Cogeco headquarters

location: via Machiavelli, 5 - Trieste, Italy

program: headquarters of the company (coffee trade), offices, laboratory

dates: project 2008, execution: 2008

data: total built area 600 m2

architect: waltritsch a+u, Arch. Dimitri Waltritsch Trieste, Italy

team: Dimitri Waltritsch with Leonardo de Marchi

main contractor: SZ arredamenti, Cervignano

photography: Marco Covi, Trieste

The City of Trieste is among the world most important port within the coffee trade market. Cogeco is a firm dealing as intermediate between the raw good and the coffee roasting plants. The project consist in the interior renovation of the company siege, underlining the two distinguishing factors which characterize the firm: the worldwide commercial relationships and the fact that Cogeco provides specific knowledge and lab test. These points have been particularly enhanced in the entrance lobby and in the proof and taste laboratory room. The lobby of the Cogeco siege is characterized by a multi-layered folded wall, an abstracted map where only the parallels of the globe have remained, which hosts a series of "exotic" coffee names coming from all over the world, and by a big chemistry formula of the caffeine, which marks the corner and gives evidence of the specific knowledge. In such a way, one is immediately transported in a quick ride through the globe, and at the same time given a clear statement of the company's know-how.
The proof and taste lab is the place where the company makes a series of tests on the raw good in order to provide a certificate of quality (roasting, checking dimension and smell, tasting etc), and where most of the commercial deals are made. Coffee sample bags are exposed on a coloured shelf marking the perimeter of the room, while one of the proof tables hides the 'spitting pots'. The space is again dominated by a big map folding on this table, a very detailed Goode Homolosine projection of the world, where precise geographic indication about the origin of the most important coffee types are given, adding a visual layer to the proofing experience.

Images and text © D. Waltritsch. Use only by permission.

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