BADACSONY, BAZALTBOR WINERY 2015
Badacsonytomaj is the center of Balaton-felvidék (Balaton Uplands) and the Badacsony wine region, the grape and wine culture of the area is a significant part of our national heritage.
The town lies on the skirt of the mountain Badacsony, on the shore of Lake Balaton; but the area of cottages, vineyards and cellars extends up to the characteristic basalt crown of the mountain. The name of the winery of the Laposa family – Bazaltbor – refers to the volcanic stone: emphasizing the proximity of the natural treasures, the basalt pillars and organs characteristic of the region; and the terroir character of their wines is especially important to the winery.
Bazaltbor's new processing plant was built in the area of the Balaton-felvidéki (Balaton Uplands) National Park. The estate - created by merging several smaller plots - is stretching long, from the side to the foot of the mountain. This feature was important when determining the installation of the buildings accommodating the different functional areas of the winery: the administration and storage-maturation buildings were placed at the highest point of the plot (in addition to the existing cellars); the processing plant to the lower, almost flat part, adjoining Római út.
The structure of the processing plant was determined by the rational process of winemaking: the chain of the technological spaces is set by the order of the production, both in vertical and horizontal sense. The building consists of two wings - two long blocks with slight axial deviations - running roughly parallel, with separate but connected layouts. The more industrial, three-story technological wing was built with two levels underground; only the upper level rises above the surface. The wing of the barrel storage-maturing cellar is completely belowground, only its entrance rises above the terrain. The two wings are connected underground, as required by the logical order of the technological spaces.
The archetypical form of the buildings’ main façades is reminiscent of the characteristic proportions of the old press houses and simple, gable-roofed buildings in the neighborhood - this geometry also appears on the administrative building built on the higher end of the plot, indicating the connection between the two buildings at the two ends of the estate. The pattern of climbing, winding grapevines on the concrete and metal panels - created with special technology - lends the uniqueness of the façade.
The landscape constructions around the buildings were aimed to ensure the proper functional service of the plant and to fit the site into the wider landscape: besides the huge lavender fields along the pavements and on the slopes between the buildings, most of the estate is covered with newly planted grapevines.
In 2010, the building was nominated for Piranesi Award, and was selected as Building Of The Year 2010 in the industrial category on ArchDaily.
Péter Kis, Bea Molnár, Zoltán Bun, Róbert Erdélyi, Anikó Varga, Zsuzsanna Bogner
Photo by: Zsolt Batár
We prepared two models for the Bazaltbor Winery in Badacsony: a study about the installation and shaping of the building; and a model, experimenting with the ornamental system of the façade.
