Introduction
With this project, YAC challenges young designers and architects to redevelop a part of Negrar Valpolicella winery from an aesthetic and functional point of view in order to create a unique context in an area dedicated to the wine production. The existing building, subject of this contest, is geometrically fragmented and irregular in the external fronts. So, there is the need to harmonise the current building in a unique way. The project goal is not to try to hide the winery production zones, but to give value to these areas without forgetting the rural tradition of the Valley.
In the end, YAC asks to consider the possibility to raise a building reflecting an interest in the value and culture of the wine process, both in the farming setting and the finished products. The building will become a research and test place also attended by local undergraduates.
General view
© Valentina Rossi . Published on September 16, 2014.
The project : settlement pattern strategy
The “historic” building appears to be geometrically fragmented and irregular in the external aspect due to the production chain’s need of expansion over the years. Specific attention has not been paid to the materials and the external front final choices. So, most of the current building casing seems to be now a common industrial element made of concrete.
The main project goal is to connect the different spaces and at the same time to give the chance to the building to be in contact with the surrounding context. This is the reason why the idea of giving back a “green zone” to the territory is born.
This “green zone” is a vineyard situated along the highway ramp, which is used by the tractors to arrive in the service area and it also connects the different parts of the building on level +1: the new eastern part with the existing part in the West.
The vineyard has been created in order to show the occurring activity inside the building through its main raw material. It also gives to the visitors the chance to acquire information about what happens before the production process and it allows the researches and undergraduates to implement the agrarian studies acquired in the laboratory. Another planning input derives from the need to modernize the entire wine making process leading it on the same level of the contemporary practice. This way is based on the fall grapes wine making, no more mechanically strained. All the following processes happen in the natural way (as a cascade). This method prevents the vinasses alteration and the not successful finished product.
From the idea to the drawing, one of the most important and interesting project’s needs has not been ignored: the necessity to transform the building into a single element maintaining the peculiarities of the single spaces (different to each other for end use, type, architectural and aesthetic features).
The “new part” is now the continuation of the “old part”, particularly for what concerns the building height structures (the new pillars model on the higher plane follows the existing pillars model on the lower plane). Although they have a strong vision and aesthetic effect, the chosen architectural shapes are simple in order not to weigh too much on the existing structures.
General view
© Valentina Rossi . Published on September 16, 2014.
The project: functional assignment
The recommendations stated in the competition announcement have been followed for the inside spaces organisation. Subsequently, the choices have been determined by different factors: close proximity of spaces for practical – functional reasons, building orientation, historic origin of the inner spaces organisation.
The northern building area (indicated as “free area” in the competition announcement) has been chosen as service zone because it is characterized by some negative conditions, such as the lack of natural solar radiation. In order to realise the fall grapes wine making without digging under the level -1 and occupying only the space where today there are the silos, the project advancement has interested the levels -1, 0 +1, respectively at the quota -4.90 m, -0.20 m, +4.60 m (this process needs a considerable difference in height between the origin and the end).
An highway ramp (slope 15%) allows the tractors to arrive in the wine grapes unloading (maximum height of the process). In this point (quota +4.60m), there is a service area with grapes picking tanks covered by a roofing. Some stairs and a lift (for the workers and the disabled visitors) also permit to arrive in this area from inside the building. In this way, all the people can watch this production process phase.
At level 0, quota -0.20 m, under the grapes picking tanks at level +1, there are the destemming machinery. They are inside a room with a glass wall, so that the visitors can see from outside what happens inside without disturb the workers job.
A storehouse part is also positioned at level 0 (quota -0.20 m) always in the northern area of the building, under the service area and near the existing bottling. At level -1, quota -4.90 m, there is the same inner spaces arrangement. Here, however, instead of the destemming machinery there are the wine presses. These machinery are the last components of the fall grapes wine making process. The vine is spread from this point to the barriques or silos (for the different wine types) through suitable channels. All around these spaces, there is the other part of the storehouse. On this level, however, there is a covered loading area, so the lorries, coming from the street, go down from -1.30 m (winery access area) to -4.90 m.
