Big Tree Farms Builds Bamboo Chocolate Factory
Date: 01/01/11
For Immediate Release
Big Tree Farms has commenced the construction of their new international headquarters on Bali, Indonesia and are building it out of bamboo. With a total of 26,500 sqft and 15 meters high, it is the largest bamboo structure in SE Asia and may be the largest commercial bamboo structure in the world. Site preparation started October 1st, 2010 and is scheduled for completion on October 15th, 2011.
The building was designed by Pete Celovsky, an architect from Seattle and now living on Bali, Frederick Schilling and Ben Ripple; co-ceos of Big Tree Farms. The 3-story bamboo headquarters will be home to Big Tree Farms’ offices, a bean to bar artisan chocolate factory, warehousing, and retail store and event center complete with a commercial kitchen for cooking classes and the acclaimed Firefly Super Series.
“We are unbelievably excited to be undertaking such an incredible endeavor. The construction of our new headquarters embodies the soul, mission and vision of what Big Tree Farms represents and strives to create for the world”, states Frederick Schilling. “It not only provides us with the much needed space and infrastructure to keep up with demand of our products, it allows us to do it in a very creative and highly sustainable fashion.”
Bamboo is a traditional building material for many tropical regions that has been used for thousands of years and is also one of the most sustainable and versatile building materials in the world. In structural engineering tests, bamboo has a higher tensile strength than many alloys of steel and a higher compressive strength than many mixtures of concrete. It even has a higher strength to weight ratio than graphite. Because of bamboos strength and its flexibility, bamboo structures have withstood 9.0 magnitude earthquakes.
“This is a dream come true”, states Ben Ripple. “To be able to create a such a monumental structure that is aesthetically awe inspiring and to also have it serve our practical needs for food production, office space and event center is a dream come true. We hope to be able to use this factory as an inspiration and model to others around the world to show that building large structures out of bamboo is not only structurally safe, but a better option all around. It’s sustainable, it’s strong, it creates an inspiring work space for our employees and gives us a chance to tell our story in a visual way.”
The factory will have 2 rainwater collection tanks to use for non-food production purposes and 2 black water treatment ponds, serving bathrooms from each side of the building. And to top it all off, there will be a big tree planted in the middle of the factory, encased in glass, growing through the roof.
Pictures of the construction in progress can be viewed on Big Tree Farms’ Facebook page.
About Big Tree Farms:
Big Tree Farms is a sustainable supply chain development company working to bring greater transparency and shareholder equity to food supply chains around the world. Big Tree Farms manufacturers and markets sustainable and healthy products globally, such as: coconut palm sugar, coconut water, raw cashews, select super-foods and specialty cacao/chocolate products.
For more information, please contact Big Tree Farms - info@bigtreefarms.com, 541-488-5605
