The Faustino Group’s new winery, Bodegas Portia, at Ribera del Duero stands out in the landscape with its trefoil shape and is one more instance of the widespread practice among winemakers these days of advertising their presence by works of architecture signed by famous names. This Foster + Partners building is an exercise in transparency and discretion. Visitors can watch wine in the making within a setting of style and character.
The complex radiates off a central nucleus like so many clover leaves. The extremities house phases of winemaking: fermentation, maturing, bottling and storage. The centre not only oversees these processes but caters for the public: a shop, a tasting room and a restaurant; then a mezzanine with a glass gallery from which there is a view of work in progress.
Lighting throughout was devised by the Claude Engle IV team who adopted the principles of highlighting, division by area, and reflection off vertical surfaces, picking out the essential qualities of the various production spaces. In the fermentation department the light is trained on thermometers, spouts and vat hatches; the maturing department is lit by Erco Gimbal spotlights with a Spherolit reflector casting a discreet warm glow over the wooden casks. A colder light is used for the gangways between barrel rows, while a wine-red radiance filters from the walls through a strip of coloured glass between the cement skirting and the wooden panelling above.
The warehouse has ceiling-mounted Erco Parscan spotlights fitted with flood reflectors which are cosy on the eye and flexible in orientation, featuring the serried ranks of bottles.
In the visitor area it is not individual features but surfaces that are lit. The restaurant, bar and tasting area have low-tension halogen downlights recessed into the ceiling. Various works of modern art and the old wooden slats used as wall décor are lit by Parscan wallwashers.
Only in the entrance hall does the project depart from the general concept of transparency. Here a high central storage tank hidden behind blue-green non-reflecting glass has highlights of colour catching its outline through the glass surface.
Throughout the building lighting is at the service of architecture, whether to reinforce a feature or pick out a detail - a perfect blend of light and form.
ERCO Leuchten
Brockhauser Weg 80-82
D - 58507 Lüdenscheid
Tel. + 49 2351 551100
Fax + 49 2351 551555
E-mail: [email protected]
www.erco.com
ERCO illuminazione
c/o Edificio Sedici
Viale Sarca 336F
I - 20126 Milano
Tel. +39 02 36587284
Fax +39 02 6437831
E-mail: [email protected]
www.erco.com
