Wine Culture Center - Young Architects Competition

The Valpolicella Negrar Winery has a north-south orientation, parallel to the road passing in front of the building, with a façade of low architectural quality. The first suggestion for the new design comes out from the enhancement of the street front and access system. The internal layout of the offices has been so completely re- thought, displacing the entrance hall for the employees on the south-east corner. Specularly, an independent access for visitors was placed on the south-west corner, to let them take benefits from the shopping areas and museums, with a dedicated parking lot too. Three colored concrete walls are called to define the total volume, with large openings in the correspondence with the entrances. The wall that runs parallel to the east side of the building creates a large cavity where services and distribution are concentrated, both for workers and visitors. In this space a diffuse light comes from the large skylights and glass vertical surfaces; these, in correspondence with the elevators, are hidden by an outer coating made of Cor- ten steel panels with writings printed in negative. This allows to control the sun light during the day, while in the evening the writings stand out as a result of artificial lighting. So the east wall becomes a big “speaking” surface, visible from the road. Visitors have the opportunity to stay in the shop area at the ground floor or begin the exhibition tour at the first floor. Here, the fruit storehouse was conceived as a flexible space, separate but in close communication with the laboratories and as integral part of the museum, of which it represents the starting point. During the drying period of the grapes, ad hoc-designed paths allow visitors to stay in contact with one of the most important stages of the winemaking, while in the months in which remains free it can be set up for conferences or temporary exhibitions. The rest of the museum is conceived as an open space without a physical separation between the exhibition and the tasting areas, except for the Sensorial Mediatheque. A terrace with a view of the surrounding hills makes the whole experience more enjoyable. At the end of the tour you can go back to the shop to buy the products of the winery. Speaking about the plant, the walls may also act as a cavity for the passage of the ducts of the air handling unit, which may be located above the baths of the ground floor. The flat roof instead could possibly accommodate a PV system with southern exposure for the production of renewable electricity.