Projets > Animal feed mill

Animal feed mill

Brief

To provide a prototype mill for the production of animal feed at half the energy cost current at the time.

Background

Contemporary feed mills evolved out of the old brick-built watermills of the 19th century, a single block 20-25m in height. Once they were no longer water driven, they were also no longer energy-efficient.

Energy principle

Modern mills are electrically driven. The most efficient mills now use gravity to process raw materials into feed. Raw materials in at the top, finished product out at the base, to store or distribute. In America and Europe, production towers are 80m high, for a single drop.

Solutions

Energy: our design was for a 40m high production tower, cutting in half the electrical energy use of a traditional mill.

Expansion: the building form is pulled apart to express the 3 production stages: raw materials storage, process tower and finished product storage. This separation allows each process to expand independently.

Hygiene: the separation also reduces cross-contamination and allows the production tower to become a clean zone, for ‘white coats’ use.