A Mill for the Future in a Historical Location
GoodMills Krefeld
Castellmühle Mill on the port on the River Rhine in Krefeld was completely reimagined in order to guarantee the supply security of five million people. After all, a million bags of flour leave the production facility every day. We were commissioned with the integrated design of Europe’s most state-of-the-art mill on the basis of our many years of food production expertise.
In order to optimally support the building’s core process – the milling of wheat and rye and the delivery and distribution of grain and flour–, we designed a simple, closed overall complex, whose form is adapted in line with its function. The facility has an annual milling capacity of 408,000 tons of grain. One particular challenge during the design and execution process was the slipform construction method, which was combined with conventional reinforced concrete construction. The reasons for adopting this approach to the use of formwork included the rapid progress on site that it permits
As a result of the slipform method, which we actually selected due to the speed of construction, the facade has a very special aesthetic: The smooth fair-faced concrete is completely homogeneous and has neither anchor holes nor any traces of formwork. It actually looks like a textile surface and enjoys a quality of concrete finish that is rarely found in industrial buildings.
Ingo Koller
Architect, Lead Project Manager in Vienna
The many ways of delivering grain
The large-volume building elements (pre-cleaning and the grain silo) are positioned to permit the trimodal transshipment of goods. This means that grain is delivered using every means of transport: train, lorry, and ship. Delivery logistics, which were very important to GoodMills, became a focus of the design process. Regionally grown grain arrives by road whereas deliveries from other regions come by rail or on the water. In comparison with its predecessor, the over 100-years-old “Ellmühle,” the new production facility has almost twice the loading capacity and has led to a significant increase in grain procurement.
Function meets form
The large functional areas such as the grain and flour stores determine the design. With a gross floor area of 23,000 m² and built volume of 217,000 m³ the building is compact, closed, and consciously introverted. In line with the processing steps it is organized into the pre-cleaning block and grain, flour, and loading silos.
The technical plant determines the height of each individual volume. The highest – with 11 levels of machinery – is the pre-cleaning, which measures 66 meters (to the parapet). The grain silo is 61 meters high. The flour silo is divided into two parts: The first part (0–21 meters) consists of four levels of machinery and the second (21–64 meters) of silo cells. The loading silo matches the flour silo in height.
The state-of-the-art industrial building sets new standards in terms of product safety, hygiene, and energy efficiency.
