Natura May - June 2012 | Page 75

DOĞAL TAŞIN HAM YAPISI VE IŞLENMIŞ KAYRAK TAŞININ DÜZGÜN HATLARI, BIRLIKTE GÜÇLÜ BIR KONTRAST OLUŞTURUYOR. THE HORIZONTAL STACKED SLATE AND THE RAW, IRREGULAR PATTERNS OF THE NATURAL STONE DOMINATE THE EXTERIOR ENVIRONMENT. the previously existing facilities with the addition of the fermentation warehouse, the hogshead warehouse and reception area. In a landscape as unique and astonishing as Douro, any intervention must be very precise. That’s why the first challenge was to underline the distinctive identity of the project while carefully respecting the landscape. Each gesture had to be incisive, adapting itself to the given program while realizing an expressiveness that could value both the built complex and the surrounding landscape. The expansion project for Quinta do Vallado included two areas of intervention, for production and leisure and an additional challenge: to maintain and to integrate the pre-existing buildings in a new complex with a clearly contemporary vocabulary. The unification of all these purposes needed great technical precision and resulted in great simplicity, both in the use of material and in the creation of forms. This assured minimal impact on the landscape while the same economy of means was used to create distinctive attractive spaces. The new structures design was strictly dictated by the production requirements of a gravity system of winemaking. Understanding the whole production system required great seriousness, discipline and also time. The architects therefore had to plan the building while taking heed of the topography of the land. The new volumes merge into the landscape by declaring their artificial nature creatingv tension and balance between the previous buildings and topography. The parallelepiped mass of the hogshead warehouse forms an arch space at the interior. This formation provides a MAYIS-HAZİRAN / MAY-JUNE 2012 • NATURA 75