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The intent of this design competition was to seek ideas for converting an existing winery into a promotional centre for the wine of the Valpolicella region, near Verona. The reinvented facility will become a centre for wine production, research, cultural events and training with a cellar door for wine tasting and sales.

The brief required that part of the winery be conserved and a new building added as an extension. The key challenge of the addition was to transform the winery into an architectural manifesto to promote the wine culture of the region.

The building comprises three levels with the basement and ground floor space dedicated to the production of Cantina Valpolicella. The top level caters to the administrative and front of house functions including training, wine tasting, exhibitions and research.

Stacked barrels and a grape logo was the inspiration for creating a double skin, green wall, eleven meters high, that surrounds and encloses the new building. Behind this wall, permanent and flexible spaces coexist to allow production to be scaled up or down in keeping with the seasons. In this way, special exhibitions and cultural events can also be accommodated as necessary.    

Interaction with the community is important and dedicated spaces have been incorporated into the design to facilitate this, most invitingly around an internal courtyard on the garden roof.  This will be an intimate space that occasionally opens to the landscape where the public can find a passage for accessing research or for simply appreciating the wine in a beautiful cultural setting.