dezeen

We found these in our iPhoto album and thought you might like them - a set of snaps taken a couple of years ago at the Dominus Winery in Napa Valley, California, designed by Herzog & de Meuron.

The winery is private and difficult to visit, but we were invited by winery owner Christian Moueix (below) and Herzog & de Meuron when we were in California for the opening of the Swiss architects’ De Young museum in San Francisco.

The text below is from Dominus’ website, which also features a video tour:

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Completed in 1997, the Dominus winery was designed by the Swiss architects, Herzog and de Meuron. Best known for the Tate Modern in London, their first project in the United States was Dominus.

In 2001, Jaques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron were awarded the Pritzker Prize, the highest honor in architecture.

Known for their innovative architectural design, their approach was to integrate the winery into the landscape, echoing our belief that the vineyard is of utmost importance.

Indeed, from a distance, the gabion structure dissolves into the landscape and it has been dubbed by the locals “the stealth winery.”

Filled with basalt rocks from the nearby American Canyon, the stainless steel baskets are both an aesthetic and technical choice.

Generally used to retain dirt along highways, here the gabions are used to moderate the extreme temperatures of the Napa Valley.

Dominus’ glass offices provide panoramic views, allowing us to follow at all times the activity in the vineyard, key to producing a great wine.

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Posted by Marcus Fairs

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 9th, 2007 at 6:22 pm and is filed under Architecture, all. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.