Open Architecture Network

Kallari Association

First Place Winner: Heather Worrell, ChunSheh Teo, and Igor Taskov Indianapolis, IN + Nis, Serbia
Second Place Finalist: zerOgroup Manaos, Brazil	Third Place Finalist: H+dlT Collaborative Seattle, WA

Fourth Place Finalist: Guido Silvestri Florence, Italy

Fifth Place Finalist:Chocologia, Washington University in St. Louis

Honorable Mentions
Sustainable Design Studio / Studio de Diseño Sostenible: Veronica Reed, Tannya Pico, Quito, Ecuador Hee-Yun Kim, Mark Mangapora, Jason Roberts, New York, NY USA Tatsuya Iwata, Sung-Joon Kim, Chicago, IL USA Jason Bentley, Eric Ellis, Shawn Button, Roman Fry Boulder, CO USA j.a.c. : Janak Alford, Jacqueline Che, Ottowa, Canada

| Challenge |

Connect a cooperative of indigenous chocolate producers and artisans in the Ecuadorian Amazon with the global marketplace by building a chocolate factory and fair trade exchange and off-site satellite technology hubs.

Download the Design Brief

| Client |

Client: Kallari Association

Location: Napo Province, Ecuador

Client Web Site: http://www.kallari.com/

Client Description: The Kallari Association is a self-governed coalition of more than 800 Amazon families from 22 villages and handicraft organizations in the Napo Province of Ecuador. Kallari exports traditional handcrafts with the help of international volunteers and a Quito retail location. In 2005, Kallari began making chocolate bars in Ecuador at a community-owned chocolate factory in Salinas de Guaranda.

Most fair-trade handcraft retailers are religious entities and fair-trade coffee and chocolate brands are for-profit businesses that pay farmers only 10% more than the world market price for their produce. However, Kallari is owned by the artisans and farmers themselves, guaranteeing that all profits return to the producer organization and its indigenous members. Kallari has several assemblies each year, where members make decisions regarding the pricing structure, determine the progress of the organization, and elect the directive board from community representatives.

Kallari was borne from a request for economic alternatives to extractive industries (mining, logging, petroleum), which are infamous for causing serious social and environmental impacts in the Amazon. We desire to increase income with expanding tourism, as well as handcraft and chocolate sales. The Napo Province is known as the most pristine region of the lowland rainforest in Ecuador, and our members seek to maintain cultural traditions and the rainforest biodiversity, meanwhile providing the youth with an education.

End-users: 16 staff members and 800 families (5000+ individuals) living in 22 remote villages in the Amazon.

Need: Kallari artisans make very unique traditional handcrafts, which have proven to be very popular among foreign clientele. However the sales have reached a plateau due to the limits of marketing original pieces through small boutiques and fair trade stores. A fair-trade exchange with internet connectivity would allow direct communication with international clients and enable the artisans to continue to create unique designs, photograph their art and immediately post each piece on the web. Similarly, artisans crave to research design trends, but currently do not have the opportunity to know what types of colors, lengths and styles will be popular in international markets. By giving Kallari artisans access to the internet and training them in how to do market research via the Web, they can gain faster sales turnover.

Additionally, Kallari cacao groves have earned international acclaim and the small farmer organization currently uses another community-owned chocolate factory at night to make their organic gourmet dark chocolate bars. Unfortunately, the costs of transporting the cacao and chocolate to a remote area of the highlands are reducing profits to a bare minimum for Kallari farmers. The organization seeks to have its own production factory and retail store closer to the region, thus maximizing their income. In addition, the opportunity to have internet access would allow Kallari to create special order chocolates, such as wedding favors or specialized holiday gifts.

| Program |

Competitors are challenged to develop a main complex, which will include a chocolate production factory, a tourist visitor center and a fair trade exchange/research center. In addition, designers are tasked with designing a model/prototype for three satellite technology hubs located off the main site in remote and semi-rural villages.

The main complex will be situated on a 13-acre site. The chocolate factory, tourist visitor center and fair trade exchange/research center may be part of the same structure or separate structures. The client is requesting the facilities be LEED Gold certified standard and that they reduce energy, water and resource use in order to minimize maintenance and production costs.