The central area of the project, in the eastern zone, is the most awkward part of the entire plan. It is the winery cornerstone, especially created for the visitors who are there (Valpolicella Negrae winery) for recreational, wine and food, cultural reasons. The eastern winery front is the part of the building visible from the street, so it should attract the tourists, the wine and food passionate people or anyone who wants to discover new things about wine production and to taste some of the better products of the Valley. The level 0, entry quota -1.30 m, has been studied as it was the business card of the winery, always respecting the customer dictated limits. As soon as the people go into the winery, they can begin the itinerary from wherever they want. On the right side there is the wine museum, where people can examine the historic, cultural, and artistic aspects of this age-old product. The museum itinerary finishes with a sensory experience, where people can begin to activate their own five senses, which will be satisfied at the end of the winery itinerary, especially in the tasting room and in the shop. The winery can be traversed in different ways. The main itinerary, after the museum stop, leads the visitors to the tanks, where the vine ferments. The project plan does not change this place (as it is written in the competition announcement). The tanks area is accessible by everyone: visitors, workers and undergraduates. The last ones have the chance to increase their studies in the laboratory situated near the tanks. The lab is reachable through a separated existing entry in the South front and there are also the service need spaces (changing room, wc, relaxation area). The laboratory does not receive the natural sun light from the East and the West, so it has a very big skylight on its roof which allows the lab to catch natural sun light and air. In addition to this, the people in the garden (at level +1) can see what happens in the lab. The visitors can reach level +1 (landing place quota +4.40 m) through the stairs and the lift situated at the end of the museum itinerary (the stairs and lift position in the plan has been chosen to connect, if necessary, level -1 and level -2 with the rest of the building too).
Also at level +1, as for the under one, the itinerary can continue in different ways. Through a soft ramp the visitors can go into the fruit storehouse in the existing part of the building. During some months of the year, this space is not used for production reasons, so it can be utilized for cultural and artistic events. Then, the tourists can go out in the service area (quota +4.60 m) and from this point they can go down following the fall grapes wine making process, that has been illustrated earlier.
However, the visitors can go through a sensory itinerary. They can go ahead inside of the glass aisle, arrival point of the stairs and lift from the level 0, and then they can walk in the vineyard and see its features. From there, the following space is a filter zone: visitors’ viewpoint on the fruit storehouse, in the months of the year when it works; fruit storehouse entry, when there are events and crossing point to the tasting room. The latter is divided in two parts: an inner space with furniture inspired by the wine activities (barriques, pierced legs table…) and natural cladding (cleft stone) and an outside space (equipped garden, where the people can taste the vine and at the same time they can watch the raw material of this product: the grapes). The natural materials have been used also for the outside space furniture and cladding (the flooring and the furniture are made of wood and natural fibre). In this way, the visitors can live a natural experience as if they were in a natural wine area.
Inside the tasting room there is also a little kitchen, where the operators prepare food for wine tasting. Then, the visitors can go down to the shop, situated under the tasting room, where they can buy the finished products, whose production phases and details are now very well known. In the shop, as in the tasting room, the furniture draw inspiration from the wine activities. The tasting room has been positioned at level +1 in order to enjoy both a vast inner space and a little garden. This is a reserved place which allows everyone to taste the vine quietly, far away from the noisy street and in a private dimension. The tasting room is also linked to the shop, which has a direct access from the main building entry. In this way, the visitors can go to the shop directly without going through the rest of the building.
The reason for the fruit storehouse plan position is historic and functional. Indeed, at the beginning, the rooms with natural air turnover, above houses and winery, were used as fruit storehouses. These places were, in this way, quickly and easily reachable by the workers. In this project, the choice of the new fruit storehouse position derives also from the existing fruit storehouses position. In this way, these spaces are near to each other, linked and easily manageable. The best preserved part of the building is the southern one, where there are the offices. The project wants to preserve it and to ingrate it with the new proposal, instead of demolishing it and building a new one. As requested by the customer, inside of this part of the building the spaces have been reorganised and the new offices (spaces for administrative and directional activities) have been reallocated. The offices, as the laboratory, have a reserved access, different from the visitors one, so the various activities do not mingle and do not cause interference. The administrative and directional activities have been situated at the level 0, +1, +2 of the existing building, while the level -1 and -2 have been left as the present situation, both for the structure and the purpose in order to respect the competition announcement limitations.
Garden view
© Valentina Rossi . Published on September 16, 2014.
The project: aesthetic features intervention
During the years, the existing building has been subjected to various changes and extensions, but it has been always treated sparsely, particularly for what concerns the materials and the external front final choices. For this reason, the new project aims at redeveloping not only the volumes, but also the aesthetic aspect. Every inner space, where different works happen, has been characterized by a diverse external cladding. In this way, people can understand what kind of work happens in a specific space by the overall building external view. In order to realise this purpose, the materials, the colors and the claddings have been chosen to be drawn close. An eco-friendly aptitude and the use of local materials (Km 0) are the values followed in the choice of materials and claddings. The type applied to the new parts of the building is the same chosen for the existing parts, with the same purpose. For the fruit storehouses (new and existing), for example, the final choice is a cladding composed of regular perforated cor-ten panels (the module is the same used for the windows dimensions). The run of the panels holes, as a cascade from on high to down, has been studied to remember the ancient way the grapes were withered in the fruit storehouses (Amarone production way). In the highest cladding point, there is a cor-ten stripe (this stripe is darker than the other cladding parts) to remember the winery wood stick, from where the grapes climb down. The outer vision of this part of the building is very striking, especially in the evening hours when outside the space is dark, but inside the rooms are all illuminated. However, in the current fruit storehouse the light and the air are controlled only through mechanical systems which regulate the delicate balance between temperature and humidity in the best way. This aspect is necessary for the production of the best wine. For the tasting room and the shop there is much more freedom of choice. For these rooms, the designed space is intensely illuminated by the natural sun light and there is a continuous visual contact between inside and outside spaces. The best material for these ideas is certainly the glass. The tasting room and the shop have been linked to each other through a great tripped glass wall supported by some steel pillars in order to look like a unique big space.
