ACA Amore Campione Architettura

Graci Winery

Graci Winery
© ACA Amore Campione Architettura

GRACI WINERY

ACA Amore Campione Architettura + 2B&G

CATEGORY
Winery

LOCATION
Castiglione Di Sicilia, Italy

TEXT
Giuseppe Mazzaglia

ARCHITECTS
2B&G, ACA Amore Campione Architettura

PHOTOGRAPHS
ACA Amore Campione Architettura, Benedetto Tarantino

AREA
1500 m²

YEAR
2021

LEAD ARCHITECTS
ing. Maria Bombara ing. Concetto Bellia arch. Sebastiano Amore ing. Angela Campione arch. Valeria La Carrubba arch. Federica Gioja arch. Laura La Rosa ing. Giannetto Carmelo Antonio

Text description provided by architect.

The winery is located in an agricultural area in the hamlet of Passopisciaro, within the municipality of Castiglione di Sicilia.

Graci Winery
© Benedetto Tarantino
Graci Winery
© ACA Amore Campione Architettura

The scenario is the typical Etna rural landscape inserted between the vineyards and located at about 600 meters from the sea level.

During the last ten years, the vineyard has been valorized both for production and aesthetical purpose.

Graci Winery
© ACA Amore Campione Architettura
Graci Winery
© ACA Amore Campione Architettura

New rows of vines have been planted using the traditional paths and the morphology of the existing terraces.

The new building designed for the winery is an extension of the existing building complex historically owned by Graci’s family.

The assumption and the main driving path for the development of the project were to create a place where the tradition of the vineyard sunk into the ground, building up a peculiar relation with the soil from where the vines get strength and character.

Graci Winery
© ACA Amore Campione Architettura
Graci Winery
© ACA Amore Campione Architettura

There is an imaginary line connecting the new building with the historical existing, but without creating any tension or contraposition between two buildings with such a different soul.

The new architecture disappears into the ground without colliding with the historical winery.

Its most powerful and relevant presence is in the vaste working spaces that it contains.

Graci Winery
© ACA Amore Campione Architettura
Graci Winery
© ACA Amore Campione Architettura

The existing morphology of the terrain is the best partner for the development of the idea. The relevant difference in the levels of the ground facilitates the insertion of the new volumes into the earth, the new perception of the landscape appears, therefore, uncut.

The building is hypogeum, solid, and compact. The main façade facing the outside is oriented toward the main vineyard. It is materialized using the material left from the excavation: big boulders of black lava rock, composed on the side of the entrances.

The rocks are placed following an irregular and yet progressive pattern that partially covers the openings.

The wall panel representing the entrance of the winery is cladded using a traditional plaster called cocciopesto made mostly by volcanic shattered material. The color obtained is so natural looking as the basalt stone themselves.

Graci Winery
© ACA Amore Campione Architettura
Graci Winery
© ACA Amore Campione Architettura

The structure and interior finishings follow the most utilitarian scope, but they work in syntony with the roughness of the exterior façade.

Poured in-situ concrete for the walls, with different heights in relation to the height of the ceilings, unfinished precast concrete slabs for the roof, polished concrete for the flooring.

The idea behind the interior design is to let the winery form a rigid and complementary symmetry between the solid ground in the north and the open field facing south.

The symmetry line is constituted by the staircase and a linear water surface. A nice directly excavated in the bare rock shows the whole stratigraphy of the terrain under the vineyard. It also contains the tasting area.

As the most peculiar synthesis, this project represents the equilibrium between a winery as a working space and the specialness of what it contains.

Graci Winery
© ACA Amore Campione Architettura


Graci Winery
Plan
Graci Winery
Section

ACA Amore Campione Architettura
T +39 095 964425
ACA Amore Campione Architettura
strada 10 Corridori Gancia, 9, 95014 Carruba CT, Italy