The winary is an innovative building that explores the farranging, deep relationship between artifice and nature.

Speaking of wine, the relationship between man and nature looks very close indeed. Even if it has always been like that, the paradigms have changed. In the past, architecture and design played a lesser role than they do today. The transformation of the land from a productive factor to a cultural factor is fairly recent. This has turned winemaking into a 360-degree experience for all the senses. So it happens that nowadays design plays a key role in welcoming the guests and in telling a treasurable story. In a farsighted move, this struck a chord with the Antinori family, the Tuscan marquises who have been working in winemaking since the 15th century and who, in 2012, inspired by the acumen of an architect, Marco Casamonti, Studio Archea, created one of the most exciting Italian architectures of the last few years. Surrounded by the Chianti hills, the Antinori nel Chianti Classico winary is an innovative building that explores the far-ranging, deep relationship between artifice and nature as the embodiment of a perfect symbiosis between the two. It is camouflaged, with the winemaking operations hidden in its bowels, by the roof that defines a new plane of wine-grown countryside, drawn along the contour lines by two horizontal cuts that let the light in and frame the landscape. In the soft dimness and the cadenced sequence of the terracotta vaults, the sheltered heart of the cellar, it grasps the sacred dimension of a space that provides optimum thermalhygrometric conditions for the slow aging of the wine in its barriques. This ‘cathedral’ has been designed to welcome the visitors in and show all the stages in the winemaking process, the history of the Antinori family, the local art and the local food and wine culture. Along the way Edra interior decoration plays a key role in a relentless role swap between design and storytelling. Edra Magazine met Albiera Antinori, who runs the company with her sisters, and architect Marco Casamonti.

Albiera Antinori. Six hundred years have passed since the winery was founded, and it has been in the family for twentysix generations. A sense of devotion to this place plays a key role in your history. It has been proven as much by this architecture as by your initiatives to promote art.

Of course, a family company that has a long history and is rooted in the territory has devotion to the land as one of its fundamental values. If you make wine, this value is even stronger. Wine is but a product of the soil and climate, with which man tends to work but that basically is born of and grown by nature. We have put in our talent, we have been the driver and the energy, but it’s a matter of picking what the soil and the climate give, to make it fruitful, not least intellectually. Our job is making the fruit of such labour known all over the world and making the business financially viable, so that we can give back to the local community all it needs. For us, this is a nuance of the concept of sustainability: redressing the balance for what man does on the land by giving back, in some other way, what we take. This is how we come full circle. The winery is a tribute to this land. We tried to make a building that could be instrumental to the processing of the fruit, that would be beautiful to look at, and that left its mark on the age it was born in, by lasting through as many generations as possible. At the same time, we wanted to pay a tribute to the land that lets us do what we do by building an architecture that wouldn’t ravage it. Our wish has been cleverly rendered by Marco Casamonti, the architect.

Redressing the balance for what man does on the land by giving back, in some other way, what we take.

Marco Casamonti, such an architecture would have been considered avant-garde in Italy, at least about twenty years ago. This is one of Italy’s first totally-underground buildings, it does not stand on any land and heralded all of today’s environmental issues. It is one of the first great industrial buildings of our country, which shows how you can build something that respects the landscape, without damaging it but actually adding value to it. Such combination between building and nature had already been researched, just think for instance of Emilio Ambasz’ experiments, but we tried to bring such relationship to its extreme. The relationship with nature is so deeply ingrained and powerful that it’s as if the building took root and behaved like a plant, thus connecting the cultivation with the landscape. Now, we have understood that man needs to live as close to nature as possible. When one visits your winery, wine is the leitmotif in the development of an experience for all the senses, in which architecture, design and interior decoration play a key role. The idea of turning a business into a place to live in is quite recent in the history of Italy. Marco Casamonti: Up to a few years ago, traditional wineries played their role in Europe. In the United States, instead, that have no great vine-growing or winemaking tradition, they started to build a strong image, especially in the Napa Valley, by having their architectures designed by great architects. To make up for the lack of a history, they worked on a contemporary view of the winery that could also be laden with those values and meanings that European wineries were known for. The aim is to connect the vinegrowing and winemaking tradition with a business that is different from any other industrial business but that brings in the themes of craftsmanship, the land and, above all, creative and artistic skills. Winemaking needs a somewhat artistic and creative approach. When we came up with our project there had been a few cases in Europe. I had written a book about designer wineries: Cantine. Architetture 1990-2005, where I had described many examples of quality buildings. In Italy, the Antinori family has been one of the fi rst to understand that a new-generation winery must not just be a place where wine is made, it must also be a deeply sacred place, according to our culture, and a place that is respectful of nature and of the vine-growing and winemaking tradition.

