These days, it seems like all the rage for famous architects to design wineries in exotic locales, and Foster + Partners has joined the club by with their newly-designed winery 150km from Madrid, near the city of Ribera del Duero. The design, for the Faustino Group, will not only produce wine and tend to grapes, but provide a beautifully integrated and sustainable architectural result.
You might be thinking that a massive building near the Spanish landscape would be out of place, but ironically that’s precisely what makes this design so beautiful. The building is partially buried in the landscape, hiding itself around the natural topography of the site. That design choice allows, for instance, for the grapes to be poured straight down into the beginning of the wine production process. The different volumes of the building relate to the specific stages of wine making, with the areas that are sunken into the ground providing the best conditions for the fermentation process.
So with the impact on the landscape reduced as much as possible, the next stage in the design process was to diminish the impact on the environment. This is achieved by the partial burial of the building thermal combined with a green roof on top to control the temperature, and photovoltaics on the roof seal the deal.
+ Foster + Partners
In the peak of the pyramid may be only one vacant place, that is yours Mr.Foster…