«An intervention of transformation, care and enhancement of the landscape within a process of reuse and expansion of the existing» and «example of elegance and measured reuse of space».
With these motivations, among the 32 candidate projects, the jury – composed of architects Gerd Bergmaister And Fiorenzo Valbonesiby the urban planner Paola Cigalottoby the anthropologist Simone Ghiaroni and by the agronomist and landscape expert Camilla Zanarotti – awarded the first edition of the Wine Architecture Medal to the Venetian studio founded by Filippo Bricolo And Francesca Falsarella.
Already the subject of Special Mention within the 2022 Italian Architect Awardthe intervention involved the expansion of the Gorgo winery on the morainic hills of Lake Garda, around the Custoza building, in an enchanting setting of 53 hectares of organic vineyards.
The refinement and attention to detail in the studio’s works are nothing new, as here reinterprets the ancient “brolo” model in a contemporary keytypical of the back of Venetian villas.
A sober and elegant volume, where the combination of rough surfaces, such as rough-hewn stone, exposed reinforced concrete, brushed wood and rusty iron – distinctive elements in the studio’s interventions – manages to play with the sunlight, welcoming it and showing the raw authenticity typical of the vernacular buildings in the area.
“This choice – explains Filippo Bricolo – cIt represents a precise position and introduces a strong humanization into the project that is anchored in a deep bond with the place. The architecture is placed in the context seeking a new encounter with the roots of the rural world and a mature and more conscious relationship with nature”.
The Wine Architecture Medal is conceived by the Order of Architects of Treviso, in agreement with the Municipality of Valdobbiadene, and dedicated to projects of transformation, care and enhancement of the landscape and places dedicated to wine, with the aim of developing a collective reflection on the relationship between wine places and the infrastructures that contribute to organizing and defining its landscapes in a sustainable way.
photo: © Atelier XYZ
A microcosm to rediscover the pleasure of slow gaze
In recent decades, the combination of wine-architecture-landscape has increased the number of visitors also in the Custoza area, leading to the need for new hospitality spaces.
Hence the idea of taking inspiration from the vernacular heritage of the area, reinterpreting the rural typology of the Brolo, a model of hybrid space between inside and outside, persistent for centuries in the Veneto countryside.
The new extension thus integrates with the spaces dedicated to reception (also created by the studio between 2005 and 2016) but, unlike these, the orchard appears as an elongated open-air rectangular room, closed on the sides to form a large central void which constitutes the physical pivot, architectural and symbolic of the project.
The space, intimate and welcoming, gives visitors the opportunity to meet and contemplate the surrounding greenery from privileged visual channels, conceived as frames, where the works are the landscape itself.
«Compared to contemporary life which is increasingly fast and superficial – continues Bricolo – the orchard of the Gorgo winery offers visitors a calibrated microcosm where they can rediscover the slowness of their gaze and live a complete and activating experience. At the base there is the idea of a new journey to Italy which is not nostalgia for something lost, but the search for a sort of cultural anabiosis of the Bel Paese. Furthermore, the project hides the ambition of a new Italian architecture, which is capable of re-establishing the vernacular, freeing it from the picturesque, thanks to a modern expression that is strongly contemporary but also timeless and in continuity with the architecture of our nation”.
photo: © Atelier XYZ
The nine compositional elements of the Brolo
There are nine elements which, when put together, make the orchard take shape and, if on the one hand they help to resolve the site’s critical issues, on the other they emphasize its potential.
The first is theI liftlong and low wall in raw concrete, created to resolve the natural difference in height of the area by forming two parterre terraces, while the Fifth green to the east – the second element – acts as a closure towards the production area, with the height calibrated to allow a view of the hills in the background, ideally bringing them into the garden, but at the same time shielding them from external gazes.
On the north side, the Brolo is protected by the Pavilion, a rough hewn stone wall that protects the garden from the outside, while an open figure appears from the inside. As if it were a ruin topped by a reinforced concrete slab, this element represents a clear contemporary allusion to the outside/in relationship of traditional Italian porticoes in their continuous play on the margin between light and shadow. In the background of the pavilion, centered with the parterre, there is a long window that allows a view of the main vineyard of the property, the starting point for cultivation and visits to the vineyard.
The fourth element is represented by great fireplacesymbol of social life and tasting services, located in the raised part and arranged perpendicular to the main house and the pavilion.
Then there is the Gatedesigned to protect the garden from the external view, in continuity with the Quinta on the road that closes the Brolo to the west, formed by several parallel levels to expand the space: a continuous green wall, a row of Carpini that recalls the typical carpinata of the villas Venetian and a part of low vegetation.
Closed between the barrel cellar, the fireplace and three large green circular figures is the Room for carswhere vehicles can park without being seen from the garden.
In the center of the parterre, here is the large tubplaced symmetrically on axis with the manor house and the pavilion, inspired by the fishponds of the Venetian Villas, with a shady background obtained by spatulas of green and dark blue, which creates a play of reflections of sky, nature and architecture.
Finally, parallel to the Fifth Green, to the east, the project ends with the ninth element of the entrance promenade with the adjoining educational vineyard, in continuity with the existing sleeve that leads to the main courtyard, creating a processional route that connects the courtyard to the vineyard and vice versa.
photo: © Atelier XYZ
PROJECT CREDITS
Client: Gorgo Agricultural Company
Project and works management: Filippo Bricolo – Bricolo Falsarella Associati
Collaborators: Francesca Falsarella, Giacomo Scabbio, Elisa Bettinazzi, Nicolò Garonzi, Filippo Marcolongo, Paolo Zerman
Security plan in the design and execution phase: Francesca Falsarella
Structures: Contec Engineering (project), Enrico Magagna (testing)
Geology: Michele Leso
BUSINESSES
Green Technique – San Benedetto Group (gardens and landscape)
Edilstasi & CO. (building works)
Green Island (swimming pool)
Falegnameria Santi (carpentry)
Forms of Light (illumination)
Chronology: 2016 -2021: project and implementation
Location: Custoza, Verona, Veneto, Italy
Photos: Atelier XYZ
Dimensional data: 1750 m2 lot area
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
published on: 06/07/2024
