The winery is situated in the middle of a planned industrialized zone on the outskirts of Çerkezköy and the scale of the building is an industrialized scale. As with all industrialized architecture utility, economy and logistics where key drivers. Yet unlike most factory settings, the 'cultured' visitor is critical to the environment, especially in the harvest season. Employing landscape, altering scales, thresholds, light, color and materials, the site captures both the phenomena of the meta-context and of the craft of wine making. Like the long history of utility buildings, passive is valuable for reducing operation costs, low-energy consumption and minimize logistics of non-localized materials/labor. The burning of earth from foundations to create immersive botanical gardens and contribute to the passive cooling of the barrack room, the use of skylights and penetrating light into deep floor depths and the prioritizing of all locally sourced materials were highlights of green design.
Like all factory buildings, the organizations that operate in them express their values and aspirations. Using sequence and drama we created a necklace of spaces the visitor experiences as well as is the path for everyday operations. Starting in the vast landscape of the industrial zone, one arrives to the warmth of the facade that changes its character with light through the day. The earth is shaped as the visitor gets closer and is eventually sculpted specifically to welcome the landscape into the building. Crossing a bridge that raises past the subtly sculpted earth, you are presented with morphology of the traditional doors of the village where the winery originated. With a slight recess of the threshold into the barrack room, one's curiosity is provoked as they are within the barrack room before they enter the building. Immediately upon entry the scale shifts along with the contrast of washed outdoor lighting into the lush moist quietness of the barrack room. The barrack's room's vastness is only slightly perceived as the visitor is now in a landscape of wood barrels. You are though reconnected back to nature and to the whole of Doluca's wine making organization with the Drum's central space. The arch, same as the entry into the barrack, is projected onto the vertical volume of light. The light is oriented to the sun to capture the changing seasons and times’ of day; and bring the beauty of color and ambience into the heart of the facility. One enters into the Drum with apertures to all of Doluca's core organizational functions. Moving along the edge of the volume you view the barrack room, the offices, the social spaces, the laboratory and the corporate lobby. At the end of the journey you are reoriented back into the industrialized landscape, but also the distant hills and natural landscape surrounding Çerkezkoy.
The architecture is simple, natural, economically focuses on its energy on the drama of views, scale and sequence. The massing and finishes operate at the scale of the settlement while the human experience is intimate, tactile and relates strongly to the natural environment. The construction type, architectural finishes and scale is equivalent to significant industrial zone investment in Turkey, the distinction is the notion of the 'lobby' is elongated as a sequential experience, light gives drama and re-connection to nature, and narrative is used to create scale and proportions.
Brief Description The story of making wine is romantic, vivid, and memorable, but when told in an organized industrial zone, architecture takes center stage to orchestrate the immediate environment and inspire the narrative of wine making. On this factory site a visitor’s learning center (planned for 2012), a botanical garden celebrating the flora of wine-making, the production facility, and management offices are all expected to contribute to the narrative. Visitors move through the production facility defined by the geometries and materials of the past and present architecture of regional wine making. Wood is used for all engagements with the visitor, while the pure oval/circle geometries are used for points of reflection and transformation in the narrative.
