PROJET: FOTIS ZAPANTIOTIS ARCHITECTS 
Fotis Zapantiotis, a Greek architect who set up his own architecture
firm in Athens in 2011, has designed a striking project for Ktima Aidipsos
winery on the Greek island of Euboea. Bearing
in mind the scale of the project (1500 square meters including production,
storage, and tasting areas), the sloping topography of the land, and the
thermodynamic requirements of wine production, Zapantiotis decided to design the
entire project underground
The architecture is designed to knit the building into the surrounding landscape in terms of both its shape and scale. The only features visible in the surroundings are a circle, a sort of village square carved into the vineyards that welcomes visitors, and a linear element accommodating the production facilities, all set behind a retaining wall and hidden from view. This construction contains all the winery’s functional areas, including the fermentation rooms, bottling line, barrel storage, and technical spaces.
Building the winery underground is not just a strategy for blending it into the landscape, it also forms a natural underground container for the winemaking process itself. The stable temperatures and controlled humidity levels of the soil provide just the right conditions maturing and aging wine properly. Tasting becomes part of the architectural narrative. As visitors walk around the rows of vines, a subtle cut in the landscape hints at the building’s presence.
The descent into the winemaking area
is a gradual process. As you leave the reception, a wide circular staircase
leads to the main floor of the winery. The journey continues past the barrels in
the ageing room, the production areas, and the glass-walled fermentation room
with its huge stainless steel tanks and bottling/storage facilities.
The focus of the project is the tasting room that welcomes visitors in a
cozy and quiet environment, where time seems to have stood still, featuring a vaulted
ceiling and permeated with diffused natural light. The journey comes to an end in the circular ‘village square’ that
reconnects with the outside landscape, vineyards, light and sky.
Project: Fotis Zapantiotis associated architects; Principal architect: Fotis
Zapantiotis; Design team: Zapantiotis Fotis, Zarani Alexandra, Agapaki
Maria; Visualization: Studio Taf;
Civil engineer: Mavrozoumis Dimitris
