On the outskirts of Chernyakhovsk, behind the railway line, there is a cognac factory "Alliance 1892". Some time ago, TOTEMENT / PAPER built on its territory the building of the Museum of Cognac, combined with a storage of barrels - a small complex, but with a finely staged architectural dialogue: it could be understood as a sculpture, if inside there was not a complex route designed for the consistent development of impressions walking. The building has received several international awards, in particular, it was included in the selection ICONICAWARDS 2018 list and in the list of one hundred objects of the year The International Architecture Award for 2018 (Chicago Athenaum); passed the first WAF2018 selection and was presented in Berlin.
Now whiskey will be produced in the area adjacent to the cognac factory. East of the territory of the cognac factory, a whiskey-kurna is being built, the first production of this kind in Russia, which, moreover, will work on Russian raw materials, distilling barley into alcohol and then turning it into a noble Scottish drink, which some connoisseurs consider moonshine, while others, on the contrary, very respected; especially Anglomans, and those are now in the majority.
The order for the building for the production of whiskey was also entrusted to Levon Airapetov and Valeria Preobrazhenskaya, who demonstrated professional perfectionism in the previous project. The architects, having long "got used to" the problems of the territory, saw in the new task the need to both continue the ensemble that had been started, and to show the difference between buildings, and to show the specifics of a new drink and a new production. Note that there are plans to build a warehouse for whiskey - a hangar, in which the drink will be aged until readiness, including in special oak barrels for at least three years. There is no warehouse project yet, but it is known that the area of the museum is 1115 m2, whiskey-kurni 4500 m2, and a single-storey warehouse building should take about 16,000 m2 - volumes are growing. Even more distant plans include landscaping; now it is also very neat, the paths are clean, the grass is trimmed, everything is well-groomed in a European way, as befits modern production, but the artist's hand has not yet touched the factory landscape.
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zooming 1/5 Distillery © TOTEMENT / PAPER
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zooming 2/5 Distillery; plan, 1 tier © TOTEMENT / PAPER
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zooming 3/5 Distillery; plan, 2 tier © TOTEMENT / PAPER
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zooming 4/5 Distillery, plan; Tier 3 © TOTEMENT / PAPER
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zooming 5/5 Distillery; cut © TOTEMENT / PAPER
So, whiskey-kurnia differs from the cognac museum in that most of it is devoted to production and is available only for a few people, mainly for 1-2 attendants who must monitor the automation, receive and test raw materials. An extended metal hangar is set aside for the production part, where there are vats for different stages of fermentation, between them there are bridges, everything is metal, white; Convenience and even beauty have been thought out to the smallest detail: the architects recall that, all other things being equal, the customer always chose the most aesthetic one of the options offered by the Italian installers of the plant. But this part is completely closed.
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zooming Distillery; factory part inside © TOTEMENT / PAPER
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zooming Distillery; factory part inside © TOTEMENT / PAPER
The lobby of the building will be open for visits to a limited extent; on it, basically, all the author's efforts were concentrated. The architects of TOTEMENT / PAPER interpreted this part as a kind of head - which is easy to read, since the “head” glows, crowns a rectangular “body”, and even turns half-turn towards the cognac museum, building emotional connections with the previous building. “There [in the cognac museum] two figures seem to be engaged in a dialogue, maybe even a kind of dance appears there,” explains Levon Airapetov. - And here a certain stranger appears, a wild Scottish Highlander, rude, brutal and black. Came here with my Celtic ax, tattooed, and is looking around."
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zooming 1/4 Distillery © TOTEMENT / PAPER
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zooming 2/4 Distillery © TOTEMENT / PAPER
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zooming 3/4 Distillery © TOTEMENT / PAPER
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zooming 4/4 Distillery © TOTEMENT / PAPER
Indeed, the effect of "sailing" is quite noticeable, despite the fact that the hull is firmly on the ground - it is worth looking at its triangular, south-facing "nose", reminiscent of either a submarine or a Greek trire. The long body itself looks like a figure in some kind of skin, the similarity is supported by the black color and the ribbed texture of the horizontal stripes, on which, as the authors clearly show, snow will look great.
It is curious that the Scottish associations are given brutally and harshly, not through the usual checkered skirt, but through a conventional highlander. Or "Highlander". White and black "tattoos", quite abstract, are embedded in the pattern of the paving in front of the entrance, which is reflected in the glass - on the "face", and in a combination of black and white.
There is also a tartan drawing here, but you have to look for it, it is hidden in the lines of the bindings of stained-glass windows and is completely unobtrusive, it requires an author's hint. All this is correct, of course: who needs head-on associations? And at the same time, the building is clearly animated, it looks like a frozen figure, as Levon Airapetov explains - “it should be like the body of an animal, ready to jump. Tense, full of attention, ready for action, not jumping and relaxed."
video - presentation of the project:
The "head" turned to the side reminds me personally of a large blotch of rock crystal in the rock. Faceted and polished, sparkling in the morning - a ray of sunlight that enters through a long slot in the east wall and then moves inside during the day, like in the Roman Pantheon, giving oblique light to different parts of the interior. In the evening and in winter - electric light.
