Parliament builds with modular timber

People in Berlin have grown accustomed to public buildings that massively exceed the specified costs and deadlines. Construction of the new Berlin Brandenburg airport turned into a fiasco that is still fresh in their minds. It finally opened in 2020, after a delay of nine years and overrunning its budget by five billion euros. And so their amazement was all the greater when the new office building for the German parliament was ready for use after a construction time of only 15 months. This achievement was all down to modular timber construction. Luisenblock West, which is the name of the new building for around 400 members of parliament, consists of 470 mass timber modules that were fully prefabricated at the production plant – complete with windows, radiators and power sockets.

Fully assembled wooden modules

Architectural firm Sauerbruch Hutton designed the seven-storey building, which won an iF Gold Award in 2024. It was constructed by Kaufmann Bausysteme and Primus Developments, who bid for the contract as a team. The timber modules, each weighing six tonnes and seven metres long, were manufactured on the production line at Köpenick industrial park in the south-east of Berlin.

Several years ago, module construction specialist Kaufmann Bausysteme in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg opened an additional production facility in this Berlin borough. “At the time, we had been awarded a contract for three schools, and it wouldn’t have made any sense to haul the modules all the way from Austria,” explains Christian Kaufmann, who is the third generation of his family to run the company. It is a step that has proven more than worthwhile. The prestigious building for the German Bundestag was followed by modules for two hotels, two student halls and 32 school extensions in Berlin.

Modular timber construction: suitable for a parliament?

In the beginning, the new addition to Berlin’s government district was labelled the Lego house or the Villa Kunterbunt, as Pippi Longstocking’s house is known as in German. With its coloured panels on the facade, the modules are decked with a distinctive mantle that sets the building apart from the surrounding concrete structures. Although initially there was a certain amount of scepticism as to whether such modular timber construction was suitable for a parliament building, this doubt had disappeared by the time the offices were finished. “The offices have been remarkably popular with the parliamentary parties,” Vice President of the Bundestag Wolfgang Kubicki remarked when the new office building was opened in February 2022.

When it comes to fulfilling an acute need for space as quickly as possible while achieving high-quality construction, modular timber construction is almost unrivalled right now. In addition, the sustainability enabled by this construction method – i.e. its renewability, potential disassembly and carbon sink characteristics – is the icing on the cake when you weigh up the costs and benefits.

Regrowing the timber

Sustainability was not explicitly specified in the Luisenblock call for tenders. However, according to the building contractors – the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR), the regrowth guaranteed by the bidding team definitely played a role in their decision. The companies expressed a commitment to replenish the 5,000 cubic metres of spruce timber used for the building, with 15,000 new trees.

What’s more, the wood for the government building comes from Austria, which has had one of the world’s strictest forestry laws for over 170 years. This law says that no more wood is allowed to be felled than is grown back.

According to information from the Austrian forestry and wood products industry, the forests in Austria actually gain an additional 2,300 hectares each year. And so planting these trees is an additional initiative, independent of the legal specification.

Incidentally, the term sustainability first appeared in connection with forestry back in 1713, when it was used to describe the balance between humans and nature as the basis of the future viability of forest management.

Modules allow excellent disassembly

This office building to the north of Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus has an H-shaped ground plan. Only the floor slab, the technical equipment rooms on the ground floor and the central atrium are precast reinforced concrete constructions. Everything else – i.e. around 70 percent of the building – consists of solid timber elements. The modules are 3.20 x 6.75 metres in size and were stacked on top of each other like building bricks. This makes them especially suitable for disassembly.

This aspect also played a role in the decision-making process because “Luise”, as it is now known, was originally commissioned as a temporary building to last 15 years, although the government is now intending to use it for longer. Christian Kaufmann believes that the multi-coloured building could still be standing in 100 years’ time. And to some extent, this sustainable construction project is also expected to act as a role model. “I believe this type of construction can lead the way and also serve as an example to the rest of the industry,” said Kubicki, who is also Chairman of the Commission on Buildings and Room Allocation in the Bundestag Council of Elders.

The modular construction specialist from Vorarlberg followed Luisenblock West with another major commission, this time in Rostock. A student hall of residence is being kitted out with 1000 modules by September 2025. In the meantime, the plant in Berlin-Köpenick has been expanded – with another production line.

Text: Gertraud Gerst
Translation: Rosemary Bridger-Lippe
Photos: Jan Bitter, © Deutscher Bundestag / Simone M. Neumann / Thomas Trutschel / photothek
Illustrations: Sauerbruch Hutton