Connecting customers directly to coffee producers 
CategoriesSustainable News

Connecting customers directly to coffee producers 

Spotted: An estimated 95 per cent of coffee farmers are smallholders, and they rarely earn a living from the crop, despite the global market being worth almost $500 billion (around €461 billion). Part of the difficulty in raising growers’ income comes from the expensive equipment required to process and roast the beans. Being able to sell processed and roasted beans – instead of untreated ones – would enable farmers to charge more and therefore earn much more for every crop they grow.

Honduran company Spirit Animal Coffee is working to rebalance that disparity between production and consumption prices by selling locally roasted, organic, speciality coffees to discerning customers around the world. The company pays an appropriate, sustainable rate for coffee grown by small-scale, family-run farms and then roasts the beans at its roastery in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. With Spirit Animal Coffee, farmers get to taste the final product made from their crops – often for the first time – allowing them to give ideas about how to improve quality and flavours with different growing techniques.

Spirit Animal Coffee roasts beans once a week, and then 48 hours later, ships all orders out via UPS Air. By using air freight, rather than shipping via sea on weeks-long voyages, Spirit Animal Coffee arrives fresh and ready for immediate consumption. Because the farmers the company works with grow organically, there are no concerns regarding pesticide use, and all the coffee is tested for mycotoxins before shipping.

The coffee is available from the company’s online shop, as well as via subscription. Subscriptions are available in one, two, three, and four-week intervals, and customers can choose how many bags they would like with each delivery. Because Spirit Animal Coffee works directly with growers, customers can easily find out who grows their favourite brew and, with each order, know that they are contributing to a more equitable economy.

Spirit Animal Coffee also has a longer-term plan to continue helping smallholders diversify the types of beans they grow and grow their income. Called the Geisha project, sales of the hard-to-grow speciality coffee bring in additional income that farmers use to improve their land and growing methods. Geisha coffee brings in some of the highest global prices for coffee, with a single cup costing around $100 (around €92.23).

Other innovations in the coffee industry showcased in Springwise’s library include coffee made from non-tropically grown natural ingredients such as cereals, fruits, and legumes, and the upcycling of waste grounds for use in vegan health and beauty products.

Written By: Keely Khoury

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Ten houses with outdoor showers for connecting with nature
CategoriesInterior Design

Ten houses with outdoor showers for connecting with nature

There are few things more therapeutic than bathing under an open sky. In this lookbook, we collect 10 outdoor showers from around the world.

A grotto-like house in Hawaii, a brutalist surfer’s refuge and a Swedish villa feature in this list of projects that demonstrate different approaches to the outdoor shower.

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring sunken baths, hammocks and indoor trees.


Villa Pelícanos by Main Office
Photo by Rafael Gamo

Villa Pelícanos, Mexico, by Main Office

Villas at this seaside holiday complex in Sayulita, renovated by architecture studio Main Office, feature outdoor showers cut into the coastal rock.

Tropical flora and the thatched roofs overlook the pale concrete walls and pebbled terrazzo floor.

Find out more about Villa Pelícanos ›


Volcanic rock near house
Photo by Douglas Friedman

Kua Bay Residence, USA, by Walker Warner Architects

Kua Bay Residence by Walker Warner Architects is perched on a mountainside in Hawaii among volcanic rock formations.

Taking advantage of the dramatic surroundings is a private outdoor shower that looks up to the mountains and feels like a rocky grotto, with the adjacent shallow water feature designed to mimic molten lava.

Find out more about Kua Bay Residence ›


Litibu house shower
Photo by Luis Young

Litibu house, Mexico, by Palma

This semi-outdoor shower in a Mexican holiday home by architecture studio Palma opens up to the backyard through slatted wooden doors.

The effect of the sunlight streaming in is enhanced by the bathroom’s long, narrow form, high ceiling and dark concrete walls.

Find out more about this Litibu house ›


Open-air showers
Photo by Ana Paula Álvarez

Casa Nu, Mexico, by Chris Luce

Casa Nu, also in coastal Mexico, was designed by architect Chris Luce as a functional sanctuary for surfers.

Among the outdoor spaces is a board-formed concrete block containing open-air showers for use after surfing, alongside laundry facilities and a surfboard rack.

Find out more about Casa Nu ›


Exterior of Villa MSV by Johan Sundberg
Photo by Markus Linderoth

Villa MSV, Sweden, by Johan Sundberg Arkitektur

An outdoor shower sits on a patio next to the sauna and bathroom spaces at this house in Sweden designed by Johan Sundberg Arkitektur.

It is partially covered by a larch canopy but to catch the sun, it is located on the southern side of the home.

Find out more about Villa MSV ›


Casa Las Vistas outdoor shower
Photo by Andres Garcia Lachner

Casa Las Vistas, Costa Rica, by Zürcher Arquitectos and Taller KEN

The main bathroom of Casa Las Vistas opens onto a patio with an outdoor shower, nestled among large potted plants in a nod to the surrounding forests.

Weathered copper piping on the shower is one of the few rustic touches within the large Costa Rican house, designed by Zürcher Arquitectos and Taller KEN.

Find out more about Casa Las Vistas ›


Salt Point Residence by Reddymade and Ai Weiwei
Photo by Ashok Sinha

Salt Point Residence, USA, by Reddymade and Ai Weiwei

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei helped architecture studio Reddymade to design a corrugated metal extension for a house in Salt Point, New York.

At the southern end, the walls and gabled roof extend to form a porch featuring an outdoor shower fitted into a mirrored wall and looking out across the landscape.

Find out more about Salt Point Residence ›


Coral Pavilion is a beach house in Lagos that was designed by cmDesign Atelier
Photo by Tolu Sanusi

Coral Pavilion, Nigeria, by CmDesign Atelier

The freestanding yellow-pipework shower outside Coral Pavilion was designed by German studio Tarantik & Egger.

Its colour contrasts with the coral-pink concrete pool terrace and simple white form of the main beach house, created by Tosin Oshinowo-led studio CmDesign Atelier.

Find out more about Coral Pavilion ›


Harrison Residence by Jeffrey Dungan
Photo by William Abranowicz

Harrison Residence, USA, by Jeffrey Dungan Architects

A semi-outdoor double shower steps down onto a first-floor terrace at this house in the Florida Panhandle, designed by Alabama practice Jeffrey Dungan Architects.

With the paved floor, white-rendered concrete walls, arched opening and cut-out window shelf, the shower room resembles a small garden pavilion.

Find out more about Harrison Residence ›


The Voxel outdoor shower
Photo by Adrià Goula

The Voxel, Spain, by the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia

Students and researchers from Barcelona’s Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia built this wooden cabin in the Collserola natural park as a place for self-isolation during the coronavirus pandemic.

It features an outdoor shower that is both raised off the ground and positioned outside the structure’s main elevation, wrapped in charred and slatted timber panels.

Find out more about The Voxel ›

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring sunken baths, hammocks and indoor trees.

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