Open Architecture Network

Our team designed a fair-trade chocolate factory and visitor center to Baeza, in the Napo Province of Ecuador.The client Kallari Association produces chocolate, coffe and handcrafts in the region. In Baeza they want to create manufactory, where they can process the cacao beans, whithout transport. The visitor center shows the whole manufactoring process, so guests can follow the way of chocolate from the beans, till the finished product and taste it as well. The structure of the factory includes also an educational section with a computer lab, where the local people can learn how to use computer and the internet. The lab helps the communication between the center and the hubs, wich are situated in the cacao farm. The field positioned between the road and the river. Because of the annualy fall and the flow, floors are lifted from the ground. The structure of the elements are arranged to a rectangle, like a bar of chocolate. From outside the building complex seems like a closed, solid rectangular, but inside it has a very rich, articulated, exiting, movement context, like a colourful town. This form includes the factory, the educational part, the visitor center and the staff living quarters. The different functions of the building are separated in the plan, but connected with passages, forming atriums. In the middle of the manufactory, there is an open place with a drying plateaus and the botanic garden. The terrace of the chocolatery and shop fronts also there. From the visitor parking, guests can go in on the main entry, where the reception and the meeting hall are situated. The visitor’s way leads throught the garden ( cocoa bushes ) to the producing rooms. In the end of the circle route are the shop, the café and the recreational places. The manufactory has an own parking, next to the store. It facilitates the loading into the trucks. So the transportation doesn’t disturb the inside life, as well the visitors route. The structure of the complex based on simple raster. Solid main walls and wooden pillars placed down in this raster. Solid concrete main walls make the buildings rigid, the wooden pillars connected to them. The partitions are the part of the pillar system. They covered with boards. The solid structural walls made of a mixture of concrete and local stones. This walls are standing squerly to the river, because the rainwater can easily leave the area. Paralel with the river are only raised structures. Corridors are also made by wood, wich have a straight connection to the buildings pillar frame, also visualy and structually. The corrugated sheet-metal roof lean on the walls and the frames also. The used materials are cost effective, easy of access and easy to handle. The complex adaptated to the local climate. It has traditional solutions against the extreme conditions. Thanks to the position of the buildings and the passages, as well as the roof structure, it has natural ventilation. Most of the rooms have tracery walls, let the fresh air in. The roofs cover the passages and public spaces, effectively protect them from the sun and overheating. The complex use a lots of energy, so it can only partially produce the neccesary amount. Solar panels can be put on the roof, to supply the visitors center, the staff rooms, and the education rooms. Panels also produce hot water to the factory. The ’Basket’ Hub Our design based on a steel frame, wich is enought durable to suit all weather conditions, and enought strong to protect the valuable equipment. The steel frame can be assemble is site by the locals. It can be deploy on concrete foudings, or stone directly. To the frame cube we can mount sliding walls, corrugated iron roof, satellite equipment, solar panels, optional workstations, etc. The basic configuration has three workstations. The hub can get power from it’s own solar panels or different sourche (wind, generator). Thanks to this system, the hub can adapt to various requirments and conditions. It’s easy to maintain, and replace the failed parts. Altought the prefabricated steel frame is high-tech, it can accomodate to the local environment. The locals can use their own materials to cover the hub, for example various boards; wattle; or plastic.