Rules of Winemaking

The austere, full of light and shade, air and greenery, and, of course, impressions, the winery building in the city of Haykadzor in the Krasnodar Territory is one of the main architectural events of last year.

Written by:

Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

01 February 2018

Object

Architect:

Firm:

Kleinewelt Architekten http://www.kleinewelt.ru/

Over the last few decades, the architecture of wineries established itself as a typology in its own right, with certain norms and requirements of its own. Their design became the hot trend of today, including among the star architects: the names of Frank Gehry, Santiago Calatrava , and Sir Norman Foster attract not only connoisseurs of wine but also fans of modern architecture. The new history of Russian winemaking is only just gaining momentum but even now we can safely say that their architecture has become an instrument of attracting the public interest to winemaking complexes and forming their identity. The latest vivid example of that is the winery of Haykadzor, which opened in the summer of 2017, designed by Kleinewelt Architekten.

zooming — Winery in Haykadzor. Realization, 2013-2017, Kleinewelt Architekten. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov

Situated on a hill amidst the Anapskaya Valley, the “Haykadzor” winery has been operating since 2000. Although the colony of Gorgippia, which stood in the stead of the modern Anapa in the antique times, was famous for its winemaking tradition, the winemakers of today had to turn to their French colleagues in order to find the perfect place for growing grapevine here. The masters of oenology Alain Dugas and Noel Rabot, who still act as consultants to this winemaking house, found back then the perfect terroir on the slopes of the Semisamsky Ridge not far away from the town of Haykadzor, where 14 sorts of South French grapevine were planted. The development of the Russian brand was so successful that in 2012 its founder decided to build a modern multifunctional complex that would combine production facilities, tasting rooms, and a wine museum, for which a closed-type contest was organized. The new tourist center was to be situated on a hill named “Vysokaya Gorka” (which, curiously, literally translates as “High Mountain”): a little higher than the town and a little lower than the grapevines. The bright sunshine, the air, and the landscape that back in the day determined the location of the planting became the starting point in the creation of the winning project.

The contest-winning Kleinewelt Architekten designed a project whose geometric forms would stand out against the picturesque background of the valley, becoming a landmark amidst the sloping landscape which would in no way violate the harmony of its natural surroundings. According to Nikolai Pereslegin, “this place is really beautiful, with a complex terrain, so we decided to make our project as flat as it can be”. It is planned that the volumetric centerpiece of the building will be accentuated by a sightseeing tower with a tasting room, which has not been built yet. However, even without this tower, the semitransparent volume of the winery rules the landscape.

One of the tasks that the architects faced was the necessity of developing the routes of traffic flows inside the complex that was meant to become a major tourist attraction of Russia’s south. “Never stop surprising is one of the mottos of our project. The tasting of wine implies that all of the human senses must be engaged – and we wanted to complement the taste and aroma sensations with visual and space experiences. These are the prerequisites that determined our project – seemingly simple yet structurally sophisticated”.

The complex consists of several volumes linked by open-air passages but, thanks to a joint roof and a wooden deck, the building still looks like a single whole. At a first glance, it is perceived as a single-story building but in fact it has a basement floor which is only viewable from the parking lot.

The functional division into the production and public parts is accentuated by the employed materials – concrete and glass. In the part that is open to general public, deep porticos and open-air terraces alternate with glass volumes that host the main public spaces: tasting rooms, where each wine is assigned a place of its own, a museum of the history of winemaking, and a conference hall for lectures and seminars. Slender metallic stairways lead to an open-air roof that commands panoramic views of the surrounding area. “We carefully calculated all the vantage points lying in the guests’ route so that the visitors could enjoy not only the gastronomy but also the surrounding landscape”.

A special mood is created by the coverage of the building – metallic structures with wooden lattice that stand along the building’s perimeter in a cantilevered fashion and the slender bearing columns cast shadows – this way, the sun itself “cooperates” with the architecture, highlighting the beauty of the simple lines. And, although in the original project the coverage was still more sophisticated – the latticed pattern repeated the outlines of the local flowers – the authors are still happy with the resulting effect that brings out the purity of the geometric shapes. Executed from seasoned basswood, the wooden deck imbibes the sunshine, giving coziness and warmth to everything that surrounds it. The energy of the sun fills the complex situated in one of the most picturesque places of Russia not only visually but literally as well: the roof has photovoltaic panels installed on it, which provide electricity to the winery.

The concrete part of the building includes production facilities and the repository. The construction of the production facility of the winery required for taking away some of the soil, which provided an opportunity to keep up a certain temperature mode, at the same time minimizing the energy losses. The façade concrete, which serves both as the bearing and the decorative material, serves as the perfect background for the glass bottles and wooden casks.

