Icario Farm

Studio Valle - an introspective architecture

Studio Valle – ICARIO FARM, an introspective architecture

Among the hills, the colors, the light that make up the suggestive atmosphere of the Val d'Orcia, the project of the Azienda Agricola Icario extends over a surface of 3.390 square meters. Created by Studio Valle progettazione, the intervention is configured as a combination of compliance with the principles of functionality, innovation, minimization of environmental impact, strong architectural image.
The specificity of the naturalistic context and the approach to the productive activity by the client, at the same time rooted in the solidity of the Tuscan tradition and open to the evolution of the market, suggests a formal approach focused on the marriage of modernity and tradition which translates, first of all, into the typological solution of juxtaposing traditional spaces (offices, rooms for ageing, fermentation, wine-making and bottling, warehouses, tasting rooms) and non-traditional ones (rooms intended for public display, reception rooms).

The project appears to be characterized by the widespread use of a material envelope: transparency and lightness, unmistakable features of the architectural production of Studio Valle that since the 70s had pursued a research aimed at overturning the poetics of the mass, replace opacity and gravity in order to guarantee optimal integration with the context. Nonetheless, the spatial investigation criteria appear to conform to the most recent language of the designers who do not renounce the unconventional analysis of the space-structure relationship.
If the artifact is contextualized through the choice of stone material as a means capable of suggesting the image of a non-invasive architecture, however the project appears innovative in its response to specific functional needs and in formulating a wise union between envelope and content.
The concession to local tradition, internally, gives way to a spatiality designed by the geometry of the lattice beams.
The visual transparencies do not multiply in progressive sequences towards the landscape: the absence of openings that tear the local stone facade cladding, with the exception of the glass connecting paths that allow localized multidirectional views, alters the visual balance of the interior. However, the conceptual “involution” of the wall facing, a material limit that prevents the internal spatiality from “exploding”, multiplying towards the outside, does not translate into a claustrophobic spatial conception: the interior collapses, imploding on itself. Visual permeability does not occur exclusively along the horizontal direction but also vertically: the central connective appears separated from the fermentation and winemaking department by a system of full-height windows, furthermore, unusual transparencies on the roof and intermediate floors allow the access of zenithal light and reveal internal perspective views that from the dining room

representation chase each other in the tonneaux room outlining the profile of an architecture that, giving up looking beyond its shell, turns its gaze inwards; an introspective architecture.
The project appears to be in line with the most modern theories in the winemaking field: the orography of the soil allows for a “gravity-based” winemaking process, a technique that, simply using gravity, allows for a particularly gentle treatment of the grapes, whose skin remains intact, favoring the extraction of the substances contained within it, which are mainly responsible for the quality of the wines.
Partially or totally underground spaces, meeting specific thermo-hygrometric requirements, therefore appear to be suitable for the winemaking and ageing process.

The architectural project arises from the decomposition of a single stone element into four volumes differently laid on the ground, whose inter-spaces become luminous ribbons that end in four appendices, transparent prisms initially conceived as spaces in which to house sculptures depicting the four primary elements: water, air, earth, fire, emblems of the invisible rooting in the naturalistic context to which they belong. The four emerging volumes with the austerity and simplicity of their geometry, recall and reinterpret the typology of Tuscan rural construction.

The complex is developed on three levels; the system of ramps, stairs, galleries, terraces, in addition to fulfilling the function of connection between the different parts of the complex, marks the space-time sequence of the winemaking process constituting a real wine itinerary. The central connecting path is made of glass sheets supported by metal carpentry in steel profiles equipped with special attachments, in stainless steel, for anchoring the glass.

The basement level houses a room used for glass ageing, with liquid placed in bottles contained in wooden cages. Access is directly from the upper floor, through a system of stairs intended for the staff and a freight elevator.
The ground floor appears to be distributed along a path, the wine itinerary, which follows the sequence of the process: on the left, the rooms used for direct sales, tasting room, separate toilets; on the right, two rooms used as offices and a bottle warehouse with direct access from the outside.
Continuing along the itinerary, on the left are the fermentation and winemaking department with an adjoining room for technical services specific to wine, on the right the refinement room from which you access the next bottling department connected to the upper floor by stairs and hoists, which houses the cardboard and packaging materials warehouse. The aforementioned bottling room allows access to the shipping warehouse, directly connected to the outside. The final part of the central route houses the actual nucleus for aging in wood, with the tonneaux room and the barriques room.
The first level is accessed via a staircase located at the end of the wine route. This staircase, made with a steel structure and parapet and wooden steps, overlooks the fermentation, winemaking and refinement rooms in stainless steel, reaching the museum of wine and peasant traditions. Near the museum there is a multipurpose reception room, intended for the presentation of wines, conferences, tastings, and sommelier courses. The museum and reception room are separated by the cellar below, onto which an unexpected view opens up, through an ethereal glass "velarium". The technological solution adopted allows for the establishment of a visual relationship between the representative spaces and the spaces intended for the traditional wine production cycle. The presence of the multipurpose room plays a decisive role in increasing the prestige of the intervention, enhancing and promoting tourist and cultural initiatives.