Aus­zeich­nung Vor­bild­licher Bauten im Land Hessen 2023

REWE Green Farming in Wiesbaden is a great timber market hall, where locally farmed and prepared produce is openly showcased by the architecture. An aquaponic farm is housed within the building and a modular greenhouse above. Transparency of the food making process is celebrated.

In the last 100 years, we have increasingly lost contact with the natural world, with the natural growing seasons and the way food is produced. As markets evolved into supermarkets, consumers became hooked on convenience and predictability, and products being available all year round. To make food more sustainable, food stores must return to their roots as marketplaces, celebrating locally grown, seasonal, fresh produce.

The Wiesbaden market is a prototype for a new adaptable and sustainable market concept, able to fit any site typology. An iconic and highly visible simple timber structure forms the main element of a new architectural identity for REWE. In a shift from conventional big shed supermarkets, a series of columns arch over the customers, creating a different shopping experience with a more human scale.

The public's awareness of farming is increased by integrating it into an established and familiar shopping ritual. In Europe, fresh produce travels 1000km on average before it gets onto the shelves. In the future, a growing network of markets with integrated farms will bring perishable food production closer into the urban realm. Food can be harvested locally, when it is needed, reducing wastage and allowing produce such as salad to be harvested and sold within a day.

The structure is designed to be simple to build and easy to adapt, using lots of simple wood rather than a few highly engineered elements. The timber consists of standard wood elements, available locally, assembled with simple screw connections. The stacked timber is designed to be modular, and can easily be customized for each new market size and configuration. The timber structure extends beyond the facade to create a protected external space where local produce can be sold from dedicated market stands.Each local market should respond to its local material context. While the timber roof is the unifying element of the market, the spaces below the roof should be designed to root the building in its context.

In Wiesbaden, the main market space is flanked by two boxes clad patterned cementitious render, retaining some of the legacy of the Dyckerhoff & Widmann Cement Works that occupied this site for 100 years. By grouping the fish farm, greenhouse access, bakery, bottle recycling and storage into two compact boxes, the rest of the market can be opened up. Large glass front and back facades connect it to the landscape and bring increased natural light inside. A central atrium cut out of the undulating timber ceiling draws the eye upward to views directly into the greenhouse. A spiral staircase within the cafe gives public access to a viewing room and event space where site-grown produce can be examined up close.