The center of the whole building is essentially a garden: at the level of the basement floor, there is a green yard that spreads around an oak tree that was specially brought from Germany. The beautiful space of the atrium is created thanks to the contrast between bare concrete and lush vegetation. The stairs that lead to the yard are also unusual: the concrete cantilevers look as if they were hovering in the air casting slim shadows on the surfaces of the walls. In order to keep up life in this oasis, the architects provided for four pour points.

“Considering the fact that this is one of the hottest places in Russia, we decided that the whole complex must be centered around an oasis. Lush vegetation is something that you rarely come across in these parts, and the garden accentuates the uniqueness of the building. This is a peculiar analogy of the Garden of Eden populated by rate plants that were specially chosen by our dendrologists. The whole structure and composition of the building is centered around it” – says Nikolai Pereslegin.

The exhibition and demonstration spaces were also designed by Kleinewelt Architekten: the parallelepipeds of the counters and the straight shelves in the tasting rooms continue the theme of simple shapes. The architects also provided for the elevators for people of limited mobility.

There are plans for expanding the center on the future by adding a hotel complex to it. Already today the visitors are met by an entrance group designed by Kleinewelt Architekten in the same style as the main building of the complex and a small pavilion that overlooking the valley.

Architect:

Firm:

Kleinewelt Architekten http://www.kleinewelt.ru/

01 February 2018

Written by:

Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

Headlines now

Object

Daring Brilliance

In this article, we are exploring “New Vision”, the first school built in the past 25 years in Moscow’s Khamovniki. The building has three main features: it is designed in accordance with the universal principles of modern education, fostering learning through interaction and more; second, the façades combine structural molded glass and metallic glazed ceramics – expensive and technologically advanced materials. Third, this is the school of Garden Quarters, the latest addition to Moscow’s iconic Khamovniki district. Both a costly and, in its way, audacious acquisition, it carries a youthful boldness in its statement. Let’s explore how the school is designed and where the contrasts lie.

Object

A Twist of the Core

A clever and concise sculptural solution – rotating each floor by N degrees – has created an ensemble of “dancing” towers: similar yet different, simple yet complex. The designers meticulously refined a single structural node and spent considerable effort on the column construction – after that, “everything else was easy”. The architects also rotated the core walls on each floor to maximize the efficiency of the office spaces.

Object

The Sculpting of Spring Forest Matter

We’ve been observing this building for a couple of years now: seemingly simple, perhaps even unassuming, it fits in remarkably well with the micro-district context shaped by the Moscow MCD road junctions. This building sticks in the memory of everyone who drives along the highway, even occasionally. In our opinion, Sergey Nikeshkin, by blending popular architectural techniques and approaches of the 2010s, managed to turn a seemingly simple structure into a statement “on the theme of a house as such”. Let’s figure out how this happened.

Object

Water and Wind Whet the Stone

The Arisha Terraces residential complex, designed by Asadov Architects, will be built in a district of Dubai dedicated to film and television production. To create shaded spaces and an intriguing silhouette, the architects opted for a funnel-shaped composition and nature-inspired forms of erosion and weathering. The roofs, podium, and underground spaces extend leisure opportunities within the boundaries of a man-made “oasis”.

Object

Elevation 5642

The Genplan Institute of Moscow has developed a comprehensive development project for three ski resorts in the Caucasus, which have been designated as special economic zones of the tourism and recreation type. The first of these zones is Elbrus. The project includes the construction of new ski runs, cable cars, and hotels, as well as the modernization of stations and improvements to the Azau tourist meadow. To expand the audience and enhance year-round appeal, a network of eco-trails is also being developed. In this article, we provide a detailed breakdown of each stage.

Object

The IT Town

Taking the example of the first completed phase of the “U” district, we examine how the new neighborhood in Innopolis will be organized. T+T Architects and HADAA formed a well-balanced and ingenious master plan with different types of housing, a green artery, a system of squares, and a park in the town’s central part.

Object

The Heart Lies Within

The second-phase building of the Evgeny Primakov School already won multiple awards while still in the design stage. Now that it’s completed, some unfinished nuances remain – most notably, the exposed ceiling structures, which ideally should have been concealed. However, given the priority placed on the building’s volumetric composition, this does not seem critical. What matters more is the “Wow!” effect created by the space itself.

Object

Magnetic Forces

“Krylatskaya 33” is the first large-scale residential complex to appear amidst the 1980s “micro-districts” that harmoniously coexist with the forests, the river, the slopes, and the sports infrastructure. Despite its imposing scale, the architects of Ostozhenka managed to turn the complex into something that can be best described as a “graceful dominant”. First, they designed the complex with consideration for the style and height of the surrounding micro-districts. Second, by introducing a pause in its tallest section, they created compositional tension – right along the urban planning axis of the area.

