Description/

Bukoto street is known for its old Indian style residential constructions, many of which have been transformed into commercial endeavours maintaining their style, while some have been raised to the ground with new constructions of taller, class-covered offices and residential buildings.

When we began the project for the chocolate factory and offices at the old renowned “La Fontaine” we wanted to maintain the greenery and the character of the place. The old indoan constructions, where very well adapted to the local climate with cross ventilation, shading devices above doors and windows. The ambient inside was cool even before the beginning of the refurbishment.

In order to adapt the spaces to their future use as chocolate factory and café on the ground floor, we opened up the central area, maintaining the arched aesthetics, which allowed us to reduce on structural steel and RC. We kept all the external plants and trees and added many more, repainted the outside and inside and added the blue tiles at the arches to contrast with the burnt orange colour of the outdoors, going for an exotic while minimalistic look. We designed and built all of the indoors and outdoors furniture in the same blue as the tiles, as well as the light fixtures in collaboration with local artisans and using locally available materials especially loofah.