Kinik Olive Agricultural Production, Processing & Storage | STUDIO EVREN BAŞBUĞ

Designed by Studio Evren Başbuğ for the use of an agricultural development cooperative in Kinik, a northern district on the outskirts of İzmir, Kinik Olive, a small-scale industrial facility with a daily processing capacity of 80 tons of olives and a production capacity of 20 tons of olive oil became operational as of November 2023.

Setting aside the technical and wet volumes in the building program brief, the structure was planned as a single-volume space and designed with a steel structural system on a raised platform. Located among existing olive trees in a rural landscape, the building is expected to differentiate itself from similar facilities in its surroundings with its reverse-sloping roof form and the sharp angles of this form reflected in the façade arrangement.

The galvanized trapezoidal coating panels on the façade and roof surfaces reflect not only the rays of sunlight hitting from different angles at different times of the day but also the colors of the sky and the dense vegetal landscape of olive trees around it. The structure, despite its form, which at first glance seems foreign and incompatible with its surroundings, is actually intended to dissolve into the rural landscape, becoming transparent in terms of color and texture and, at times, almost disappearing into the setting.

The primary design criteria were to construct the space required by the brief in the simplest and most cost-effective manner. For this reason, the variety of materials used in the interior and exterior of the building was kept at a minimum. Along with this, local labor was used for most of the material manufacturing and installation. The total construction cost of the building was approximately 3,300,000 TRL ($167.000).

Working together with the milk processing facility, the other recent investment in the district by the same cooperative, the Kınık Olive facility aims to contribute to the local circular economy by processing the products of the local producers and providing them the opportunity to create value-added products for the end user under more favorable conditions.