Adega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects

Adega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - Exterior Photography, StairsAdega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - Interior Photography, Kitchen, Table, Chair, CountertopAdega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - Interior Photography, Table, ChairAdega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - Interior PhotographyAdega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - More Images+ 23

Cais do Mourato, Portugal
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  1630
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2020
  • Photographs
    Photographs:Francisco Nogueira
  • Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project
    Manufacturers:  Equiproin
  • Architects: SAMI-arquitectos . Inês Vieira da Silva. Miguel Vieira com DRDH . Daniel Rosbottom . David Howarth
  • Client: Azores Wine Company
  • Project Team: João do Vale Martins, João Completo, Andreia Luís, João de Brito Oliveira - arquitectos
  • Foundations And Structures: Betar. Miguel Villar, Leonor Antunes
  • Acoustics: NaturalWorks - Engineering Consultants . Guilherme Carrilho da Graça, Pedro Maria Paredes, Maria Malato Lerer
  • Installations: NaturalWorks - Engineering Consultants . Guilherme Carrilho da Graça, Pedro Maria Paredes, Maria Malato Lerer
  • Energy Performance Certificate: NaturalWorks - Engineering Consultants . Guilherme Carrilho da Graça, Pedro Maria Paredes, Maria Malato Lerer
  • Water Management: Campo d'Água, Engenharia e Gestão Lda . Marta Azevedo
  • Mechanical Enginner: NaturalWorks - Engineering Consultants . Tiago Costa Oliveira
  • Fire Protection: ETU Fire Safety Consultants - Cidália Worm
  • Gas: Horácio Carvalho
  • Interior Design: Ana Trancoso
  • Construction Firm: Marques, S.A.
  • Heritage: UNESCO World Heritage Site
  • City: Cais do Mourato
  • Country: Portugal
More SpecsLess Specs
Adega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - Exterior Photography
© Francisco Nogueira

Text description provided by the architects. A new wine cellar for the Azores Wine Company is located within the Unesco World Heritage vineyard landscape of Pico Island, one of the nine islands that form the mid-Atlantic, Azorean archipelago. In a manner not dissimilar to the island’s traditional wineries - small-scale structures located along the coast where wine was produced and family and friends were welcomed – the building combines spaces of production with those of conviviality and extended domesticity, within a single coherent form. Recalling the cloistered courtyard typologies of the religious institutions, Pico’s most significant historical structures, and the communities for whom wine was first produced, the building’s simple, geometrical volume defines a garden at its center. Enclosed by a covered perimeter, this intimate exterior space counterpoints the scale of the landscape beyond.

Adega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - Exterior Photography, Facade
© Francisco Nogueira

The precision of the plan form is adjusted in sections to follow the rugged terrain, which rises from the rocky, windswept coastline to the cone of Pico mountain, the volcano that dominates the island. The changing relationship between topography and horizon is experienced in the movement around the reduced form of this cloister-like edge, where a continuously ramping, exterior path climbs from within the shelter of the bounding wall to address the landscape. 

Adega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - Exterior Photography
© Francisco Nogueira
Adega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - Image 22 of 28
Plan - Level 0
Adega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - Exterior Photography, Stairs
© Francisco Nogueira
Adega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - Interior Photography
© Francisco Nogueira

Along the way, it interacts with a sequence of production spaces, which occupy three of the sides. Arranged as an enfilade, these commence in a series of barrel rooms that step up the slope from the space of entry to arrive at tank rooms for red and white wine and finally culminate in a tasting room that overlooks an upper terrace. Below it, a house for the owners culminates a sequence of five guestrooms. These occupy the lower, Northern edge of the courtyard, set against the linear edge of a water retention pool.

Adega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - Interior Photography
© Francisco Nogueira
Adega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - Image 23 of 28
Plan - Level 1
Adega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - Interior Photography, Dining room, Chair
© Francisco Nogueira
Adega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - Image 25 of 28
Section 3
Adega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - Interior Photography, Kitchen, Shelving, Chair
© Francisco Nogueira

Looking across their roofscape, the terrace offers an expansive prospect, encompassing the intense latticework of lava stone walls, known as curries, that protect the vines. Beyond them, the neighboring islands of Faial and São Jorge are set within the wide expanse of the Atlantic Ocean, while turning back South, the edge of the roof frames the cone of the volcano itself. 

Adega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - Interior Photography, Kitchen, Table, Chair, Countertop
© Francisco Nogueira
Adega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - Interior Photography
© Francisco Nogueira

This concrete edge draws a continuous and rigorous line within the landscape, drawing together the contrasting material character of the interior and exterior. Below it, the outer wall of the building is of dry stacked stone, recovered from the terrain of the vineyard and merging its form almost seamlessly into the wider network of walls. Within, the abstraction of the white plaster surfaces refers to the manner in which the most important historical buildings on the island were distinguished from their agricultural and industrial neighbors.

Adega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - Interior Photography, Table, Chair
© Francisco Nogueira

In this way, an industrial building of a new scale is situated within a remarkable and highly sensitive context, in a way that allows it to take its place within, and recede into, the intricacies of the manmade landscape it serves. The first significant production facility constructed in more than a century, the cellar allows the vineyards to regain their true purpose and in doing so, commences a process of remaking a wine region. One which was once of worldwide significance, but has long been forgotten.

Adega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects - Exterior Photography
© Francisco Nogueira

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Project location

Address:Cais do Mourato, Portugal

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Cite: "Adega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects" [Adega Azores Wine Company / SAMI-arquitectos in collaboration with drdh architects] 17 Oct 2022. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/990585/adega-azores-wine-company-sami-arquitectos-plus-drdh-architects> ISSN 0719-8884

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