Bodegas Ysios
The Ysios Winery, located just north of the wine-growing region of La Rioja in the province of Álava, enjoys growing conditions that promise to yield high-quality wines. To give a distinctive image to this new label, the company turned to Santiago Calatrava for the design of its building.
The newly planted vineyards (160 acres of tempranillo grapes) lie at the foot of the Cantabrian Range, just north of the fortified medieval hill town of Laguardia, amid an open countryside with extensive views. The 86,000-square-foot winery building is visible from the passing highway and the town. Calatrava’s building takes advantage of this spectacular site, drawing casual visitors as well as organized tours of wine enthusiasts. The facility has a capacity of 1.5 million bottles a year and is designed for possible future expansion.
The architect faced the difficult task of making an industrial building a landmark with a limited budget of $6 million, or roughly $70 a square foot. For the winery, Calatrava developed a repertoire of dynamic structural forms drawn from history, specifically a family of curves found in the thin-shell concrete vaults of Felix Candela and other engineers in the 1960s.
The structure employs laminated wood beams of Scandinavian fir, which span 85 feet between the front and back of the building, rising up and down along the exterior walls in sine curves. Reflective aluminum sheeting serves as the finishing material for the roof.
More than 640 feet long, the winery is oriented so its main elevation faces south, toward Laguardia and the highway. The north and south walls undulate in plan, which maximizes their stiffness while reducing their thickness. Calatrava finished the south facade with horizontal strips of cedar to match the tonalities of the earth under the vines, and he added a reflecting pool with a mosaic border of broken ceramic tiles that runs the full length of the building.
In a dramatic, baroque gesture, the architect applied an exaggerated kick to the building’s central curves so the roof beams here project an additional 33 feet into the air. He likens this thrusting central bay to the mountain peaks behind the structure. The feature accommodates an upper-level dining room for visitors, who enjoy views through high, angled windows. An axial path through the vineyards leads to the visitors’ entrance below the dining room and reveals the building’s perfect alignment with the hilltop church of Laguardia a mile or so away.
The interior of the winery unfolds in a roughly linear sequence on two levels, with hoppers of grapes entering on the west and finished cases of bottled wine exiting to the east. Calatrava exposed the utilitarian nature of the interiors, specifying simple materials and finishes and allowing the swooping ceilings and zigzagging walls to provide the visual excitement.
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