The Brandenburg State Parliament was constructed on one of the oldest settlements in Potsdam, Germany.

Fortresses, castles and a city palace once stood on this site over 250 years ago. The city palace was ruined during the second world war and completely demolished in 1959. The former town centre became a wasteland.

Since 1999, efforts to redevelop the city centre began to take shape. This includes a new parliament building to be constructed within the perimeter and outline of the historic Potsdam city palace. Moreover, the new building was designed to closely replicate the structure and appearance of the Potsdam city palace façade.

A collection of the original artefacts has also been incorporated into the new building. New and existing sculptures are displayed on the outer façades, creating a heavy load on the parapets. A substructure of custom designed brackets made of at least 15mm thick stainless steel was installed to support the parapets.

In order to cut such a hard and thick material with precise contours, and to eliminate the need to weld the components together, the brackets were produced via waterjet cutting using GMA ClassicCut™ 80.

By Andreas Höfner, Hamburg