Jewish Museum  Frankfurt

After the tender phase was completed, our team took on the task of constructing a sophisticated visible roof made of expanded metal elements for the extension of the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt. Staab Architects' goal was to develop a building envelope that was as homogeneous and continuous as possible.

Since the structure is exclusively a visible roof, the powder-coated expanded metal elements made of steel do not have a water-bearing function. The necessary roof waterproofing for a roof pitch of around 12° was therefore initially provided by a two-layer bitumen waterproofing with mineral thermal insulation. At the same time, the supports of the load-bearing substructure had to be precisely integrated into this waterproofing layer.

The upper edge of the parapet defined the subsequent installation level of the elements, which were tensioned as 90 × 180 cm system cassettes in a surrounding frame and assembled on site after complete prefabrication. A particular challenge was that, for design reasons, the actual sealing layer in the interior does not run parallel to the roof cladding that will later be visible. The substructure therefore had to be measured and adjusted precisely to its theoretical position using height-adjustable supports.

In addition, the architects demanded a uniformly consistent structure for the expanded metal elements. In order to ensure a continuous diamond pattern across all components—both lengthwise and crosswise—the expanded metal had to be stretched and coordinated accordingly during production.

In order to meet the high design and technical requirements, the entire system was developed specifically for the project and individually adapted. The long-standing and trusting cooperation with Staab Architects proved to be a significant advantage for the successful implementation of this complex task.