Object

Orion’s Belt

The Stone Khodynka 2 office complex, designed by Kleinewelt Architekten for the company Stone, is built with an ergonomic layout following “healthy building” principles: natural light, ventilation, and all the necessary features for an efficient office environment. On the outside, it resembles – like many contemporary buildings – an iPhone: sleek, glowing, glass-and-metal, edges elegantly rounded. Yet, it responds sensitively to the Khodynka context, where the main theme is the contrast between vertical and horizontal lines. The key intrigue lies in the design of the “stylobate” as a suspended passage, leaving the space beneath it open for free pedestrian movement.

Interview

Grigory Revzin: “It Was a Bold Statement Made on the Sly. Something Won”

In this article, we discuss the debates surrounding the circus competition and the demolition of the CMEA building with the most renowned architectural critic of our time. A paradox emerges in the process: while nostalgia for the Brezhnev era seems to be in vogue in Russia, a landmark building – the “axis” of the Warsaw Pact – has been sentenced to demolition. Isn’t that strange? We also find out that wow-architecture has made a comeback as a post-COVID trend. However, to make a truly powerful statement, professionals still remain indispensable.

Object

Exposed Concrete

One of the stages of improving a small square in the town of Lermontov was the construction of a skatepark. Entrusting this part of the project to the XSA team, the city gained a 250-meter trick track whose features resemble those of land art objects – unparalleled in Russia in both scale and design. Here’s a look at how the experimental snake run in the foothills of the Caucasus was built.

Object

One Step Closer To the Dream

The challenges of getting all the mandatory approvals, an insufficient budget, and construction site difficulties did not prevent ASADOV Bureau from achieving its main goal in the realization of the school project in the town of Troitsk – taking another step away from outdated notions of educational spaces toward creating a fundamentally new academic environment.

Object

Chalet on the Rock

An Accor hotel in Arkhyz, designed by A.Len, will be situated at the gateway to the resort’s main tourist hubs. The architects reinterpreted the widely popular chalet style while adding an unexpected twist – an unfinished structure preserved on the site. The design team transformed this remnant into an exciting space featuring an open-air pool and a restaurant with panoramic views of the region’s highest mountain ridges.

Interview

Sergey Skuratov: “By and large, the project has been realized in line with the original ideas”

In this issue, we talk to the chief architect of Garden Quarters, looking back at the history and key moments of a project that took 18 years to develop and has now finally been completed. What interests us most are the transformations that the project underwent during construction, and the way the “necessary void” of public space was formed, which turned this remarkable complex into a fragment of a whole new type of urban fabric – not just at the horizontal “street” level but in its vertical structure as well.

Object

A Unique Representative

The recently concluded year 2024 can be considered the year of completion for the “Garden Quarters” residential complex in Moscow’s Khamovniki. This project is well-known and, in many ways, iconic. Rarely does one manage to preserve such a number of original ideas, achieving in the end a kind of urban planning Gesamtkunstwerk. Here is a subjective view from an architecture journalist, with an interview with Sergey Skuratov soon to follow.

Object

Field of Life

The new project by the architectural company PNKB (an acronym for “Design, Research, and Advisory Bureau”), led by Sergey Gnedovsky and Anton Lyubimkin, for the Kulikovo Field Museum is dedicated to the field as a concept in its own right. The field has long been a focus of the museum’s thorough and successful research. Accordingly, the exterior of the new museum building is gentler than that of its predecessor, which was also designed by PNKB and dedicated specifically to the historic battle. Inside, however, the building confidently guides the visitor from a luminous atrium along a spiral path to the field – interpreted here as a field of life.

Object

A Paper Clip above the River

In this article, we talk with Vitaly Lutz from the Genplan Institute of Moscow about the design and unique features of the pedestrian bridge that now links the two banks of the Yauza River in the new cluster of Bauman Moscow State Technical University (MSTU). The bridge’s form and functionality – particularly the inclusion of an amphitheater suspended over the river – were conceived during the planning phase of the territory’s development. Typically, this approach is not standard practice, but the architects advocate for it, referring to this intermediate project phase as the “pre-AGR” stage (AGR stands for Architectural and Urban Planning Approval). Such a practice, they argue, helps define key parameters of future projects and bridge the gap between urban planning and architectural design.

Review

Living in the Architecture of One’s Own Making

Do architects design houses for themselves? You bet! In this article, we are examining a new book by TATLIN publishing house. This book – unprecedented for Russia – features 52 private homes designed and built by contemporary architects for themselves. It includes houses that are famous, even iconic, as well as lesser-known ones; large and small, stylish and eccentric. To some extent, the book reflects the history of Russian architecture over the past 30 years.

Object

A City Block Isoline

Another competition project for a residential complex on the banks of the Volga in Nizhny Novgorod has been prepared by Studio 44. A team of architects led by Ivan Kozhin concluded that using a regular block layout in such a location would be inappropriate and developed a “custom design” approach: a chain of parceled multi-section buildings stretching along the entire embankment. Let’s explore the features and advantages of this unconventional method.

