The renewed winery building for Haut-Bailly, one of most famous Pessac-Léognan properties in Bordeaux vineyard, should preserve the heritage of the existing buildings and combined vine/garden scenery of the estate. The new complex should yet efficiently house the vinification, ageing and storage cellars. Three major challenges were addressed:
- integrate the new modern building into its landscape, fitting into the existing volumetric continuity and complex arrangement, while retaining the central image of the château. However, the functional aspect of the building required large volumes of space. This led to a circular building integrating an ascending landscape.
- ensure structural efficiency of the 38 m-span vault which dominates the vat room at a height of 8.80 meters, without posts, and supports a 2,400 m2 hanging garden. The use of concrete makes this architectural feat possible and gives the building its timeless style. Concrete offers a plastic, sculptural, monolithic aspect that allows several aesthetics to be explored.
- manage the spatial approach, the visitors’ flow and sensory experience. The circulation is gentle because the shapes are soft, and contribute to the feeling of well-being that the building provides. The sensory memory of visitors should be marked by the place, just as it is marked by the estate’s wines. The feeling of expansion, compression and suspension provided by the architecture then resonates with what one experiences during a tasting.
The project is organized around a circular vat room that allows for optimized integration of logistical movement. Discovering the winery from above, we overlook the grape harvest reception area from a footbridge. Then, reaching the vat room, the visitor physically perceives expansion of the vat room and then compression while passing between the vats. This movement gently makes an impression, just as wine can provide an array of sensations and memories during a tasting.