CONTEMPORARY TRENDS IN DESIGNING WINERIES,

INNOVATIVE ENGINEERING VS. TRADITIONAL

CONSTRUCTION

Ljiljana Jevremovic, Marina Jordanovic, Milanka Vasic

Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Nis
Nis / Serbia
jevremovicljiljana@gmail.com

Abstract
In this paper were analysed some of contemporary wineries built in traditional geographical
regions for cultivation of grapes and production of wines in the world. Designing trends
today varies between intensive use of achievements of modern technology that celebrates the
idea of limitless possibilities in contemporary engineering and the traditional concept of
wineries’ construction that uses proven principles of design wineries that exist from the time
when even electrical power was not invented jet. The aim is to examine differences between
these two concepts, possibilities that both of them offer to designers (architects and other
engineers) and to evaluate the concepts according to several categories. It was examined
functional, aesthetical, and environmental characteristic of both concepts represented through
some wineries as an examples. Based on this analysis, it was searched for the basic principles
of the concepts. This will give us the answer about basis for decision process in designing
wineries.
Keywords - wineries, architectural design, innovations, tradition, industrial heritage

1 INTRODUCTION
Placing the wineries to the rural space and landscape and considering their function, these
buildings could be recognized as a type of agricultural buildings. The work of designers,
referring to the empirical evolution of historical rural facilities – has always aimed at
combining agricultural production needs and functional requirements with various
constraints on the basis of available knowledge, thus pursuing a fragile and dynamic trade-
off balance. In particular, aesthetical features and architectural quality of rural buildings
represent crucial issues, since they deal with conscious interpretation of cultural and
landscape contexts, besides socioeconomic and technological issues.
Rural buildings have undergone deep changes with the transition from traditional agriculture,
through industrial society, up to contemporary trends, due to the evolution of all the above-
mentioned contexts, whose joint effect outlines the field of action of creation of rural
architecture. This paper aims at discussing such evolution in building wineries, through the
analysis of the main requirements of wineries’ design. We focus on changes in architectural
features in relation with main trends in technology advance, design approach, and building
material innovations. We consider contemporary wineries built in rural environment
analysing contemporary designers approach in achieving design objectives of the wineries.
Wine-making process has been discovered a long time ago (in 8 000 to 6 000 BC), and since
then, this process has been improved constantly. In a way, the development of wine business
has achieved culmination in the whole world in last couple of decades by building a great
number of wineries spread in the world especially in the areas that are historically and
geographically recognized as wine regions. By the ending the industrialisation, economy is
changing the focus on small traditional businesses relying on local resources. This concept
has implication in developing wineries as new-old building type, paying to them a great
attention in overall enterprise development. This trend appears to be particularly interesting
for architects, since very few of worldly recognized architectural studios haven’t been yet
challenged to design a winery. As an example, the famous architects that have already done
some wineries are Zaha Hadid (Tondonia Winery 2006), Herzog & de Meuron (Dominus
Winery 1997), Frenk O’Gehry (Le Clos Jordan Winery 2006), Renzo Piano (La Rocca
Winery 2007) etc. (Figure 1)

Figure 1 – a. Tondonia Winery (Z. Hadid); b. Dominus Winery (H&dM); c. Le Clos Jordan Winery (F.
O’Gehry); d. La Rocca Winery (R. Piano)
Essentially, positive trend of making these manufacturing and agricultural facilities into
architectural challenges is based on rising popularity of wine tourism. While earlier was
expected that a tourist should make a visit to an agricultural facility in rural setting with lots
of traditional and historical references, today tourists are also invited to a brand new facilities
that were “parachuted” onto the valley of grape yards.

2 DEVELOPMENT OF WINERIES THROUGHOUT HISTORY

At the beginning of the evolution of this building type (up to XVIII c.), the winery had little
significance in the landscape, it was a small room connected to the housing area with thick
adobe walls and few openings that were able to support large thermal amplitude between day
and night. The wineries were built with different materials: the cheapest were those made of
leather cow or ox, while in the most important wineries were used adobe, stone or brick.
(Figure 2a.) The roof trusses were made of wood or carob covered with reeds and mud. In
XIX c. the winery remained related to the rural character, in its materiality remained an
adobe, brick or stone building but took on new proportions due to the use of new roof
solutions, the wooden trusses that allowed more lights into rooms (Figure2b.). (Girini, L.
2008)

