Podere la Chiesa Winery | ANDstudio architects

The winery project stems from the idea of creating a unique, compact building, immersed and integrated into its surroundings.

The concrete slab embedded in the hillside blends in with the terrain. It has two main facades that echo the small openings in the facades of the nearby houses, transformed into a grape cluster texture.

During the design phase, several focal points emerged:

aesthetic and functional quality: the designed spaces, such as the tasting room, echo the theme of light reflection towards the interior and the perception of the landscape from the interior towards the exterior, thanks to circles that allow a different view of the landscape to be perceived from every point in the winery.

The second point is emotional sensory quality: in fact, the perception of the building changes completely from day to night. During the day, we have a fullness that hides the holes, while at night, the fullness disappears, revealing the voids.

In terms of construction, innovation is achieved by using a traditional material, concrete:

The smooth, uniform effect of the facades was achieved with a single 7-meter-high pour to the base, maintaining the continuity of the material's color. The systems were installed before the pours, so as to maintain the integrity of the concrete.

Insulation is provided inside the envelope to create a concrete cube, starting from the roof slab up to the facades. Concrete vibration systems were also used to prevent any honeycombing.

A color formula was used, adding iron oxides to the concrete to color it in the mix. The time taken to transport the concrete from the mixing plant to the construction site had to be precise in order to ensure that the color always matured at the same rate, avoiding different colors in the various pieces.