Report

Competition: The Price of Creativity?

Any day now, we’re expecting the results of a competition held by the “Samolet” development group for a plot in Kommunarka. In the meantime, we share the impressions of Editor-in-Chief Julia Tarabarina, who managed to conduct a public talk. Though technically focused on the interaction between developers and architects, the public talk turned into a discussion about the pros and cons of architectural competitions.

Object

Terraced Design

The “River Park” residential complex has confidently and securely shaped the Nagatinsky Backwater shoreline. Featuring a public embankment, elevated courtyards connected by pedestrian bridges, and brick façades, the development invites exploration of its nuanced response to the surrounding context, as well as hints of the architects’ megalithic design thinking.

A Kremlin’s Core and Meteorite Fragments

We continue our coverage of the competition projects for the residential district that the development company GloraX plans to build along the embankment of the Rowing Channel in Nizhny Novgorod. ASADOV Architects approached the concept through a deep dive into local identity, using storytelling to pinpoint a central idea for the design: the master plan and composition are imagined as if a meteorite had struck a “proto-Kremlin”. Sounds weird? Find more details below!

Contest Results

The Volga Regatta

GloraX plans to develop a residential complex spanning 14 hectares along the Volga River in Nizhny Novgorod. The winning design in a closed-door competition, created by GORA Architects, features housing typologies ranging from townhouses to terraced high-rise slabs, a balance of functions, diverse ways of engaging with the water, and even a dedicated island (no less!) for the city residents.

Object

Life Plans

The master plan for the residential district “Prityazheniye” (“Gravity”) in Naberezhnye Chelny was developed by the architectural company A.Len, taking into account the specific urban planning context and partially implemented solutions of the first phase. However, the master plan prioritized its own values: a green framework, a system of focal points, a hierarchy of spaces, and pedestrian priority. After this, the question of what residents will do in their neighborhood simply doesn’t arise.

Object

A New Track

We took a thorough look at D_Station, a railcar repair depot dating back to 1906, recently reconstructed while preserving its century-old industrial structure, upon the project by Sergey Trukhanov and T+T Architects. Though work on the interiors – set to house restaurants and public spaces – is still underway, the building’s exterior already offers plenty to see. Visitors can explore the blend of old and new brickwork, appreciate the architect’s unique interpretation of ruin aesthetics, and enjoy the newly built pedestrian route that connects the Citydel Business Center’s arches to Kazakova Street.

Report

Four Different Surveys

The “Explore the City” competition, organized this year by the Genplan Institute of Moscow, stands out as a pretty unconventional one for the architectural field but aligns perfectly well with the character of urban planning work. The winning project analyzed contemporary residential complexes, combining urban planning insights with a realtor’s perspective to propose a hybrid approach. Other entries explored public centers, motivations for car ownership, and housing vacancy rates. A fifth participant withdrew. Here’s a closer look at the four completed works.

Report

Scheduled Evolution

ASADOV Architects unveiled the EvyCenter pavilion, a microcultural hub for fostering personal growth, organizing workshops, and doing gymnastics. Additionally, this pavilion serves as a prototype for a scalable country house, drawing inspiration from the “Loskutok” project, and constructed from CLT panels in a factory. This marks the beginning of a developer project initiated by the architectural firm (sic!), which is seeking partners to expand both small Evy settlements and even larger Evy cities, which are, according to Andrey Asadov, aimed at fostering the “evolutionary” development of the people who will inhabit them.

Object

The Golden Crown

The concept for a dental clinic in Yekaterinburg, developed by CNTR Studio, revolves around the idea of a “mouth full of gold”: pristine white porcelain stoneware walls are complemented by matte brass details. To avoid an overly literal interpretation, the architects focused on the building’s proportions, skillfully navigating between sunlight requirements and fire safety regulations.

News

Flexibility and Integration

Not long ago, we covered the project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential complex, designed by APEX. Now, we’ve been shown different fence concepts they developed to enclose the complex’s private courtyards, incorporating a variety of public functions. We believe that the sheer fact that the complex’s architects were involved in such a detail as fencing speaks volumes.

Object

A Step Forward

The HIDE residential complex represents a major milestone for ADM architects and their leaders Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova in their quest for a fresh high-rise aesthetic – one that is flexible and layered, capable of bringing vibrancy to mass and silhouette while shaping form. Over recent years, this approach has become ADM’s “signature style”, with the golden HIDE tower playing a pivotal role in its evolution. Here, we delve into the project’s story, explore the details of the complex’s design, and uncover its core essence.

​Rules of Winemaking

The austere, full of light and shade, air and greenery, and, of course, impressions, the winery building in the city of Haykadzor in the Krasnodar Territory is one of the main architectural events of last year.

Rules of Winemaking