SIB-Coca-Cola Facility, Florence
Gigi Mazza (direzione lavori)
SIB Società Imbottigliamento Bevande
Load-bearing structure: exposed reinforced concrete
Façade: exposed brick infill wall
Roof: reinforced concrete with prefab "Brenta" elements
Windows: aluminium
The SIB facility in Florence was designed as a soft drink bottling plant, especially Coca-Cola.
With this in mind the general plan was studied taking into account not only the correct bottling assembly lines and appropriate position of the services, but also another function that became the unique characteristic of this building: the tour paths dedicated to visitors. Hygienic reasons dictated that the flow of visitors was not to interfere with the work areas, so an elevated tour route was planned; the aerial walkway runs along the sides of the machine bottling room and allows visitors to watch the entire bottling process. The tour starts and ends in the reception room next to the main entrance, also used to screen videos and hold conferences.
The ground floor with a prestressed reinforced concrete roof is designed to house the processing facility and huge depot as well as the toilet facilities of all the workers, sales staff, canteen employees, etc. The technical services and auxiliary storage rooms are located next to the depot.
The first floor offices are directly connected to the processing areas and ground floor depot.
All the internal walls are clad in white stoneware tiles, except for the depot area where they are covered in "Durocet" concrete.
Description in Aloi G., Architetture industriali contemporanee in Italia, Hoepli editions, Milan.
G. Aloi, Architetture industriali contemporanee in Italia, Milano 1966