The light emphasizes the preciousness of the "crystal" and all its filling, especially since here, behind the glass, are placed the most valuable parts of the production - "cubes", in which the whiskey will undergo the last stage of distillation before being placed in wooden barrels for 3 years. According to the technology, the cubes should be of pure copper and have a rather bizarre shape; they resemble pots and samovars from Chardin's paintings, golden-red, rounded. Their shape clearly contradicts the faceted and thin black-and-white "frame", making one feel like they are treasures placed in a kind of crystal. One of the favorite techniques of modern architecture, the creation of volumetric showcases that emphasize the exhibit inside, is quite appropriate in this case.
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zooming Distillery © TOTEMENT / PAPER
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zooming Distillery © TOTEMENT / PAPER
The search for the shape went through many options for "showcases" - rectangular, round in the form of a glass glass, and others:
I admit that the final version is better because there is intrigue in it: the inside is visible, but not entirely.
“The shape of the“head”and its turn are due to the proximity to the cognac museum and the function of the building,” explains Valeria Preobrazhenskaya. - There is a storehouse in the cognac museum, but there is no storehouse here. Therefore, we cut out the volume, as if the side of the cognac store opposite was imprinted in it. The buildings have become, as it were, a part of one volumetric “puzzle”, being far enough from each other, they are connected by the roll call of the form”. Another technique formed by an almost secret connection between the volumes within the ensemble is part of the cipher that determines the form and motivates its similarities and differences.
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zooming Distillery; sketches; form search © TOTEMENT / PAPER
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zooming Distillery; sketches; form search © TOTEMENT / PAPER
On the one hand, you might not even notice. On the other hand, if you look closely, the volume of the "head" perfectly reads the volumetric imprint of the cognac museum. But at first it still seems. that the crystal vestibule itself is either chipped, or rotated on a hinge - which, in fact, gives it the resemblance to a head peering into its surroundings. As a result, a steep slope to the ground formed over the entrance: both metal and glass hang over the head of the walker, at an acute angle. In a glass ledge, in profile a little resembling a beak, there is a black ramp from the inside, walking along which you can look into the glass almost under your feet. Above, in the "beak" ledge, there is a white balcony, the best viewing platform overlooking the cognac museum. Thus, the parts of the ensemble also "glance at each other", already through the eyes of the visitors. The balcony inside is held by white metal cables, the black ceiling, lined with white strokes of lamps, is supported by black branched supports (now the architects are just fighting to make them thin and graceful enough). In addition, the metal grille of the ceiling is not disguised in any way, the internal walls are solved in the same way as the external ones: they are covered with horizontal stripes of corrugated metal - all this emphasizes the unity of the external and internal, and does not give any chance of relaxation and peaceful comfort, which are usually characteristic of interiors. The atmosphere inside here is perhaps more tense and energetic than outside, only the sparks are not flying. Such a space is not alien to the wow-effect, in its own way it is not inferior to the interiors of the cognac museum with its difficult routes and "lumbago" from the ground into the sky.
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zooming 1/7 Distillery © TOTEMENT / PAPER
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zooming 2/7 Distillery © TOTEMENT / PAPER
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zooming 3/7 Distillery © TOTEMENT / PAPER
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zooming 4/7 Distillery © TOTEMENT / PAPER
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zooming 5/7 Distillery © TOTEMENT / PAPER
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zooming 6/7 Distillery; viewing platform on the roof of the entrance © TOTEMENT / PAPER
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zooming 7/7 Distillery © TOTEMENT / PAPER
The graphic play of black and white planes and lines in space is mesmerizing, especially since the angles of their mutual arrangement are very different, and when moving, perception will have to change all the time, forcing us to feel the space emotionally, to experience it. What can be understood, nevertheless, here we are in the “head” of the factory, in a kind of “town in a snuff box”, a place where not everyone can get - so it should be unusual, to justify the expectations born of inaccessibility. However, as it was said, the entrance lobby is a presentation part; later, business partners may be invited here. No wonder the white volume of the meeting room is arranged in the eastern corner.
There is no doubt that the plant could have been built in the form of an aluminum hangar, a simple box. And yet wine in a broad sense, so as not to use the strange phrase "alcoholic beverages", is a kind of cult, and part of it is a lot of distilleries and other related buildings of the author's architecture. The theme is romanticized, now distilleries (and what is worse than a distillery?) Are akin to public buildings, museums, they are visited by excursions. The project of Airapetov / Preobrazhenskaya is just such, it must be shown, it is a high-quality and intriguing shell, capable, one must think, add additional charisma to a starting production - this is how a good label can reveal the essence of wine. Or whiskey.