Triple Hoist helping building work at Funke Mediengruppe HQ in Germany

Funke Medienhäuser built a new headquarters and office buildings in the very center of Essen. Three Scanclimber Triple Hoists handled the vertical logistics of personnel and materials during construction.

Funke Mediengruppe

Funke Mediengruppe (formerly WAZ-Mediagroup) is one of Germany’s leading media houses; publishing regional media, women’s magazines and TV guides. It is Germany’s third-largest newspaper and magazine publisher with a total of over 500 publications in eight countries. WAZ-Mediengruppe is privately held by the Funke family and is headquartered in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia.

The group’s largest newspaper is the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, the leading commercial newspaper in the Ruhr metropolitan region and the largest regional newspaper in Germany.

New Funke HQ and office complex in Essen

In July 2016, the foundation stone for the new corporate headquarters was laid in the University District of the German city of Essen.

The new Funke Media Office was planned to serve the company’s 1,200 employees in the perfect ambience and atmosphere for creative, collaborative work.

The company expected to move into the new Funke Media Office around the end of 2017. Approximately 37,000 square meters will support efficient, flexible working processes and seamless communication. The company’s vision was to create one of the most advanced corporate headquarters in Germany’s media industry. Office spaces bathed in light and open, modular structural concepts incorporating retreating rooms will provide ideal conditions for creative journalism.

The project

The new building is designed by AllesWirdGut Architektur, Vienna. The main contractor for the project was DAL Deutsche Anlangen-Leasing. The sub-contractor responsible for the building work of Funke HQ’s was Kölbl Kruse Gmbh. SiteLog Baulogistk was responsible for logistics and the worksite rental fleet.

The new Funke offices will be occupied by the editorial offices of the German newspapers as well as corporate support services such as sales, finance and marketing. Supporting the company’s initiatives to improve its employees’ work-life balance, the building is designed to incorporate services, sports facilities and even its own child care centre.

SiteLog chose Triple Hoists

SiteLog, as the project logics company, was challenged by the project’s inner-city location along an urban arterial road and a construction area divided by public traffic. These constraints were one reason they chose Scanclimber SC20 Hoists for the project’s vertical transportation of personnel and materials.

Scanclimber Triple Hoist and its key advantages

Once the Triple Hoists were installed they could be used for:

• vertical access for personnel = working as an elevator
• transporting construction material safely, and with enough capacity
• improved overall safety and productivity.

The Modular design of Triple Hoist offers various platform sizes providing the required job site flexibility.

A Scanclimber Triple Hoist was deemed the most feasible solution available. Twin Scanclimber SC20s were chosen for the job. The key advantages offered by Scanclimber Transport Platforms were:

1. 1. Lightweight (and still 2-tonne capacity)

Since SC20s (Triple Hoist) are light and modular. Transportation, installation and dismantling are quick and easy.

1. 1. High lifting capacity

One of the key features of Scanclimber Transport Platforms is their lifting capacity of 2 000 kg. This capacity allowed many workers to travel on the platform and also to load it with materials and tools.

Customer feedback

Although the customer knew the value and efficiency that Transport Platforms can bring to such projects, the contractor’s team, including the site manager, praised Scanclimber machines highly:

Since we had serious space constraints and needed an easy and quick way of moving the Hoists around, we took Triple Hoists and we have been happy with that! commented the SiteLog project manager, Mr Richard Pohl.