We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer BORD Architectural Studio Llc about their original and creative Winery design work. BORD Architectural Studio Llc is an award-winning architectural designer, that makes our world a better place with their original winery works.
BORD Architectural Studio Llc ("BASL") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Moonvalley Winery. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
BASL : The new building was influenced and inspired by the intellectual, including architecture, and agricultural heritage of Mád. The area has a good microclimate and a great location. It has been inhabited since ancient times. The winery was built on a slope, which used to be the edge of the town. The cellar and the surface are connected by a platform for processing grapes and it is one of the most important points of the vineyard. However, the secret lies beneath: wine comes to life deep down, in the core of the hill. The pressed stum (grape juice) is returned to the ground, where the vines received their 'lives and blood' from. The noble mould, called 'Cladosporium Cellare' lives here, in the balanced climate of the cellar system. It is this symbiotic presence by which stum is transformed into wine.
BASL : The winery started off as a heart-felt gesture, a birthday gift of vineyards from the owner's mother to her husband that has now developed into one of the most exciting wine projects in Hungary. The wines of HOLDVÖLGY had to created at a state-of-the-art winery, equipped with the most modern appliances and infrastructure. The first written document about wine producing in the area dates back to the middle of 1200s. For the first time ever in the world, vineyards were classified here, in Tokaj, in 1737. The slightly different terroir of each area and the rich soil created a diverse wine region. This is the basis for this winery, which was required to communicate uniqueness and traditions by the client.
BASL : Moonvalley Winery was designed and built for HOLDVÖLGY - based in Hungary’s emblematic Tokaj wine region, the winery creates superior quality sweet and dry white wines that have been awarded several gold medals at prestigious local and international wine competitions and are offered by some of Europe’s best wine merchants and over 20 Michelin-starred restaurants.
BASL : The nearby vineyards are intersected by buttresses built from the stones that were found in the fields. In order to accomplish the design goals and as a cross-reference of these traditional stone walls, the building is almost invisible from the streets and rather appears as an element of the landscape. Only two walls can be seen, covered with local stones in a whitish colour, thus distinguished from the ochre shade of the old buttresses. This material serves as a reference to the clean, white surfaces of the interior, and connects them to the traditional, local architecture. Inside, seamless and homogenous surfaces, luminous ceilings and floors covered by resin provide the background of the complex industrial devices.
BASL : The winery and wine brand of HOLDVÖLGY takes its name after one of their local vineyards. It all started in 1998, when the owner was entrusted by his mother to find vines for his father in the Tokaj Region, where he had spent his childhood, and during the course of his search became enthralled by the quality and potential of the Mád Basin. Within a few years, he ended up with 26ha of vines in the village of Mád.
BASL : Transparency and humbleness, industrial and museum-like spaces – these seemingly controversial features are connected in the building, the same way as tradition and technology together can form quality wines. Once the existence of wine production was only revealed by the small entrance buildings that led into the cellars. Being aware of the surrounding small-scale rural architecture, it was really important to avoid creating an overwhelming industrial building.
BASL : Under a green roof, a museum-like space opens where the high-tech equipment of grape processing can be seen just like the display items at an exhibition. Grapes arrive at the same level where the fermented wine leaves the building. Technology is served by a linear sequence of rooms with the wine press in the middle and being connected to the bottling room.
BASL : The design is an attempt to give new perspective to a technology incorporating tradition with high-tech elements through the museum-like design. The intention to show off the set of procedural devices as exhibition items was a challenge on architectural and operational side as well.
BASL : The winery is one of the first projects of our Studio. Proved to be successful for all these years, this we decided to nominate this timeless piece of work of ours.
