are welcome to stay connected with us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and, of course, at events.

I look forward to seeing you!

Yours sincerely,

Tobias Hager
t.hager@georg-media.de

More information on the status quo in the official press release:

With Tobias Hager (33) and Jessica Mankel (32), BAUMEISTER will have new editorial management with immediate effect. Tobias Hager, Chief Content Officer (CCO) at GEORG Media, will temporarily head the Editor-in-Chief and Jessica Mankel will take on additional responsibility for the magazine. Both will succeed the previous Editor-in-Chief Dr. Fabian Peters, who is leaving the company.

Tobias Hager joined GEORG Media in 2020 and, as CCO, is responsible for the content and strategy of all brands as well as the digital transformation of the media company. In recent years, he and the company’s expert teams have focused primarily on the digitalization of the media brands and the further development of the strongest magazine network in the German-speaking architecture world. GEORG Media increased its total monthly reach by over 300% and was able to considerably rejuvenate the target groups of its successful specialist magazines and celebrate a significant increase in subscribers both nationally and internationally in selected sectors such as urban planning and landscape architecture. Tobias Hager can look back on successful years in international publishing houses and was already responsible for the DACH business, digitization and international cooperations of Factory Media in London. He also worked as Chief Marketing Officer for Detail Business Information GmbH and in a management role for leading international creative and digital agencies.

Jessica Mankel has been with GEORG Media since 2019 and was most recently responsible for the digital presence of all brands together with Tobias Hager as Deputy Editor-In-Chief Digital. Under her leadership, the reach of the Baumeister website and the associated social media channels in particular has increased significantly. Jessica Mankel was also largely responsible for the highly successful campaigns surrounding the curated BAUMEISTER editions with the international architecture firms Snøhetta (2021), Sauerbruch Hutton (2022) and UNStudio (2023). The art historian will continue the successful digitalization of the company’s media brands.

Dominik Baur-Callwey, Managing Director of GEORG Media: “The new BAUMEISTER website, which is currently considered one of the most modern and widest-reaching websites among architecture media, has been live for a few weeks now. The task of the new editorial management and the entire BAUMEISTER team will be to rejuvenate the magazine in terms of topics, to position it more internationally and thus to be an even greater inspiration for the target group of architects in the future.”

17.01.2025

Procuratie Vecchie: Chipperfield in Venice

Building design

David Chipperfield Architects, Procuratie Vecchie, Venice, exterior view, photo: Richard Davies

David Chipperfield Architects have extensively renovated the Procuratie Vecchie, the oldest part of the Procuratie on St. Mark’s Square in Venice. At the same time, they created new rooms under the roof of the historic building, which will be open to the public in future.

Less than a year after completing the highly acclaimed restoration of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, David Chipperfield Architects have completed the refurbishment of another highly significant building. A few days ago, the Procuratie Vecchie, the northern wing of the Procuratie on St. Mark’s Square in Venice, was opened to the public. This oldest part of the complex, which frames Piazza San Marco on three sides, is also one of the most important examples of Renaissance architecture in the city. The Florentine Jacopo Sansovino in particular, who took over the project begun by Bartolomeo Bon in 1517 in 1529, ensured that the High Renaissance, which was already in full bloom in Florence and Rome, also gained a foothold in Venice. The Procuratie Vecchie, however, still show the Venetian style of the Renaissance.

The Generali insurance company has been based in the Procuratie Vecchie since 1831. The new company rented its first offices on St. Mark’s Square as early as the year it was founded. Today, the north wing of the Procuratie is fully owned by the insurance group. In 2017, David Chipperfield Architects were commissioned to comprehensively renovate the Procuratie Vecchie and at the same time adapt it to new usage requirements. A significant part of the renovations served the purpose of creating publicly accessible areas in the old Procuratie, which are used by the Generali Foundation “The Human Safety Net”. To this end, exhibition rooms, event areas, offices and an auditorium were created on the third floor of the Procuratie Vecchie.

The majority of the new rooms were created on the top floor of the building. As light had previously only reached here through small oculus windows in the Renaissance façade, David Chipperfield Architects inserted large skylights into the gently sloping roof surface. The brickwork was exposed on the walls and the rooms were connected with a representative enfilade.

To open up the newly designed top floor, the architects built a new staircase into the historic building. It is located between the courtyards of the Procuratie Vecchie in the center of the wing building. The staircase ends at the top in the new “Central Pavilion”, which David Chipperfield Architects inserted into the roofscape of the Procuratie. On the one hand, it brings light into the new staircase with its large windows. On the other hand, it provides access to the two large roof terraces – a typical Venetian element – that flank the pavilion.

To open up the newly designed top floor, the architects built a new staircase into the historic building. It is located between the courtyards of the Procuratie Vecchie in the center of the wing building. The staircase ends at the top in the new “Central Pavilion”, which David Chipperfield Architects inserted into the roof landscape of the Procuratie. On the one hand, it brings light into the new staircase with its large windows. On the other hand, it provides access to the two large roof terraces – a typical Venetian element – that flank the pavilion.

As far-reaching as the renovations to the Procuratie Vecchie are, David Chipperfield Architects attached great importance to working in the spirit of Venetian architecture. This is particularly evident in the surface materials used. The walls, for example, were plastered with Marmorino or given a scialbatura finish where they are not exposed to stone. The floors are made of terrazzo or pastellone. The door reveals of the newly broken passages are made of artificial stone. The exterior of the Cental Pavilion is painted using the cocciopesto technique. For the roof terraces, the architects chose paint made from ground terracotta tiles.

David Chipperfield Architects followed the findings even more meticulously than in Venice when renovating the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.

As far-reaching as the renovations to the Procuratie Vecchie are, David Chipperfield Architects attached great importance to working in the spirit of Venetian architecture. This is particularly evident in the surface materials used. The walls, for example, were plastered with Marmorino or given a scialbatura finish where they are not exposed to stone. The floors are made of terrazzo or pastellone. The door reveals of the newly broken passages are made of artificial stone. The exterior of the Cental Pavilion is painted using the cocciopesto technique. For the roof terraces, the architects chose paint made from ground terracotta tiles.

David Chipperfield Architects followed the findings even more meticulously than in Venice when renovating the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.

25.11.2024

Product

Automatic sliding doors as an escape route

Building design

Passages that meet the requirements for accessibility, escape routes and fire protection are a challenge for planners. The manufacturer Hörmann offers the “AS30-X/FR” for this purpose.

A particular challenge for architects and planners are passageways that meet the requirements for accessibility, escape routes and fire protection and must also support a bright and glazed design. The manufacturer Hörmann offers the “AS30-X/FR”, a combination of the “AD 100-X” automatic sliding door and the “HE 321” fire door with T30 aluminum tubular frame elements.

In normal or daytime operation, the tubular frame elements are open and the automatic sliding door acts as an escape route. In emergency and night mode, the sliding door opens automatically and remains open. The tubular frame elements close automatically and prevent the spread of fire, but can be opened using the lever handle so that the passage can be used as an escape route in an emergency. The system also has burglar-resistant RC 2 equipment and insulates sound in the building.