Kornblume Bioladen

Sustainability in practise: The “Kornblume” wholefood shop

BEST-RAUM

If you are a customer at the “Kornblume” wholefood shop in Langenthal, Switzerland, you can expect more than just organic products. The shop’s goal is not only to sell, but to create a communication experience at the same time.

The whole concept is based on one central idea: sustainability. Strictly speaking, it was the trigger for the renovation of the shop, because the product range of unpacked food of Kornblume was to be extended. But there was not enough space available. Interior Architect Stefan Leuenberger from “Best-Raum” took the challenge willingly.

His idea was to integrate the ecological ambitions of Kornblume into the design and the materials used. The whole shop was to be designed close to nature and with a neutral, earthy background atmosphere.

Natural materials, upcycling and cradle-to-cradle tiles as the ideal solution

Looking at the result, it becomes clearly visible that many single elements have contributed to the complete integration of sustainability. For example, only natural colours based on linseed oil or mineral wall-paints were used, old shelves were renovated and reused and even the lamps above the sales counter are no new models, but reworked lamps now equipped with LED technology. Also, the old sales counter is still there. For the floor, Leuenberger chose Mosa tiles and knows, why: “I am a fan of Mosa. The cradle-to-cradle certificate of the tiles is one of the core arguments for sustainable building. In addition, the support that Mosa delivers makes working with them very comfortable.”

This support begins with the sampling, which allows Stefan Leuenberger’s clients to feel the haptics of the tiles and brings even more advantages: They can do cleaning and other tests easily with the sample tiles. The best support for him are the digital services, and he used them extensively in this case: Leuenberger decided to lay Solids tiles in two different colours in the size of 60 to 60 cm. Both colours were mixed in a ¾ to ¼ ratio. He designed the actual pattern by the random generator in the Mosa Pattern Generator and directly transferred it into his own CAD programme. Thus, he could work on fast and had the final laying pattern for the tiler ready in the same step.

The decision for the Solids tiles had an additional reason. The tiles are of a neutral character, but feature an internal flow direction. The pigments, which run from tile to tile, create a good connection between the two different colours. That way, Leuenberger could loosen up the surface with the colour mix and create a consistent surface nevertheless.