Coffee Cocoa Tower
01 Abidjan - Ivory Coast
Offices of the Ministry of Agriculture
Auditorium and Museum of Cocoa
PREVIOUS STUDIES: 08/2017 - IN STUDY
Coffee and cocoa are both words that are coming to terms with travelling, its own Africa continent, and its truly well-known taste around the world. A couple of words that are truly related with Ivory Coast’s quality of its cocoa industries, as it is the first worldwide producer of Cocoa and the 3rd coffee producer in the African continent.
The chosen plot for its HQ and control centre can be none other than Plateau d’Abidjan. The Ivorian business area will host its “skyline”, a brand-new project that must convey the specific of its industry, its growth capacity, its fluctuation, and also, its capacity to interact with the industries present on this area throughout its skyscraper already built-up.
- A shape that is extended around Place de la République : rectangular plot neighbouring Place de la République and its interchanges that are made up in bended-geometric composition, a ‘not easily to forget’ rosette. This project is tied to its own design-like composition and it come across this composition as it seems to be already designed before. We encountered an oblong shape proposing an acute angle, that in our case is facing the Presidential Palace area and the curve face to the Ebrié lagoon.
• A panoramic curve:
One of the challenges of this project lies on the premise of continuous plateaus and a landscape related to the different activities in the tower. The 180-degree curve is facing the Ebrié lagoon becoming an invaluable element of the project enclosing the building’s envelope subtly.
• An iconic and symbolic architecture:
One of the main decisions on this project is to emphasise the shape, based on a volumetric fragmentation, materiality and expression. Having taken an oblong shape as a reference as aforementioned, it has been a great decision involving the auditorium volume on a coppery look. Such a sleek and geometrical envelope that, due to its material and reflection, resembles the roasting effect of a cocoa bean. This figure is by all means, strong, evident-based, symbolic, elegant, and far from being caricatural and also, frames the project as a singular place representing this relevant Ivorian industry.
