Imagine walking around a beautiful winery in Mexico’s Guadalupe Valley. You look up to admire the interesting vaulted ceiling, only to realize it’s a little… different. What’s so unique? It has been made from salvaged discarded boats found at a nearby port.
You’ll find treasures like these boats all around the Vena Cava winery in Baja’s Gaudalupe Valley. Designed by architects Alejandro D’Acosta and Claudia Turrent, the winery is actually quite modern and sleek, according to NPR. This husband and wife team is known for their love of reclaimed materials and working them into upscale structures in an amazing way.
D’Acosta and Turrent acknowledge that designing a winery requires a balance between functional and beautiful. The winery needs all of the special equipment to create the wine, but it also needs to be designed in such a way that pleases the eye, attracts wine lovers and gets the attention of the public. They really want visitors to the winery to have a “memorable visual experience.”
The key thing to realize, however, is that even the reclaimed materials are functional in some way. For example, D’Acosta told NPR that old glass bottles are great for insulation, noting that they aren’t really any different from a double-paned window. Tires are naturally very strong and versatile, so when they remodeled another Mexican winery, they used over 20,000 tires to build the retention walls.
And the boats? The designers say boats make durable ceilings because they are already designed to be weatherproof and water-resistant. Genius.
We love that D’Acosta and Turrent understand the big picture when creating their designs. We can’t wait to take a visit south of the border to see their creation. And to drink some wine.