Sustainable timber building blocks for innovative supermarket construction

by Laura Wagner

Protecting the environment and resources are more important than ever. Supermarkets are therefore offering a growing number of regional products to meet the needs of consumers. EDEKA Minden-Hannover is going one step further and has opted for a completely recyclable timber construction system for its new shop.

EDEKA Minden-Hannover (a regional corporation within the retailer cooperative Edeka Group) shows how sustainable and innovative building construction works: The new 1,100 square metre store in Braunschweig is being built using TRIQBRIQ timber building blocks. It is the first building in Germany to primarily use materials and components that can be reused or recycled.

EDEKA will thus open Germany's first recyclable supermarket in spring 2025 and contribute to a sustainable circular economy.

Instead of bricks, the new EDEKA shop is being built using so-called timber BRIQS. Instead of using artificial fasteners, the wooden building blocks are then interlocked with beechwood dowels. This offers several advantages:

• Dismantling: The interior and exterior walls of the building can be completely dismantled thanks to the interlocking nature of the wooden building blocks.
• No drying time: As no fasteners need to dry through, the store can be erected in a shorter construction time.
• Flexibility of design: In contrast to classic timber frame construction and other timber construction methods, the TRIQBRIQ system offers the possibility of easier subsequent conversions. New openings can also be built into the walls at a later date, similar to solid masonry construction.

But it's not just the wall structures that are being replaced by the wooden blocks in this building. Multi-layer timber panels are also used in the roof structure instead of the usual trapezoidal steel sheets. Smaller foundations are used for the statics, which saves on CO₂-intensive concrete. “Compared to conventional solid construction and reinforced concrete construction, timber construction with this system provides us with a more environmentally friendly alternative. The production of the building produces around 50 per cent less CO₂ emissions compared to conventional construction methods,” explains Ben Balon, Project Manager at EDEKA Minden-Hannover.

The wooden building blocks not only enable the buildings to be completely recycled, but also consist of weak and damaged wood from trees that would otherwise not be used and burned, so-called calamity wood.

To round off the sustainable construction of the EDEKA store, the façade of the shop is also decorated with wood. The photovoltaic system, which is now mandatory for all EDEKA stores, will be installed on the roof. In addition, a comprehensive concept will be used to monitor all energy consumption in order to control it in an energy-efficient manner and also contribute to sustainable utilisation after construction.

The new EDEKA supermarket will not only be a place to shop, but will also serve as a pioneering project for the retail sector. It will show that a design made of wood not only looks great, but can also be produced completely sustainably. The quick assembly time and flexibility of the wooden building blocks in particular offer retailers profitable advantages for their store concepts and encourage them to rethink sustainability.

Sources: Press release EDEKA, Press release TRIQBRIQ (both in German)