1895 Coffee Designers by Lavazza is a new brand of the Lavazza Group focused on single-origin
and blended specialty coffees, which seeks to combine the search for origins from independent
and sustainable plantations with the highest technology in coffee processing.
The project involves the complete refurbishment of an existing building, located in the historic
Settimo Torinese plant, which can be both a high-tech production site and an accessible place
open to visitors, with a perspective of total transparency of both the coffee selection cycle and
its processing.
The visit experience, which is absolutely innovative for an industrial plant of this type, aims to
place the production machines at the center; the machines thus become both the heart and the
beating 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 the
other functional areas gravitate around it, as separate but complementary parts within the same
building.
Our intervention was therefore aimed at creating three different interconnected areas that would
allow visitors to visit both the beating heart of the factory, which is always in operation during
visits, and also to understand the entire coffee cycle from plantation to cup, through a highly
experiential and immersive path.
The first area, which consists of the entrance and some educational rooms, is separated from
the production to tell the story of the search for the best coffees in the world. It is an educational
and introductory path to understanding the industrial process that visitors begin to get a glimpse
of in the last room, where, separated by glass, they can observe the arrival and the optical and
laser 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 all
1895-customised. They are constantly in motion, but the visitor can walk past them safely
thanks to a “bridge” built above them which, thanks to a steelwork structure fixed to the existing
columns, allows you to “fly over” the production area. The external backlighting creates a
luminous ribbon in the landscape amongst all the machines.
The bridge has been designed so that it can be totally dismantled for maintenance, thanks
to the internal covering made of bamboo, a material selected for its characteristics in terms
of mechanical resistance and sustainability, as well as being a very common grass in coffee
production areas.
On the bridge, it is possible to follow all the stages of coffee production at a glance, thanks
to the windows on the silos and the transport system. Particular emphasis is placed on the
roasting area, located at the start of the route, and the blending area where visitors can closely
appreciate 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 windows
facing 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, resting
on two circular counters, they can admire the factory through a large fireproof window. During
the tasting, the flavors and aromas of the coffee are enhanced by the projections on the upper
golden domes, part of the exhibit designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates of London.