Albiera Antinori: Italy was lagging behind in its approach to wine marketing, which was still clinging to the mere offering of food. Because of its ubiquitous and deeply-rooted tradition, our country has been a bit slower in innovating, at least in terms of communication. There is also a practical reason that slows down the development of more contemporary buildings: our legislation and our bureaucracy act as deterrents if you want to venture into a project that is slightly ‘out of the ordinary’. It takes time, stubbornness and a good bit of financial soundness. Jumps into the future can only be made by those companies that have the budget to sustain them, while being aware of their tradition. In a positive sense, not as a dead weight, an anchor that keeps you stuck to the past, but rather as a springboard that lets you look deeply ahead. It is such values that have led us to venture into this new journey. Inspired by other examples around the world, which had communicated their wine in a more straightforward, thorough way, while also carrying our sound heritage along, we started to focus on consumers, not just on the products. Thinking of the people we had to reach out to, we wanted to work on a context and a heritage that would speak out and be made of beauty, design, architecture and food, of the countryside, manual skills and brainpower. So, taking that step was easy.

Marco Casamonti: Your architectures are planned down to the smallest detail. What do you think of the relationship between architecture and interiors, both in general and in this specific project? There’s no distinction between these domains. The mistake lies in the Anglo-Saxon culture that turns the architect into a sort of an expert in many different sciences (lighting designer, interior designer, landscape designer, engineer). In fact, ours is one of the last liberal studies that pursue knowledge in many different areas. The specialisation is getting increasingly higher and consultants are needed, but the overall coordination must be in the hands of one single vision and one single mind. Otherwise, we will be shown different projects, that have different purposes, different biographies, different stories. In my opinion, this doesn’t work.

SIMPLICITY, ELEGANCE, UNCTIONALITY AND BEAUTY, I THINK THESE ARE VALUES THAT WE SHARE WITH EDRA. I MEAN SIMPLICITY AS TYPICAL OF THOSE PRODUCTS THAT ACCURATELY AND BASICALLY SERVE THE PURPOSES THEY HAVE BEEN MADE FOR.

How does Edra interior design fit in this architecture?

Marco Casamonti: A lot of design studios have been involved in this project. It is a space made to accommodate quality products, quality wine, people who have a qualitative view of life. An inclusive place is home to all that makes it welcoming through extremely thorough attention to detail. Wine is the epitome of attention to detail, at every stage of the process: from blending to processing, from ageing in the barriques to the shape of the bottle, the choice of the cork and the label. All such factors make each wine unique. Edra is one of those companies that here finds its greatest connection and bond at the winey, through attention to detail and extreme care for the combination of all these factors.

Albiera Antinori: The building is minimal in its appearance even if its size and spaces are huge. Some pieces by Edra effortlessly fitted in with the context. Minimal, plain, characterful furnishings of generous proportions that make a statement. Moreover, they are functional, extremely comfortable, they serve the purpose they have been intended for and fit in with the aesthetics of the winery.

What is your opinion of Edra?

Albiera Antinori: In the project of the winery we have been free to explain some of our key values. Simplicity, elegance, function and beauty. I think these are values that we share with Edra. I mean simplicity as typical of those products that accurately and basically serve the purposes they have been made for. Elegance as a trait that has been acquired over the centuries, along with beauty and function, because nothing can be beautiful if it doesn’t meet the needs it has been intended for, especially when we speak of furniture. Such values are also the very essence of the Tuscan ethos, which we share, in the sense of craftsmanship, creativity and even marketability. I think Edra’s job is representative of the local craftsmanship and quality. A representativeness that, in this case, is Tuscan but that is Italian too. The Italian ethos has its own unmistakable style, whether in wine or design.

Marco Casamonti: In my opinion, Edra is moving in a very clear and specific direction. My view is that it is not veering out of it. It’s like a magazine, which has a clear publishing policy. Or a winegrower, who has a given winemaking and processing line. There’s consistency in their products. In the last twenty years, very few companies have stayed on course, have gone through with their vision and unswervingly keep to it. This is an important feature: not giving in to fashions but pursuing one’s own goals. Sooner or later, the market will value such consistency. The problem is not riding the wave but building it. And that is what Edra is doing by going along a very difficult and complicated road and above all one that one that takes time. But as Marquis Piero Antinori says: “Making good wine takes time. You must wait to harvest the grapes, you must wait to let it age in the oak barrels and mature in the bottle. It can be drunk two, three years after the harvest”. Maybe this is Edra’s most important feature: it has taken its time to make things.