Robo-Bricky
In Fläsch, the winegrowers Martha and Daniel Gantenbein took advantage of the success of their Pinot Noir to replace their steel containers with oak barrels. They commissioned the architects Bearth & Deplazes with the design and construction of a new fermentation hall for twelve new containers. A wine-tasting lounge was to be located one floor above the hall.
The architects worked with Gramazio & Kohler on the facade, a double-skin of brick with polycarbonate panels on the interior. As they describe: “robotic production method … developed at the ETH Zurich enabled us to lay each one of the 20,000 bricks precisely according to programmed parameters—at the desired angle and at the exact prescribed intervals.”
Therefore a supergraphic composed of overlapped “grapes” could be created in brick in precast panels without the expense of numerous mock-ups or traditional masons. The wine estate in Fläsch follows the terroir principle. This principle states that the local colour – soil, microclimate, local traditions and the winegrower’s trademark – is directly reflected by the wine. A sensitive handling of space, temperature and light is therefore necessary. This was taken into account by the utilisation of special wall elements.
1 comment July 30th, 2009