During the period of industrialization, modern and technically improved winery was born,
capable of processing large volumes of grapes in a very short time. The architecture of wine
is in the light of progress following the progress of science of wine-making, that underwent
profound changes through a new functional arrangement of space, highly rational
systematization of its components, increased use of technical equipment and machinery, the
integration of infrastructure networks, the use of new materials: iron, glass, cement and
construction technologies and use of new and massive brick. In architecture, wineries had
large volumes consisted of simple, cubic forms whose aesthetic were represented in the main
façade sometimes covered with vines. The most common expression was the classic front,
closely related to the Renaissance churches, for its triangular pediment, and frequently its
gate arch and central oculus. The Italian Renaissance palaces and villas with symmetrical
composition were models and language of its forms. The neo-renaissance was widely
circulated in the architecture of this period probably because of its simple geometry and
constructive logic suitable to rationalize the construction. The brick facades colorful molded
allowed developing, which resulted with a relatively simple construction but requiring no
special finishing, only good masons. It was a very appropriate way, also used extensively in
other types of architecture (utilitarian age in Europe and America). The modernization was
also evident in machinery and equipment. This also resulted with new building praxis of
building the fermentation pools with new structural systems such as the Iron and Steel
concrete, masonry and concrete (Figure2c.). (Girini, L. 2008)

Figure 2 – a. Rajacke Pimnice (Serbia), b. Winery Toso (Argentina), c. Winery Trapiche d. Winery
Etchart
Consistent with the former model, the period of middle XX c. was characterized by the
construction of new facilities and the expansion of equipment capacity in the existing
buildings. Definitely was abandoned the historicist and picturesque language that had
identified the previous stage. From the 60's, architecture in general and the particular
industrial architecture were characterized by the spread of concrete and prefabrication. It
spread an industrial building type based on the manufacture of large items, such as pre-
stressed beams with characteristic profile, light covers, columns and walls. This architecture
and the use of reinforced concrete and the precast elements, was characterized by flexibility
of plants, modulation and emphasis of the structure and gave visual expression impact on a
significant public and private buildings. Similarly, over the years was spread the "shed" for
industrial uses because of its economy and speed of assembly. In general, the façades were
not resolved but pursuing an aesthetic interest resulted with the simple expression of the used
materials. (Figure2d.) These facilities had cost-effectively resolved the need to expand the
capacities of many wineries, as well as building new ones. In other cases, the need for
expansion was resolved with the construction of huge concrete tanks or tanks of iron in the
open space.

3 CONTEMPORARY WINERIES
In last two decades, the wine industry began a slow but growing recovery, several factors
contribute to it: stability of markets, technology upgrade development, and training of
professionals in agronomic and enological field and also global trends of the revaluation
wine culture. At first, it began with retraining and interventions in traditional wineries:
recovering cellars and place of values as some facades of industrial plants, but not yet
generating new models or types. In some regions (e.g. South America) foreign capital began
to arrive acquiring wineries and starting a new wine boom where the role of the architecture
and architects, graphic design and marketing had so much prominence as the wine
production. (Moretti-Baldín, 2008) Later has begun construction of the new wineries. The
preservation of the environment and the landscape is a trait that characterizes the wineries
recently built, as well as careful analysis and design of the buildings.
The new "cathedrals of wine" that have started to be built can have one, two or more levels;
be with or without underground (buried) cellar, centralized, linear, articulated or fragmented.
Adopted design approach agrees with guidelines and requirements of the wine-makers, who
have asserted their processing method when generating a new construction. The sectors to be
considered in the current sets are: receipt of vintage; fermentation and storage vessels, wine
ageing and care cellars, bottling plant, warehouse for dry inputs, storage of finished product;
shipping area, laboratory services, staff, administration and tourism areas (Bormida, 2003).
With few exceptions, there is no accommodation for workers or technicians within the
winery complex.

Figure 3 – a. Winery Diznoko, b. Winery Petra, c. Winery Tapaus, d. Winery 14 Vinas

