Fratelli Beretta Production Plant

By Luca Maria Francesco Fabris - 4 April 2017
Thema, Schüco have participated in the project

At a time when increasing emphasis is placed on the need for architecture to integrate soft and hard technology, it’s a pleasure to take a break and reflect on an architectural project that slips seamlessly into its context without disappearing into it. Marco Castelletti’s program for the latest food factory of Fratelli Beretta, a major Italian sausage and ham producer, is a case in point. This is the company’s third US factory, born of the need to supply the famous Italian specialties directly from the domestic market, given the strict regulations imposed on imported foodstuffs. Many Italian readers at least may remember filmmaker Monicelli’s 1971 comedy La Mortadella - released in the States as Lady Liberty - in which immigrant Sophia Loren is stopped at New York airport for trying to introduce the famous Bologna sausage into the country! Castelletti, who had already worked with Fratelli Beretta for their pavilion at Milan’s EXPO 2015, adopts his clean, sleek signature style also for this 20,000 square meters production plant. Although located in an industrial park, the green-field site in Mount Olive enjoys such large open spaces between its neighbors - especially to the west of the plot - as to feel immersed in a woodland stretch of New Jersey, aptly nicknamed the Garden State. The building seems to spring up in pristine open countryside - a feature that is all the more striking if you think that New York City is less than a hundred kilometers away. Castelletti himself affirms that what most struck him on visiting the area for the first time was its rural parkland setting. He immediately decided to build a factory that would resonate with its natural environment. This he has achieved with a composition and building finishes that reference the natural elements around and colors and materials echoing the surrounding countryside. The large parallelepiped building comprises prefabricated modular concrete panels. The burnt-brown...