Antica Terra’s wine and culinary program demands a willingness to be open and to explore, and the project is designed to create this experience physically. Discovery was an important concept—from the outside of the building one is not totally sure where they are going or what they will find when they get there. The 5,800sf building first was a sheep barn before being converted into a production space, and now into a barrel hall with five private tasting rooms, each one hosting 2-10 people at a time, and a small gallery, and supporting spaces.
The focus of the experience was to be on the wine and the food, and on nothing else, so the spaces are a study in how to control light, and the lack of light, and with the idea to use the building as a way to transform one’s perception by removing one from the “outside world”. Establishing a clear difference between outside and inside creates a focus on everything that Antica Terra is doing with the wine itself and nothing else. The building’s exterior was simplified with the addition of a new tunnel-like entrance, clad in black-stained rough-sawn cedar.
It’s long walls and sloping ceiling lead to a round anteroom whose only features are a large sculptural light and a custom steel door. Through the barrels in the main hall, the entrance to each tasting room is visible. The threshold between the production space of the barrel room and the guest space of the tasting rooms made with wood with a carved texture used to signal arrival and entry. Inside, we used one material throughout with different textures and patterns to manipulate light and shadow.