Rock, by Barozzi Veiga

Estudio Barozzi Veiga - HQ Ribera del Duero Wine, Roa, Spain (Copyright EBV) (click-2-enlarge)

As architecture slowly moves away from the box, it automatically approaches geometries like that of the crystal and the fluid.

Beyond the 90-degree angle there is a world of other angles, in a quadrangle, pentagon, hexagon or other setup. Despite their apparent freedom these architectures are often based on familiar form systems, like the crystal or rock. Seriously new forms are hard – if not impossible – to imagine.

The other way around is to trying to avoid any angle at all and obey the regime of the curve: the fluid. As a system it is equally iconographic (waves, water, balloons) and equally rigid: everything must curve in the same way.

The attempts by Ben van Berkel to put the fluid and crystal next to each other in one project are still not that convincing. His Villa NM even caught fire. What we however can do, is superposition both systems: cross the fluid with the crystal. In my view projects like the Taichung Opera House by Toyo Ito, the Mercedes-Benz Museum by UN Studio, and some of the works from Zaha Hadid actually do that: crystallize the fluid, or: make crystal fluid.

The hybrid geometries promise a world that looks like a giant coral reef, a world with randomized geometries and hexagon-grotto-like dwellings. Just open an issue of MARK magazine to see what I mean. After years of experiments like that, it is getting predictable. And it is not being build. Nor ever will be, I am afraid. There is limit to how far one can move away from the box.

In the interior spaces, I mean. Our exteriors will forever become more complex. In that sense the popular turn to the crystal and rock can be regarded as really pragmatic. The metaphor, iconography, is limited to the exterior, the skin. Which leave the inside to be filled with practical floors.

The design featured here, the headquarters for the Ribera del Duero Wine by the Spanish Estudio Barozzi Veiga, is instructive: a ‘solid’ freeform exterior form, filled up with floors. That easy.

The way the architects dealt with the large program in the village landscape is even easier: just put it all underground. Hop! And it’s gone.

The architects explicitly work with the scale of the village. At first sight they also work with the picturesque geometry of the surroundings. At a closer look though, one finds that the old city is composed of rectangular structures that are shifted from one another and with that create a complex, picturesque streetscape.

Estudio Barozzi Veiga’s project doesn’t have such a rectangular interior structure: it is based on the freeform quadrangle and pentagon. The exterior however does echo the picturesque city. The thing that is contextual is the skin. I am not sure what to think of that.

The project is maybe not all that brilliant, but I still think the skin is gorgeous. From the iconographic perspective it’s a blend of a rock, a ruin, a cliff, a watchtower and cheese.

The way the project starts from the existing houses, swoops underground to create a plaza, and then lengthens itself upwards to create a dialogue with the vast landscape is marvelous. If we would like to joke, we could say it’s the wine cellar that became a building.

The architecture does emerge from the ground, literally by putting most space underground, but also literally because the building is clad in a local natural stone. Speculatively I would argue the small tower is a ‘landmark’ in the most primitive sense: It grows from the ground, from the ‘land’, to overlook the landscape and, more importantly, to be seen from all around: to ‘mark’ a spot.

 

Estudio Barozzi Veiga - HQ Ribera del Duero Wine, Roa, Spain (Copyright EBV) (click-2-enlarge)

 

Estudio Barozzi Veiga - HQ Ribera del Duero Wine, Roa, Spain (Copyright EBV) (click-2-enlarge)

 

Estudio Barozzi Veiga - HQ Ribera del Duero Wine, Roa, Spain (Copyright EBV) (click-2-enlarge)

 

Estudio Barozzi Veiga - HQ Ribera del Duero Wine, Roa, Spain (Copyright EBV) (click-2-enlarge)

 

Estudio Barozzi Veiga - HQ Ribera del Duero Wine, Roa, Spain (Copyright EBV) (click-2-enlarge)

 

Estudio Barozzi Veiga - HQ Ribera del Duero Wine, Roa, Spain (Copyright EBV) (click-2-enlarge)

 

Estudio Barozzi Veiga - HQ Ribera del Duero Wine, Roa, Spain (Copyright EBV)

 

Estudio Barozzi Veiga - HQ Ribera del Duero Wine, Roa, Spain (Copyright EBV)

 

Estudio Barozzi Veiga - HQ Ribera del Duero Wine, Roa, Spain (Copyright EBV) (click-2-enlarge)

 

Estudio Barozzi Veiga - HQ Ribera del Duero Wine, Roa, Spain (Copyright EBV) (click-2-enlarge)

 

Estudio Barozzi Veiga - HQ Ribera del Duero Wine, Roa, Spain (Copyright EBV) (click-2-enlarge)

 

Estudio Barozzi Veiga - HQ Ribera del Duero Wine, Roa, Spain (Copyright EBV) (click-2-enlarge)

 

Estudio Barozzi Veiga - HQ Ribera del Duero Wine, Roa, Spain (Copyright EBV)

The project is added to the Architects, Representation and Top 10 pages

Related ‘rock’ iconography: Rocks, by Mazzanti; Rock, by Nouvel; Rock, by Hollein; Rock + Cave, by EEA; Blurred Trees 

Related ‘boulder’ iconography: Boulder, by Alsop; Boulder, by EEA