Article source: Archea Associati 

The site is surrounded by the unique hills of Chianti, covered with vineyards, half-way between Florence and Siena. A cultured and illuminated customer has made it possible to pursue, through architecture, the enhancement of the landscape and the surroundings as expression of the cultural and social valence of the place where wine is produced. The functional aspects have therefore become an essential part of a design itinerary which centres on the geomorphological experimentation of a building understood as the most authentic expression of a desired symbiosis and merger between anthropic culture, the work of man, his work environment and the natural environment. The physical and intellectual construction of the winery pivots on the profound and deep-rooted ties with the land, a relationship which is so intense and suffered (also in terms of economic investment) as to make the architectural image conceal itself and blend into it. The purpose of the project has therefore been to merge the building and the rural landscape; the industrial complex appears to be a part of the latter thanks to the roof, which has been turned into a plot of farmland cultivated with vines, interrupted, along the contour lines, by two horizontal cuts which let light into the interior and provide those inside the building with 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, paced by the rows of vines which, along with the earth, form its “roof cover”. The openings or cuts discreetly reveal the underground interior: the office areas, organized like a belvedere above the barricade, and the areas where the wine is produced are arranged along the lower, and the bottling and storage areas along the upper.

Image Courtesy © Pietro Savorelli

• Architects: Archea Associati (Laura Andreini, Marco Casamonti, Silvia Fabi, Giovanni Polazzi)
• Project: Cantine antinori
• Location: Bargino, San Casciano Val di Pesa, Firenze, Italy
• Photography: Leonardo Finotti and Pietro Savorelli
  
• Client: Marchesi Antinori srl
• Artistic supervision: Marco Casamonti
• Assistant art director: Francesco Giordani
• Engineering: HYDEA
• Bulding site supervisor: Paolo Giustiniani
• Structural design: AEI Progetti
• Design of plants: M&E Management & Engineering
• Oenological plants: Emex Engineering, Marchesi Antinori
• General contractor: Inso
• Cost: € 85.052.831
• Chronology:
  • Beginning of design 2004
  • Opening of building site 2007
  • Completion date 25 October 2012

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