Shopping in the supermarket below, growing lettuce above: the REWE Green Farming store in Berlin-Lankwitz shows how the supermarket is evolving. Germany’s largest rooftop farm is being built above the wooden market hall. From the summer, lettuce will be growing here – just a few meters above the heads of customers. With the opening of the second REWE Green Farming store on 21 May, REWE is launching the scalable implementation of a new generation of supermarkets.
With REWE Green Farming, we are further developing our green building strategy and combining circular building with urban food, explains Peter Maly, Management Board member of REWE Group. The core element of the new supermarket generation is wood. The renewable raw material offers clear advantages over conventional building materials: it stores carbon and, thanks to its modular construction, the wood can be dismantled and recycled for a second life. The cycle is also closed during operation: Waste heat from the market, a heat pump and rainwater from a cistern provide optimum growing conditions for the urban lettuce on the roof. According to Peter Maly, what seems special today will become standard tomorrow: “Our new generation of supermarkets is now going into series production, and thanks to the modular design, we can adapt the use of the roof optimally to the location. We are already planning further timber construction stores in Germany.
