Santiago studio Guillermo Hevia Architects have completed a factory for olive oil manufacturers Olisur, located 200 km south of Santiago in Chile.

The building comprises the company offices and factory, and is made of concrete clad in wood and glass.

The factory uses geothermic energy, natural lighting and natural ventilation. According to the architects, all materials used in production of the oil are biodegradable.

Photographer: Cristóbal Palma

Here's some more information from the architects:

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Olisur Olive Oil Factory and Offices

Chief Architect: Guillermo Hevia
Collaborators: Tomás Villalón, Francisco Carrión, Guillermo Hevia G, Marcela Suazo

A volume of simple and emphatic architecture, which reinterprets the anonymous architecture of the coastal valleys in the center of Chile.

It poses itself above the soft tree-lined areas, peeking gently with its facades of wood and tones that highlight the luminosity of the place. The body melts down as one with the geography and projects the lines of trees upon his facades.

It employs sustainable technologies, creating a favorable mood for work and the production of quality olive oil.

The new Almazara of Olisur is located 230 kilometers southwest of Santiago (Chile) in San José de Marchigue (La Estrella, VI Region).

It is in the forefront of the Almazaras (olive oil factories) worldwide, incorporating the use of multiple bioclimatic technologies (geotermic, eolic, luminic) both in the buildings as well as in the productive process achieving a real commitment with sustaintability, energy saving, quality of life and environment protection.

Architecture is the protagonist to achieve these objectives. The simple forms of the closed principal volume are complemented by a smaller volume made of wood and glass which houses the offices and services.

They are the images of a building that belongs to the place, with an easy reading which represents nature starting from light, textures and color.

The illumination of its facades and office areas (transparent) comes alive with its shades between lights and shadows that seem to rise in the surrounding soft wooded hillock and the geography of the place. The architecture of this longitudinal building is terraced in different levels to take up the slopes.

ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Geothermic instead of central heating and air conditioning for the production areas and the oil barrels area, ventilated façades system in the building, passive energies to allow air to come into and go out the different areas of the offices and services (cross ventilation in the ceiling).

Evaporation from the water mirror located in the front of the office building and cone studies of shade and sun direction to determine the eaves necessary for the different seasons.

The main building uses natural zenithal light instead of artificial lighting. All materials used in this industrial complex are biodegradable.

As an architecture studio we don’t understand sustaintability as a theory, but as something concrete. We research into this concept and the most important thing is that we apply it.

Main Materials: Wood, Glass, Concrete, Prefab Panels.