The glass wall and steel pillars inclination evokes the run of the vineyard (espalier method) .This way is ordinarily widespread in the land near Verona for the grapes growing, that is appropriated to Amarone production (one of the best products of the Valpollicella Negrar winery). The glass wall has also a decorative stone base , the same just existing in the offices building (cleft Lessinia stone), so the East front and all the winery have a visual and material continuity. The Lessinia stone has been chosen also for the building low ground (the area under the fruit storehouse) and the service area parapet (from level 0 to level +1) . While the existing cladding is cleft Lessinia stone, the new one is Lessinia stone plate (between the low ground windows, in the East front, the cladding is clef Lessinia stone, like the offices). For the offices building, the cladding materials are the original one. Another improvement has been done for the new and existing storehouses. These spaces have an horizontal profile (they are vast but not very high). So the chosen cladding shoots for break up the repetitiveness and monotony of the all front look. A treated wood panels system is proved to be the best solution. The panels are composed by various thickness and height horizontal slats, set next each other in the irregular way.
The project: eco-friendly solutions
The materials choice and the volumetric forms of the new project are derived, not only from aesthetic causes, but also from eco – friendly values. These ideas are implemented in the new building shape, from inner spaces functional assignment to the materials and claddings choice. The glass wall inclination, in the eastern front, wants not only cause an awesomeness , but also be valuable in the energy meter. This inclination, indeed, fosters the direct solar radiation to the inner spaces during the winter months, when the sun is low-rise and its intensity is feeble and it doesn’t foster it, during the summer months, when the sun is high and its intensity is raised.
In addition the tasting room and shop exposure to East, allows to have a glass wall greater than the other fronts because the hours number during the day, in which this front is subjected to direct solar radiation, is minor than the others fronts. Others devices have been included in the project, always in the East front, to limit the natural solar exposure of the building, where it should be damaging. They are the perforated cor – ten cladding fruit storehouse (described earlier) and the portico, that protects the entry area. The portico is formed from the fruit storehouse at level +1 and the low ground steel pillars. To produce clean energy and limit the building environmental impact, a photovoltaic system (oriented to south direction) has been positioned on the fruit storehouse flat floor. In the West direction, indeed, between existing and new part of the building, at level +1, there are a vineyard and a garden roof. These external spaces have an educational, recreational and sensory purpose, but they have also a very important job, about energy saving. They work such as a natural cooling and decrease temperature system (vegetable kingdom typical feature) and they protect the new fruit storehouse and tasting room glass walls (in the West front) by the direct solar rays. The new glass walls are also protected by the flat floor that sticks out from the under wall and that creates efficient shadow zones.
Night view
© Valentina Rossi . Published on September 16, 2014.
The project: architectural barriers
In the existing building there are many altitude gaps, that cause accessibility problems to anyone, especially to disabled people. To make the building accessible and usable by everyone, various interventions (on the basis of national rules) have been designed. In the East front there is an altitude gap, between the outside space (quota -1.30 m) and inside space (quota 0.00 m), due to the current loading area. In this area (in the project plan) there is the building main entry. From this place, people can go to the museum, to the shop and to the others inner rooms. So a staircase, in part travelable and in part accessible such as a break area, and a ramp (slope 8%), that run along the big glass wall, have been collocated in the East front to pass this altitude gap. An external access ramp to pass the altitude gap between outside and inside offices space is just existing currently. There isn’t, indeed, a lift, that leads people to the all offices building levels. This lift, that has been added in the new project and the other one, near the laboratory, in the building centre area, have been situated in a valuable position to reach, if necessary, also the level -1 and -2 (not current competition subject). Little ramps have been situated also in the inner existing parts of the building, always to pass the altitude gaps. They are for example between stairs and lift landing at level +1 (quota +4.40 m) and the existing fruit storehouse (quota +4.60 m), between the storehouse at level 0 (quota -0.20 m) and the existing bottling (quota 0.00 m). These ramps are useful to facilitate the move wares operations, but also people walking. With these ideas, all the architectural barriers have been passed and the new winery has become accessible to everyone.
Eco-friendly solutions
© Valentina Rossi . Published on September 16, 2014.
Level -1
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Level 0
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Level +1
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Level +2
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Project ideas
© Valentina Rossi . Published on September 16, 2014.