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Architectural Project:

Studio Archea Associati

​Structural Project:

AEI Progetti

Year:

2012

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CANTINA ANTINORI

Bargino San Casciano Val di Pesa (FI)

Metal carpentry works for the construction of spiral staircases, reception stairs and emergency exit stairs, Support structures for Corten steel cladding and terracotta slats.

Studio Archea Associati

Description of the text provided by the architects. The site is surrounded by the unique Chianti hills, covered with vineyards, halfway between Florence and Siena. A cultured and enlightened client has allowed us to pursue, through architecture, the enhancement of the landscape and the surroundings as an expression of the cultural and social value of the place where wine is produced.
The functional aspects have therefore become an essential part of a design process focused on the geo-morphological experimentation of a building intended as the most authentic expression of a desired symbiosis and fusion between anthropic culture, human work, work environment and natural environment. The physical and intellectual construction of the winery hinges on the deep and rooted bond with the land, a relationship so intense and painful (also in terms of economic investment) that the architectural image is hidden and confused with it.
The aim of the project was therefore to merge the building and the rural landscape; the industrial complex appears as part of the latter thanks to the roof, transformed into a plot of agricultural land cultivated with vines, interrupted, along the contour lines, by two horizontal cuts that let light in and offer those inside the building a view of the landscape through the imaginary construction of a diorama.
The façade, to use an expression typical of buildings, therefore extends horizontally along the natural slope, punctuated by the rows of vines that, together with the earth, constitute the “covering roof”. The openings or cuts discreetly reveal the underground interior: the offices, organized like a belvedere above the barricade, and the wine production areas are arranged along the lower part, and the bottling and storage areas along the upper part. The secluded heart of the cellar, where the wine matures in barrels, transmits, with its darkness and the rhythmic sequence of the terracotta vaults, the sacred dimension of a hidden space, not out of a desire not to be seen, but to guarantee the ideal thermo-hygrometric conditions for the slow maturation of the product.
Reading the architectural section of the building reveals that the altimetric arrangement follows both the production process of the grapes that descend (as if by gravity) - from the point of arrival, to the fermentation tanks up to the underground vault of the barrels - and that of the visitors who instead go up from the parking lot to the cellar and the vineyards, through the production and exhibition areas with the press, the vinsanto refinement area, to finally reach the restaurant and the floor that houses the auditorium, the museum, the library, the tasting areas and the point of sale.

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