project | biodynamic
winery at poggio bello
foiano della chiana (ar)2011
The project for the wine cellar of the winery mainly takes into account the high environmental value of the place where the winery is located. Environmental sustainability is a fundamental prerequisite, as, together with economic sustainability and living comfort, it depends on the architectural design and the eco-sustainable construction techniques used. The building has been designed so as to reduce the functional complexity of the wine cellar through construction solutions aimed at highly flexible rooms and a reduced volume of the building, while providing great comfort and ensuring low consumption by enhancing the use of passive and free energy equipment.
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- © archos archive
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- © archos archive
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- © archos archive
© archos archive
For the two reasons described above, a large part of the building is underground, not in order to be less visible, but to blend into the environment, which is particularly poetic thanks to the simple outlines of the hills and to the working people merging with the cultivated fields. The “architectural gesture” is just a sign between the fields and the sky, a slight modification to the soft outlines of the hill with the addition of horizontal rigidity. A horizontal tension that can be perceived thanks to the soft rhythm of the hill, as happens with the nearby Leopold farmhouses, which are recognizable above all from the rigid proportions of their fronts and the play of geometric shadows created by the sharp and precise corners.
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A furrow in the ground. An incidental tectonic transformation. The ground retreating slightly thus creating a furrow in the watershed on the cultivated hill, where the wind and the people’s work penetrate. Here, contemporary architecture does not reinterpret the architecture of the past, it relies on new technologies to silently lie on the land to collect its resources, select them and transform them. The aim is not to mix with the outlines of the landscape but to be part of it.
© archos archive
In order to reduce the consumption of drinking water, rainwater is collected from the roof of the building and the yards and then used to irrigate the green areas, to clean the courtyards and passages, to fill the toilet flush boxes and for other purposes (passive/active air conditioning systems). The project also provides for wastewater to be recovered and purified through phyto-purification and then used for irrigation purposes. The use of a closed courtyard as an outbuilding below the ground level is innovative from an environmentally friendly point of view. An access area that connects the house with the production area without letting the building for residential use affect the agricultural context up to the edges of the built-up area.