Facing the Feathered Lizard
Pécsinger Vinery, Győrújbarát
Architect: Dezső Ekler
Text: János Golda
Photos: Tamás Bujnovszky
The first versions of designs for the rape-juice plant complex date from 2011 featuring the same topic: the extensive vineyard made up of endless parallel rows of vines are interspersed with lanes of geometrically trimmed lines of trees crowned with rectangular foliages that hide two-level consumer decks and terraces for wine-tasting which are in turn completed by the cellar boxes housing fermenting and bottling technologies. Here, according to the project chart of the realized version with a projected budget reaching 100 million HUFs, it only houses the vine-processing and fermenting functions as the catering, commercial and tourism additions as well as the tasting and consuming decks are still missing. Anyway, the integration of the complex in the landscape as well as the architectural reinterpretation of the site has proven to be ever more intense. Following the broken lines of the layers in a slightly bent arch, the elongated geomorph substructure features a gallery level to receive the grapes picked in autumn ready for selection and pressing. The longitudinal cross-section precisely reflects the technological process and scenario of wine-processing. Rising halfway out from the soil, the factory structure contains rust-free fermenting containers and other props of the technology needed here at the bottom. The walls bordering this unit are pierced by porous openings that let in precisely calculated quantity of light to reach the cellar. On a closer inspection, however, the suggestive forms evoking children’s drawings appear as bare and abstract objects lacking details of architecture and engineering technology with their thinly applied plasterwork, homogenous wall surfaces, undulating roof planes featuring plastic insulation of the same palette, and drains to collect rainwater hidden in the furrows. The hill of the vineyard above the building offers a vantage point with a pleasant panoramic view of the landscape integrating the house and its surroundings. Architecture, much in the same way as all live modern languages, has its own vocabulary and paradigms to directly convey stories. However, similarly to what happens to contemporary lively global English versus the multiplication of dead languages, the genuine things of life may also turn rigid around us to function as images forming parts of virtual scenery. The overall impression is a convincing one though: the site is recomposed by using architectural means in a poetic way, the forms of the structure convey a metaphorical message to reach into the distance and the chain of the interrelated spaces serves utility functions properly.
Architect: Dezső Ekler
Project manager: Dalma Kiss
Structures: Pataky és Horváth Kft.
Statical works: E&H Kft
Electrical engineering: Libella 21 Bt.
HVAC: PHQ Kft.
Landscape: Bojza Bt.