The Allpress Storehouse was needed to allow the company to grow it’s South Island operations. They were already committed to the site with a Cafe & Roastery so the old carpark was picked as the site for the Storehouse. Despite its radical shape, the construction is typical of any modern building for this purpose, concrete block, steel and concrete floor structures and timber to soften the pedestrian sides and make it more people-friendly.

As a Storehouse, functionality is a priority. The ground floor is for heavy storage of 70kg bags of raw coffee beans.

The slab is 150mm thick allowing for van deliveries & pallet movements by forklift. The Storehouse links to the roastery via the existing red sectional door. This has become the hub of the distribution process. Vans deliver right to the heart of the operation through the new Cedar sectional door. Goods are stacked along the walls for storage or placed on the 1st floor. Raw beans are moved through the hub to the Roaster and roasted product is bagged and packed ready to be loaded directly onto the van.

The upper floor is for lightweight storage of packing materials, takeaway cups & lids etc, accessed by a fire-rated floor hatch & accessible stair. There is also a new office, meeting space and outdoor entertaining space. Goods need to be moved from the ground to the first floor in a safe, efficient manner. A goods lift was dismissed as too expensive so we decided to utilise the forklift that unloads deliveries to lift pallets through a fire-rated floor hatch.

Although a triangle with one curved side is not the most practical shape for storage, it allows us to use 100% of the available site. It still gives us plenty of space inside assisted by the 4.0m 1st-floor height. The shape of the site gave us our curve and directed us away from building a big box. Shape is a key element in what makes this design stand out. It's definitely unique!