The social device | Antonio Romeo

Pico is the second largest Island of Azores and the highest point of Portugal, featuring a volcano reaching 2,351 m asl.

The uncommon beauty of the island lies in its introspective landscape, its colours, its wild nature. The vernacular architecture witnesses an extraordinary habitative undertaking.

In 2004, Pico’s vineyards were designated by Unesco as a World Heritage, an outsdanding example of human adaptation to a landscape. The fragility of the territory is related with the islanders strong faith in God’s benevolence. Festivals are held during the harvest time and villages’ Patron Saints celebrations. Religious ceremonies are usually followed by banquets, concerts and sport events. These venues represent unique moments of social life on the Island, which features a certain social dissociation, reflected by the vernacular architecture made by detached buildings and enclosures. The project for a new winery is located in Cabrito, a small village on the coast line. The winery works as an extension of the village, having two big public spaces : a Loggia and a courtyard. The aim is to foster the social life in Cabrito by building a civic building, connected with the village by a new pedestrian road running amid the vineyards. The production focuses on fortified wines.
The production typology is unusual : the ageing room has to maintain a warmer temperature(>20°C). The building is designed as a self-contained , ecological, passive machine presenting diverse arrangements in its envelope. It regulates the ingress of solar light , the solar irradiation and the natural wind flows to meet the environmental production standards.