Farallones Coffee Processing Plant

In the municipality of Cuidad Bolívar, located 75 km southeast of Medellín, over a thousand families work in coffee production, a process that entails the pulping, rinsing, fermenting and drying of coffee beans. The project arose from a joint initiative of businesses and cooperatives in the area, searching to rethink the use, the role and the function of a coffee processing plant. The project should provide a space for both industrial production as well as for the collectivity emblematic of the region. Today the coffee processing plant houses a community center with programs and a staff to intended for the public´s education and entertainment. The project is resolved by a volume of rectangular plan (measuring 28 x 58 m), whose roof provides overhanging eaves of 3m intended to shade the coffee growers as they deliver the crop. The entire surface of the façade is wrapped by 2cm-thick prefabricated panels of red-tinted concrete. Considering maintenance, stability and the problem of corrosion in the process of coffee decomposition, the facade panels are organized into three registers: lower panels are imprinted with a graphic pattern recalling traditional wooden doors of the region; above, the panels that support structural fins have a texture similar to fique (hemp) and are diagonally arranged to allow cool air to permeate the façade; the third panel type is composed of is imprinted with high-relief rhomboid openings that allow light to enter and warm air to escape to avoid condensation. The project uses a system of oxidation of the by-product of the fermentation process to prevent contamination of area’s hydraulic springs.