The proposed main complex will allow workers to:

• provide access for staff to sell the association's chocolate and handcrafts online
• photograph and document handcrafts for selling online
• provide internet access for research on cacao farming and new handicraft techniques
• provide a public gathering space for the chocolate tasting for visitors
• sell their handcrafts and chocolate directly to any visitors to the main facility
• provide a FDA & OSHA approved production area for the production of gourmet chocolate

The total landholdings of the Kallari Association include more than 70,000 acres of rainforests and farms. Therefore, to better serve the association's rural members, the client would like to build three satellite hubs with internet access in addition to the main complex. The three satellite technology hubs will be located off-site within villages in the Napo Province. These units may be designed as small independent structures or kiosks, or as an addition to an existing structure, or as a partitioned space within an existing structure. Designers are asked to provide a single design that can be replicated at all three sites.

Each proposed satellite technology hub will:

• provide communication resources to international markets for rural artisans
• enable artisans to receive and print orders for their handicrafts directly from overseas vendors
• provide access to the internet to allow artisans to research design trends to then modify their traditional designs to modern fashions
• communicate with Kallari's administrative offices and staff in the main complex

Design Considerations: Participants are challenged to incorporate the needs of the community and to employ sustainable building materials using local labor to realize their design. The designs of both the main facility and the technology hubs must respect and protect the unique environment and biodiversity of the Ecuadorian Amazon. They must also honor the traditions and culture of the Kichwa-speaking (Northern Quechua) indigenous community.

Space Considerations:
There are four sites in total: 1) main complex; and 3) satellite technology hubs.

Main Complex
Site area: 13 acres
Total facilities footprint: approx. 1300m2
Total occupancy: 100–140 people

Kallari Association Administration Offices (approx. 200 m2)

• Administrative offices (2)
• Computer training room
• Small photography and graphics studio
• Server closet

Tourist Visitor Center/Community Gathering Spaces (approx. 200m2)

• Large meeting hall/auditorium (capacity: 60 persons)
• Café/chocolate tasting area
• Point of purchase area/small store
• Gallery
• Community research library
• Visitor restrooms

Chocolate Factory (Area: approx. 400m2)

• FDA & OSHA approved production rooms, including
• Work room
• Roasting room
• Melanger-broyer room
• Conching rooms
• Food store room
• Lunch room/kitchen
• Staff living quarters (8 persons, including bedrooms, living room and laundry area)
• Restrooms

External Areas (Area: approx 470m2)

• Handcraft Market
• Picnic area
• Greenhouse and external organic/botanical gardens
• Service parking for delivery trucks (capacity: 3 trucks)
• Visitor parking (capacity: 3 buses, 10 cars)

Satellite Hub/Kiosks (3)
Site: off-site, undetermined
Facility footprint: approx. 13 m2
Total occupancy: 6-8 people

• 3 computer workstations per hub
• Secure storage
• Printing equipment
• Can be permanent or semi-permanent
• Can be independent structure or designed as an addition to existing structures

| Site |

Baeza, Ecuador

UPDATE: Chocolate factory site is now in Baeza, Ecuador, not Tena. New data is being updated. The site change is due to a great opportunity to the locate the factory in cooler climate - therefore easier to handle and store chocolate.

Click on images above for 2000x2340px versions

June 15, 2007 Environment Photos

November 28, 2007 site visit

December 30, 2007 site visit

[Top]

| Environment |

Climate: Moist Tropical Climate (Rainforest) Temperature: 24-27C Rainfall: 2000mm per year. Can be as much as 5000mm in some years. Latitude: -0.98° Longitude: -77.81°

Special Conditions
The Napo Province is near a series of volcanoes and therefore subject to volcanic tremors. There are also occasional earthquakes and landslides.

| Construction Budget |

Chocolate Factory: $85,000 USD
Administration and Community Gathering Spaces: $129,000 USD
External Facilities and Landscaping: $90,000 USD
Solar Panels for Complex: $20,000 USD

Total Budget: $324,000 USD

Please note construction will be phased as funding permits