Askews Uptown Shopping Centre

The supermarket was the first phase for a mixed-use development that will include retail, office and residential space. It aims to set a precedent and encourage a move away from inefficient and unsustainable single-use zoning.

Fast + Epp designed a system of nail-laminated timber panels, using locally-harvested dimension lumber and 1,320 sheets of plywood. They’re supported by a delicate array of steel-concrete “tree” columns.

This low-tech approach had many benefits – it reduced the carbon footprint of processing and transportation, eliminated the use of potentially harmful adhesives and finishes, and enabled the work to be competitively bid and shared between five local contractors. Shop prefabrication of wood components meant the work could be carried out over the winter, providing out of season employment for carpentry crews.