01 X INFO
02 X INTRODUCTION
Terra de Asorei is the dream of a winery of six families who have dedicated their lives to the production of Albariño wine. They decided to join their forces to show the entire world how this wine is produced in Val do Salnés, creating a new wine from the vineyards of all the families that combines the best flavours, and creating a big net of people, a big team, who believes in this common project.
This was the concept that designer Pepe Barro used to give shape to the company logo, six “A” that conform a star together meaning: Asorei, Adega (wine cellar), Albariño, Amor, Arte, Autenticidade. Six words that represent their values as a team and represent the six families.
03 X DESCRIPTION
We started to work with them, since they had bought an old industrial building surrounded by a big parking lot where they want to make their new home as a company.
In our first visit to the place, we realised how beautiful the landscape around the building was, full of green vineyards and their grapes, but instead, the big parking lot and the building looked tired, heavy, and devoid of life.
We then thought the design had to be inclusive, we could not just think in the building, but instead we thought how beautiful it was to think in the micro landscape of the place, connect it to the general landscape, breaking the harsh limits that separated it from the surroundings.
Together with Terra de Asorei team we gave shape to an itinerary for visitors who can come to visit the winery. Since the building is in the middle of many walking and bike routes, we decided to give priority to this kind of visitors, we think this is a decision that will contribute to defend a kind and quality tourism not just in the winery but in the region, so the valley preserves its nature, its identity, and the lives of their locals.
This decision meant the conversion of a big area of the parking lot into garden areas with trees to welcome visitors. A big space with shadows of new trees to rest and bike parking, a garden area where to stop for a while before visiting the winery, and a nice fountain where to drink some water.
After this, the visitors begin their interior route of the winery in a big stone circular bench, surrounded by new trees and gardens, that eliminates more of the area destinated to car parking. In this big circle, the guide of the winery makes people feel close together, can talk and get to know the history of the company and Albariño wine.
Then the visitors can enter the amenities of the building to learn from wine production, visit the museum inside, the offices… and meet the people that work in the company.
To make the building lighter and give it life, we thought about a new facade that could homogenize the building, which is a succession of different expansions over time, without connection.
We thought we should connect it together using a light net, that surrounded the building and made it look united and alive. The net was created from the design of the company logo, the six A that give shape to a star. This net has different uses: from one hand it closes permeable areas making a game of transparencies, it makes possible the opening of big doors to help big trucks work inside of the building and permits climbing plants to grow.
The building will look different in the different moments of the year, the plants will change its colours as the vineyards change their colour too. Gold in autumn, red in the winter and green in spring and summer.
Also, the climbing plants will help decrease the temperature in summer inside of the building. This is not a new concept in the valley, as town houses usually used this method, so they always had shadow next to their homes during the sunny months of summer.
Outside of the building we will also build the “Eira de Asorei”. An ¨Eira¨ is a galician concept, an area next to the town houses with hard floor where villagers prepared the crops and eventually was the antecedent of a rural square of the towns where people met, talked and celebrated their parties and events.
So, using a light design that will permit shadow above the eira, we designed a space close to the building where the winery can prepare events, theater plays, concerts, talks so it can be a place to get to know closer the wine and the valley culture.
Finally, and to continue with this path inside of the place, we thought about creating a route of sculptures inside of the vineyards, so people can enjoy art and nature at the same time. Since Val do Salnés is a valley full of great sculptors such as: Manolo Paz, Francisco Leiro or Paco Pazos and even Asorei, name of the winery comes after the sculptor Francisco Asorei, one of the most important sculptors in Spain in early 20th century.
05 X ABOUT
Gramática Arquitectónica borns in 2017.
“The name itself, is a reminder to me, to always try to learn new things about how to configure architecture, never stop asking questions, and never stop to teach others what I´ve learned. Everything around us, I think, has it´s own grammar: mathematics, music, language and of course architecture. It is how we connect the different parts, the way something works. Words can be powerful by themselves, but they translate into different concepts each time we join them. The same as with music, or a movie, or a dress. For me it all becomes the same. So with this name in my mind, after a really bad year in 2016, I decided to start by myself, and jump into the pool being just me.
At first, this scared me a lot, but little by little I´ve made great friends and collaborators, so I try every day to give the best I can: to my team, to the clients… This is not the best moment to work in architecture, since we there is not so many opportunities, and many times it is very difficult to make numbers match, because of the depreciation of our fees as professionals, but this is the life I chose, and will keep on working to improve things”.
Teresa Sánchez Táboas was born in Pontevedra, Galicia, in the year 1988, daughter of an architect, her mum, and a wood entrepreneur, her dad. The first years of her education where as everybody else, a normal kid, just with a lot of passion in drawing and music. So she dreamed about working in Disney, or being a Videoclip Director. That where the things she thought about.
In 2006 the housing bubble exploded in Spain. Teresa started Architecture in ETSAM Politécnica de Madrid, that same year. Her family experimented some economical problems, because of this sudden change in the spanish panorama. She sometimes during her studies thought about changing her studies, and doing something else. But Architecture really became important to her. She had some really nice teachers in Madrid, such as: Alberto Campo Baeza, Manuel Blanco Lage, Bernardo Ynzenga, Eduardo Pesquera.
In 2011 she did an exchange program to Illinois Institute of Technology, in Chicago, where she had the opportunity to have as teacher one of er favourite architects, Sou Fujimoto, and the project she developed with him was chosen for the annual Open House Exhibition. This year opened er mind a lot.
Next year Teresa went to another school she has a lot of respect for (considered her second home), which is FAUP Porto. “The way portuguese make architecture influenced somehow also the way make my drawings and the materials”.
Teresa had many nice teachers in the three schools she went, but the people who most influenced her are her mother, Creus e Carrasco and César Portela, all of them Galician architects who understand the land and the culture of Galicia, and how to make this atemporal and enduring, not following fashions, but to concentrate in your inner world and the culture you are working in.
In Gramática Arquitectónica practice, the team each day becomes bigger, and the collaborators are:
Claire Afarian, french architect from Aix en Provence
Lalo Pereira Peón, quantity surveyor from Pontevedra
Jose Antonio García Otero, drafstman from Pontevedra
and some others like: Jose, Jesús, Kamy, Jose Luis….
We are working right now in several projects, specially single family projects, from low budgets, to higher ones, and also some other special projects. you can find realized projects on Divisare.
“What I hope, is to keep working in what I like, Architecture, share this work with nice people, and always try to give the best we can.”
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