Weber had already planned a small hotel in the disused Großer Vogelsand lighthouse in the Deutsche Bucht in 2003 and was thrilled by the view from there. With the very open location on the Baakenhöft point, the entrepreneur chose a very exclusive location for the Lighthouse.
Such an unusual building also had to be equipped with an extraordinary, free-running elevator, which is why we, as a specialist manufacturer of special systems, were chosen. Economically, the extravagant order was difficult to calculate. However, for Thoma the focus was not on business, but on the opportunity to design and build an innovative, unique elevator system to match the building.
Running a system outdoors is always technically much more complex. In the port of Hamburg, however, wind, rain and salty sea air are additional factors. All components were therefore to be either hot-dip galvanized or made of V4A stainless steel to protect them from the risk of corrosion. Where possible, the technology was to disappear behind large-area cladding for architectural reasons. We had already sealed the cabins at our plant in Frankfurt, transported them “in one piece” and mounted them completely prefabricated on the frame.
The elevator’s height of 20 meters with only two stops presented a further difficulty: In the event of a possible malfunction, where the elevator stops between the stops, an “emergency exit door” is normally prescribed for rescuing people. However, this was not desired for aesthetic reasons and would probably have been of only limited help in practice. We therefore had to agree on an alternative safety concept with the TÜV expert.