Factory 1895 – Lavazza // UP-A Uboldi Paolo Architetti
Text description provided by the architects.
1895 Coffee Designers by Lavazza is a new brand of the Lavazza Group focused on single-originand blended specialty coffees, which seeks to combine the search for origins from independentand sustainable plantations with the highest technology in coffee processing.The project involves the complete refurbishment of an existing building, located in the historicSettimo Torinese plant, which can be both a high-tech production site and an accessible placeopen to visitors, with a perspective of total transparency of both the coffee selection cycle andits processing.The visit experience, which is absolutely innovative for an industrial plant of this type, aims toplace the production machines at the center; the machines thus become both the heart and thebeating brain around which all the environments revolve.An industrial landscape is to be crossed, through a highly immersive path.The entire production plant has therefore been inserted at the center of the building, while theother functional areas gravitate around it, as separate but complementary parts within the samebuilding.Our intervention was therefore aimed at creating three different interconnected areas that wouldallow visitors to visit both the beating heart of the factory, which is always in operation duringvisits, and also to understand the entire coffee cycle from plantation to cup, through a highlyexperiential and immersive path.The first area, which consists of the entrance and some educational rooms, is separated fromthe production to tell the story of the search for the best coffees in the world.
© UP-A Uboldi Paolo Architetti
© UP-A Uboldi Paolo Architetti
It is an educationaland introductory path to understanding the industrial process that visitors begin to get a glimpseof in the last room, where, separated by glass, they can observe the arrival and the optical andlaser selection of green coffee.Once past the first few rooms, visitors immediately come into contact with the center of the visit:the production plant.The machines have been carefully studied in terms of finishes so as to make them all1895-customised.
© UP-A Uboldi Paolo Architetti
© UP-A Uboldi Paolo Architetti
They are constantly in motion, but the visitor can walk past them safelythanks to a “bridge” built above them which, thanks to a steelwork structure fixed to the existingcolumns, allows you to “fly over” the production area. The external backlighting creates aluminous ribbon in the landscape amongst all the machines.The bridge has been designed so that it can be totally dismantled for maintenance, thanksto the internal covering made of bamboo, a material selected for its characteristics in termsof mechanical resistance and sustainability, as well as being a very common grass in coffeeproduction areas.On the bridge, it is possible to follow all the stages of coffee production at a glance, thanksto the windows on the silos and the transport system.
© UP-A Uboldi Paolo Architetti
© UP-A Uboldi Paolo Architetti
Particular emphasis is placed on theroasting area, located at the start of the route, and the blending area where visitors can closelyappreciate the blending of the essences invented by Luigi Lavazza from a small auditorium.Once off the “bridge”, visitors discover the quality control laboratory through the large windowsfacing the production area, even though it is clearly separate.At the end of the tour, visitors can taste the coffee inside an elegant cafeteria where, restingon two circular counters, they can admire the factory through a large fireproof window.
© UP-A Uboldi Paolo Architetti
© UP-A Uboldi Paolo Architetti
Duringthe tasting, the flavors and aromas of the coffee are enhanced by the projections on the uppergolden domes, part of the exhibit designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates of London..
© UP-A Uboldi Paolo Architetti
© UP-A Uboldi Paolo Architetti
Factory 1895 – Lavazza Gallery
