This is a 2′ screenshot video from the interactive landscape tool, which was developed as a part of the final presentation of the project for a winery in Piedmont.

You can also try the online applet and run the source code in full screen on your desktop, using OpenGL.

Please magnify the picture by clicking on this icon. ↗

An old proverb from Piedmont, North-West Italy, states that there’s no home without a ‘crutin’. Crutins were traditional underground excavations, built to store and age wine for long periods. They could benefit from the exceptional isolating capacity of thick layers of soil. When built close to houses, they became a place to taste old wines in company, particularly during winter.

This project aims to rediscover the sustainability of epigeous constructions to make wine and apply it to a new concept of winery, one that might add to the social experiences of producing wine and, well above ground, tasting it. Winemakers and visitors are immersed into the winemaking process through variations in scale across all twelve steps of vinification, from grapes to bottles.

Taking advantage of the hilly nature of the region’s topography, the wine is allowed to flow down from one step to the next, eliminating mechanical pumping and enhancing the quality of wine. Natural upwards ventilation rids the space of CO2 from the fermentation.

Graduation project mentored by: Kas Ooserhuis, Henriette Bier, Nimish Biloria; technology mentor: Axel Kilian.

Wine production diagram

Rural situation of the area

Relevant sections to shape to function diagrams

Sections

Plan

Processing interactive environment tool

Technological sections

Blog post

You can read a blog post about today.

July 4: let’s call it my independence day from TU Delft!

You can see the complete presentation used that day, and download the panels. Family (mum and two of her sisters) was also present. Thank you all who could come, and all who were there with their thoughts.

The commission was formed by Henriette Bier, Nimish Biloria and Axel Kilian (technical tutor). Kas Oosterhuis, the mentor of the thesis, was indisposed and could not be present. Altogether the presentation went very well, surely better than the p4, at which I was too sleepy. Probably the shower, or the paced taxi ride (thanks Ilaria!), got me awake. Also, thank you Saba for helping!

Henriette Bier is congratulating after she gave me the degree. Nimish Biloria is on the background.