Chocolate & Coffee Processing Facility Mechanical and Electrical Plants
The ALCAO mechanical and electrical plant provides steam, condensate, gases, conditioned air, water, and emergency power to a chocolate and coffee processing facility for the global chocolate manufacturer Altınmarka, the parent company of the coffee shop chain, Kahve Dünyası.
Transparency
The client stressed the importance of transparency in the company's activities and in its relations with its business partners. This value is in turn reflected in the design of its physical facilities, which highlight the order, efficiency, and cleanliness of its operations. There is no backstage.
The ground level of the mechanical and electrical plant is clad in translucent polycarbonate with tempered glass doors. These frame the transformers, generators, turbines, condensers, and boilers, turning them into museum pieces. The bulk of the building, clad in standing seam zinc-titanium panels, floats above this open story.
Line, Rhythm, and Order
The continuous line of the zinc-cladding is maintained by the window mullions, the bridges, and the stair landings. And while the heights of the buildings vary based on the requirements of the machinery they house, the line of the parapets is maintained by perforated screens, which in turn shield condensers and solar panels on the roof.
The steel structure, bridges, windows, doors, trees, benches, bollards, and smokestacks – even the machinery itself – all align to a three dimensional grid, resulting in a complex architectural rhythm that accentuates the spatial organization of the various functions of the plant.
Flow
The pipeline bridges that connect the mechanical plant and the processing facility itself also serve as pedestrian overpasses. The color-coded piping and electrical conduits as well as the silhouettes of workers are visible through the polycarbonate walls, revealing the flow of utilities and people among the various buildings.
Illumination
The facility operates 24-hours a day, and at night, the translucent bridges as well as the polycarbonate-clad ground floor cast a luminous glow on the facility's internal streets.
Expansion
The plant is organized to accomodate the future expansion of the processing facility to the west. The road along the exposed façade will then become a second internal street.
Collaboration
This design was taken from a mechanical engineer’s napkin sketch to tender-ready documentation in line with European Union standards in six weeks. It involved collaboration among three redundant sets of consultants: the company's in-house team, a full set of independent architectural and engineering consultants in Turkey, and a corresponding set of professionals in Bulgaria to prepare the regulatory drawings.