A British firm called X-architecture has built an extraordinary winery in Kakheti, Georgia, called Shilda.
It looks like gentle waves rolling through the landscape, gently rising up from the ground, bringing rows of grapes with them. The building is quite literally embedded within the landscape of the vineyards, making it barely noticeable from a birds eye view.
The spacing of the rows of vines translates into a striped grid that makes up the building, expressed by a series of arching beams that literally raises the vineyard up from the ground. X-architecture says the shape is a 'considered response to the environmental factors of the area and the qualities of the wine'.
Inside the three hillock houses are a storage area, a tasting room and wine centre, and a restaurant/bar. What's more, the thermal mass of the soil is used to optimise the cooling of the building, and most of the facade is facing towards the north to avoid direct solar gain, reducing energy waste.
Founded in 2015 among the castles and churches of Kakheti, Shilda Winery is situated in the principal region of viniculture in Georgia, and offers more than 20 varieties of wine. Cheers!
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