As for architectural expression and materials used in new sets, we find two positions: one is
the wineries that reinterpret traditional language by faux facades or the use of traditional
masonry brick or stones, with or without coat finishing, and those that reformulate the
morphology of the winery producing a new type again. In first group are observed wineries
that are trying to recover the spirit of architectural tradition of the wine industry through a
“garment” that simulates old facades and ornaments but lack of authenticity and the only
recreates empty form content. (Figure 3a.) In the second group we observed multiple options
(by material usage):
• those that also use the brick, Petra Winery in Italy by Mario Botta (Figure 3a.)
• walls made of pebble conglomerates as Dominus Winery (Figure 1.b.)
• rough stone walls as in Winery Tapaus (Argentina) (Figure 3c.).
• rough or fine concrete walls as in 14 Vinas Winery in Spain (Figure 3d.)
• walls made of fine-stone as in Winery of Comunidad Religiosa de Solan in France (Figure
4a.)
• unusual and branded materials and forms in use such as in O’Gehry’s Le Clos Jordan
Winery (Figure 1c.) or Losium Winery in Austria (Figure 4b.)
• wineries, partially buried or covered with greenery, as in Leo Hillinger in Austria (Figure
4c.)
• wineries made of modern and lightweight materials as steel, glass, wooden or aluminum
panels, as in Jackson-Triggs Winery (Figure 4d.)
In general, the new proposals bet to diversity rather than unity. There are no longer
characteristics of the building associated with the former winery that are revealed to be part
of a series, that have expressed a shared history and held a common past. This is rather the
run for authenticity, and beside the used materials, also architectural composition,
composition of façades and forms are expressing the ideas of limitless possibilities. Although
it’s in common to use less opened façade, as a response to functional needs, there are
examples that boldly use a lot of glass and other transparent and lightweight materials, but
with the extensive usage of the high-tech engineering solutions for air-conditioning the
internal space. Forms and volumes are mostly irregular geometrical, with a tendency to
reflex the organic environment and in that way to stay connected and incorporated into the
place.

Figure 4 – a. Com. Religiosa de Solan, b. Loisium Winery, c. Leo Hillinger Winery, d. Jackson-Triggs
Winery

4 TOURISM AND WINE

Wineries now combine three major industries: wine industry, construction industry with
architecture and "the industry of tourism". The traditional wineries re-functionalized and
restored ones, as well as brand new ones, in recent became important spaces, complementary
areas assigned to the sociability. Thus designed buildings support activities associated with
the industry, in many cases it is required to emphasize the heritage of wine. New content of
the wineries are therefore museums and art galleries, multifunctional spaces in cellars, art
rooms, temporary exhibitions, auditoriums, conference rooms, restaurants, hotels and
country inns and similar.
At the same time, globally is spreading awareness about the protection of landscapes of vines
and wine as characterizing the cultures that produce them and make them unique and
unrepeatable. UNESCO has, regarded to this, declared in the last fifteen years ten landscapes
of vineyards as UNESCO Heritage (Tongariro in New Zealand - 1993, Amalfi Coast and
Cinque Terre in Italy - 1997, Saint Emilion, Bordeaux area in France -1997, the Portuguese
Douro -2001, the Pico island area in the archipelago of the Azores - 2004 and the Lavaux
Region in Switzerland -2007). This highlights that the relevance of the theme has acquired
worldwide. These declarations should make us reflect on the importance of wine landscapes
in the consolidation of an identity that supports the image of wines in the world and therefore
the need to study deeply, protect and value them.
Significant to the wine tourism and services related to tourism are sustainable practices in
wine tourism. This circumstance leads to a revaluation the culture of wine, and that issues
such as environmental quality, preservation and history, are some of the values that is
targeted to industrial plants that today show not only the best of their products, wine, but its
architecture and heritage.

5 CONCLUSION
The wineries have new typological, functional, technological and aesthetic form. The
architects have had to face the challenge of creating a good performance and areas for wine
tourism: tasting rooms, restaurants, hotels, museums and exhibition halls are part of the
programs of these renovated facilities. Another aspect that is evident in the design of the
winery is its relationship with the landscape, there is a quest for integration of architecture
through the form and materials to enhance the nature where it was inserted. The phenomenon
of globalization also influenced the development of wine tourism and consequently in the
appreciation of architecture and landscapes of the wine and tourism resources. Today, there
is particular concern among consumers and wine lovers to learn about the culture of wine,
know wine, to eat certain brands and even visit the wineries and the terroir where the wine is
made. We are in the era, when a wine is very "fashionable" and around which many activities
have been developed, known as "Wine Tourism".
The material expression, composition and architectural program of the contemporary
wineries is facing with the cultural landscapes, "traditional" industrial model inherited from
the wine industry, its evolution to the present and the new features emerging in the
wilderness. On the other hand, there are “ancient” cellars built in the last decade with
renewed typological and technological proposals. Today, the search for identity in the wine
and tourism products is a central theme in the wine sector. A fundamental part of the identity
of the wines is given by cultural landscapes and wineries that support them and give them
home. It is therefore necessary to make a thorough analysis of wine heritage and its
components, complementary to the analysis carried out in other disciplines. This approach
will allow us the interpretation of historical processes of formation and transformation of the
buildings, the urban networks and existing territorial structures that will allow us to get into
the local stories, rescue the memory, identify potential problems and elucidate. From that
point, it is possible to develop projects that allow an assessment of cultural landscapes, the
sustainable development of the communities involved and eventually expanding and
enriching the offer of the agricultural and wine tourism.

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