ALBERTA NORWEG: AlvisiKirimoto: Cantina Podernuovo

A sequence of four parallel concrete walls, painted in a clay-like tone, cleave the soil according to the arrangement that follows the maximum slope of the hill.

The winery at Podernuovo, comissioned by Giovanni and Paolo Bulgari, was built by Alvisi Kirimoto + Partners, a firm based in Rome and founded by Massimo Alvisi and Junko Kirimoto.

The project, recently concluded, is the result of a strong synergy between the architects and the clients ever since its inception, when Giovanni Bulgari and Massimo Alvisi visited together the countryside surrounding San Casciano in order to find the perfect position for the building (guided by criteria of quality and efficiency), which would be capable of intercepting ideal environmental conditions with the most beautiful views of the landscape.

Territory finds continuation in architecture. Functional purity finds resolution in all the spaces of the winery, which was conceived as an extension of the surrounding arable landscape and labor culture that vigorously define the walls and penetrate the heart of the architecture. The building is designed with production in mind, strictly following the codes and requirements of a winery; however, it still finds inspiration in the landscape.

A territory that is not decorative, but is fundamental to the architecture, which emerges from the land it directly orchestrates. Indeed, a building has seldom seen such an extension of its production, which finds continuation in the interior as much as it does in the fields it harvests.

Architecture traverses the landscape, expressing its sensitivity. Italian and Japanese principles merge and coexist in Alvisi Kirimoto + Partners’s work. Within, all is open to the eye: from the large concrete walls, to the machinery, to the mechanical systems. A composition of spaces, objects and land.

The project was developed based on a practical concept: to maximize functionality and optimize distribution. Punctuated by the presence of four parallel concrete walls of varying lengths, the winery is traversed through an axis or corridor which, configured as a visual telescope, runs through the central spaces and the length of the project to culminate in the vineyards. The interior looks like an “open section” which, thanks to the large glass walls, permits all aspects of wine production to become visible.

On the lower level, near the areas where production is accessed, the corridor separates the zones that undertake the initial stages of winemaking (the vat cellar, the cellar and the storage room) from the wine bottling zone. The same corridor divides, at second level, the wine tasting rooms and staff spaces, whereas at the last level, which the visitors may access directly from the parking lot in the rear, the path defines the access to the office area that opens towards a terrace and separates the building from the olive grove that covers the wine production areas.

At any point in this axis, it is possible to look out towards the Tuscan hills. You are able to completely appreciate the open section of the winery, which carves its way through the architecture of the interior, to end in the structured fields that compose the exterior landscape. The idea of longitudinal permeability within the building, as well as a concept of prolonged transparency, is highlighted, particularly in the wine tasting area, a point where all production – from harvesting, to crushing, to fermentation, to storage, to preparation, bottling and maturation– of the wine can be appreciated.

Partially embedded in the terrain, the spaces dedicated to production maintain satisfactory temperature and humidity levels. The thickness of the reinforced concrete walls and the green roof contribute to the thermal stability of the building, coupled together with a geothermal system. The clients found it absolutely imperative to be environmentally sustainable. A system of metal shades shields the building from direct sunlight in the summer, specifically the offices at the top level and the bottling area which have greater exposure to the exterior. The light and thin character of these elements aids to seemingly dilute the mass and solidity of the cement walls that however, like everything in the design, have a specific and vital function but relate beautifully to nature.

“The elegance, structure and precision of the vineyards led me to a design that bespoke of the territory: four reinforced concrete walls that follow the maximum slope of the hill from which the building emerges. The walls enclose the main programs of the winery and thus differ from each other in both length and interstitial width. At the center, there runs a corridor which splits the principal processing area, the barrel cellar, and the wine cellar from the main bottling area and the storage for oenological products. Whereas, in the upper level, the corridor divides the tasting room from the office spaces, aside from establishing a main circulation route. This main axis also serves as a means to connect the top level of the offices with the exterior.” says Massimo Alvisi.