CLIENT Marchesi Antinori, Firenze
ARCHITECTURE Archea Associati
STRUCTURE aei progetti
MEP AND FIRE PREVENTION M&E
ENOLOGY Emex Engineering
DESIGN 2003-2006
REALIZATION 2006-2012
AREA 49.000 sqm
VOLUME 290.000 cum
TOTAL COST 65 mio €
STRUCTURE COST 29,5 mio €
PHOTO Pietro Savorelli e Leonardo Finotti


The hearth of Antinori’s production will move to this new winery in Bargino (San Casciano Val di Pesa), a foothills area running along the Firenze-Siena highway. The intervention will be massive in terms of dimensions. The overall visual result will be minimal thanks to choice of embedding the building underground and leaving only 2 ‘cuts’ following the soil profile in the hillside. The building consists of 7 blocks of different height and dimensions, a road connecting the building to the Cassia highway and a further one that connects the lowest level to the highest one. The totally embedded structure required the prior realization of diaphragms and rods to support 20 m max. depth excavations.

Deep foundations are realized by means of 18 m length CFA piles. The vertical structure of the winery is made of precast frames stiffened by r.c. walls, the roof of which will be covered with a vineyard. The realization of a flat bottom surface was seriously considered in a careful study of the connections between precast pillars and beams and between beams and precast slabs. The covering of the buildings’ façades foresees the realization of 24 m maximum length steel cantilevers consisting of 5.25 m interaxis, 40 to 210 cm variable height, welded corten-steel beams. Beams are covered with a terracotta-tiles false ceiling.

The external deck slab is a two-way 11 to 30 m variable span, and is lightened by the insertion of disposable superstructures between upper and lower reinforcement, during casting phase. The inner part of the winery consists of a steel-vault system with terracotta-tile covering intended for wine fermentation room and barrel room, and can be accessed through corten-steel paths that moreover provide the visitor with a bird-eye view of the system. The underground road network connecting the different levels of the winery is realized by means of pigmented and fare-face r.c. walls. Such fare-face wall-system is peculiar of the winery and can be found along all external paths. Two 30×30 sqm totally underground areas are intended for trucks maneuvering areas and have a welded corten-steel beam structure covering.