TILI WINERY

COMPETITION

Imagine sipping organic wine while watching the sunset over the mountains of the green Umbrian valley. This is the experience that Buildner and Tili Vini winery were looking to create with the Tili Wine Italy Guest Homes competition.

Participants were tasked to design a collection of five guest houses to be located on the property of Tili Vini Italy, a boutique winery that produces a range of high-quality organic wines and oils. The guest houses would need to be able to accommodate up to five couples at a time, promoting and encouraging visitors to take part in the wine tasting experiences available at the vineyard.

We came up with two concepts developed by two teams within the bureau. The Rosa Umbro project was recognized with an honorable mention, The Brutti Ma Buoni project has made it to the shortlist.

LOCATION

The competition site is located in the Italian region of Umbria, Perugia province, near the city of Assisi – the birthplace of St. Francis of Assisi, one of the most revered religious figures in human history.

TASKS & REQUIREMENTS

The main purpose of Tili guest houses is to advertise wine-tasting tours and organic products. The building complex should be sustainable and environmentally conscious at all levels – from construction to potential operating strategies. To foster greater interaction with nature, the owners of Tili Wine Italy invited participants to explore approaches that bridge the boundaries between exterior and interior areas.

In addition to the five guest houses, participants were also asked to think about the design of a small wine-tasting area that would function as a center where all guests could enjoy the winery's products, as well as to propose solutions for an outdoor space for guests to gather and socialize. The design concepts had to convey the owners' heritage and their business philosophy – a love of winemaking and harmony with nature.

CONCEPT 1. BRUTTI MA BUONI

Architects: Slava Balbek, Mariia Kozachuk, Mariia Pavliuk
3D artist: Andriy Taran
Creative copywriter: Kateryna Vasylevska
Project Manager: Tetiana Khuk
Project year: 2022

Concept

Brutti ma buoni – it. ugly but good, traditional Italian cookies of crunchy texture, uneven shape, and irresistible taste.

Not everything ages like wine. But some things do.

And just like grape vines need support trellis, some buildings can use just a few tweaks to step into their second youth. We won't call the remaining buildings ugly; that would be unfair. Just tired, we guess. And still carrying a lot of memories and flavor to them.

We've decided to save as much as possible – to use the foundations and the buildings to create guest houses and a shared space for wine tastings. All forms remain as they are, and all additions will be minimalist and hidden – on the site's outer side or inside the buildings, as reinforcement beams.

The site offers us a rural courtyard. A place that carries history worth preserving, a promise of future feasts and celebrations. An open and welcoming space, true to Italian character. With the help of technology and modern preservation methods, we want to present the essence of Umbria and reward those who travel here from across the globe for an authentic experience.

We are recreating the central building, the most damaged by time, in its original shape. We are using the remaining original bricks for the sectional brickwork to achieve this. The missing sections will be rebuilt with glazing as a see-through view of the fields and hillsides.

The only new form we're building from scratch is an extension of the shed's remains. As in the central guest building, the facades are decorated with panoramic windows that allow you to gaze at the rural surroundings. Directly under the 'shed's roof,' we placed a glazed veranda for cozy evenings by the fireplace – with a glass of wine, of course.

The dominant form of the plot is a main building to the left. We propose to preserve it entirely and use its space as a restaurant. To do this, we reinforce the oldie with internal metal beams and restore it, keeping the old bricks and looks.

Thanks to the preserved stairs leading from the street, we can offer the guests more space and add a second level with bar seating. It will allow guests to choose a table downstairs or watch the public in the more intimate atmosphere of the balcony. Inside, a new spiral staircase is added.

The small half-ruined building next to the restaurant is rebuilt as a glazed veranda – the remaining bricks are used as part of the facade – for wine tastings with a view.

CONCEPT 2. ROSA UMBRO

Architects: Slava Balbek, Yelyzaveta Schastlyvtseva, Yuliia Udovydchenko
3D artist: Olena Loshakova
Creative copywriter: Kateryna Vasylevska
Project Manager: Tetiana Khuk
Project year: 2022

Concept

While our minds wandered around the site of the future project, we could not help but turn to the patron of Assisi — Saint Francis. The man who preached to birds and tamed wolves was one of his time's first prominent environmental activists: his work lives on in generations of people who live here in harmony with nature.

The life and work of Francis are immortalized in the works of another visionary — Giotto di Bondone, with his revolutionary approach to space and color in frescoes. An element of one of them became our key inspiration. The pink chapel from the 'Stigmatization of St. Francis' looked bright and modern; the fabric of time seemed to curve around it.

'Stigmatization of St. Francis' by Giotto, c. 1295–1300

We wanted to create a solution both daring and yet deeply rooted in the terroir of Assisi; to unravel the ties that permeate this place and share the region's history while working with a modern form. The color is a dusty shade of the local pink limestone. Born out of the rocks of the Central Apennines on the slopes of Monte Subasio, it gave Umbria one of its most distinctive features. Thanks to it, the facades of Franciscan chapels and churches catch the light of sunrises and sunsets so wonderfully.

1288. Giotto starts working on his frescoes for the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi. Tili's ancestor arrives in Umbria. The merge of stories begins.

We sought to pay homage to the Tili winery's organic approach and create a project with a minimal environmental impact. We preserve every tree on the site, which serves as the site's natural screen, and blend the new architectural solution into the landscape.

A spacious, shabby garden welcomes guests as a shared space that separates the living and wine-tasting areas and offers alternative seating. Equipped with garden furniture, it will be the perfect place to discover wine and local antipasti outdoors.

Guest houses are created in simplistic geometric forms, amplifying the rural landscapes of Umbria. Pergolas above the roofs merge nature and architecture, wrapping the pink walls with blooming greenery. The visitors of Tili vinery can enjoy the intimate space of terraces, which face a private garden in the cool shadows of pergolas. The windows view the garden or the mountains on the horizon.

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