Meneghetti Winery

Bale, Business Complex Environment, 2023.-

Location

The Meneghetti estate is woven into a network of dry Mediterranean grassland, oak forests and coastal macchia not far from the seashore. Its presence in the natural environment is only revealed in the grid of vineyards and olive groves and the occasional dusty macadam road.

Design note

A space in constant pursuit of balance between its two vital parts, Station and Winery. The contrast of old and rustic, against new and modern, calm and elegant, against relaxed and playful, seemingly different, but in spatial and functional aspiration to organically merge into one design and visual whole.

The dominant spatial motif of mature pine trees gives Stancija its distinctiveness, but they are also an impressive obstacle in connecting two spaces – which the pine trees can do as a counterbalance and worthy of upgrading the space into a whole. The spaces must be individually recognizable in form, and at the same time form a unity in a wider spatial context.

The Winery space is connected through the same form – creating an alley, but with a tree line typical for the region – the holm oak (Quercus ilex), a small tree with a dark and almost lacy texture of the crown.

A long path, bordered on both sides by almost military-style rows of clipped-topped holm oak trees, dominates the Winery area and forms a natural transition to the dominant pine trees. The alley leads to two buildings located opposite each other: the tasting room, an inconspicuous and simple ground-floor building with a terrace, whose functions take place during the day, and the orangery, an unobtrusive glass structure, in which activities take place occasionally with the gathering of a large number of visitors. Both buildings appear invisible and a discreet addition to the alley.

In the undergrowth of the holm oaks are Mediterranean shrubs, limited to a calming and refined green-blue-white colour scheme. Their planting in plans from a low border of honeysuckle to free-growing teucrium shrubs further supports the orthogonality and linearity of the approach design, which is already imposed by the presence of olive and grape groves along the edges of the area.

A subtle transition between the two alleys was made with a short cut, by planting pairs of tall cypresses (Cupressus sempervirens Pyramidalis) at the intersection of the paths.

Behind its cultivated scope, the space decently disperses into an endless natural environment.

Meneghetti Labyrinth 

Meneghetti Garden