A Wine Cellar in an Open Space: Repurposed Brewery by Chybik + Kristof

Apart from its ninth-century chapel and a Gothic church that can be seen through the new windows of the House of Wine, the Czech city of Znojmo features a collage of building eras in direct proximity to this project. The architects from Chybik + Kristof were charged with transforming a nineteenth-century brewery and its 1970s addition to make way for a wine bar.  
In order to do both buildings justice, the architects employed contrasting renovation concepts. They classified the old brewery as an historical monument and left the structure unchanged. Interior additions create a bottle storage area and a room for wine tastings.

They responded quite differently to the technical hall. The structure has been preserved, but the old openings in the façade have been walled in and new ones cut as needed. The empty shell served as a starting point for the new design. While restoration and preservation stood at the forefront in terms of the brewery, the architects were more daring with the second structure and took an unorthodox, experimental path, explains Ondřej Chybík, a founding partner of the studio.

At street level, two large windows allow passers-by to look in. The other openings are distributed asymmetrically over the façade. They are aligned with the interior addition and the position of the tables, an arrangement that conveys the new detail of the House of Wine to the exterior. The masonry blocks used to close off the old openings, as well as the bricks of the old supporting columns, remain visible - their light-coloured paint allows them to shine through, producing a counter-relief effect.

A sculptural built-in with rounded edges opens up the former technical room to its full height. The ramified pathways and division into several niches that open upwards are taken from the scale and atmosphere of traditional wine cellars. On these platforms, some of which jut extensively, guests can enjoy wine from the region of South Moravia as they overlook the multifaceted architecture of the city.

Further information:
Team: Ondřej Chybik, Michal Krištof, Ondřej Mundl, Luděk Šimoník, Martin Holý, Roman Koplík, Lenka Vořechovská, Vratislav Zika, Hanka AlGibury, Petr Novák, Michal Klimeš
Total area: 550 m2
Costs: 550000 €