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When strong local roots, traditions, know-how, and a centuries-old family history are translated into architecture, the result is a building redolent of the genius loci that slips effortlessly into its natural and manmade context. A fine example is Monteleone21, the Visitor Center of the Masi Agricola winery in Gargagnago, in the small town of Sant’Ambrogio di Valpolicella.
An extension of the historic winery of the Boscaini family, commissioned to connect directly with the production facility via an underground passageway, the new-build stands as a custodian of Masi Agricola’s history and values, offering a comprehensive Masi Wine Experience while highlighting and preserving the core feature of the area’s famous wine-making technique: the grape-drying process, fundamental to the creation of Amarone, one of the world’s finest wines.
Molded over the centuries by man, the slopes of the Valpolicella were turned into vineyards thanks to the marogne, the dry-stone walls of local stone terracing the hilly landscape. This ancient practice has produced a unique landscape where the boundary between the natural and the manmade is practically impossible to discern. The Monteleone21 project by Studio Architetti Mar is a product of its environment. It seems as if nature itself had suggested forms, lines, and materials. Its dialogue with context makes the construction an integral part of its surroundings, a perfect physical and conceptual fit. The Visitor Center curves to follow the road, which, in turn, follows the sloping terrain. The long stretch of articulated horizontal elements making up the façade – the brise soleil and rhythmic sequence of portions clad in local Nembro Sèngia stone – recall the marogne. The envelope’s upward development also echoes the regular structure of the vineyards: first the dry-stone marogne, followed by the vine trunk, then its foliage. The...
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