The story of creating the new facilities for the Deklic Winery is one of gradually understanding the story of the Deklic family itself – of understanding their connection to the land, and of how four generations of winegrowers intimately relate to the place.

Visiting for the first time, the architect realised that the specific site within the grounds offered a view of the rooftops of Piazza San Marco in Venice from across the Adriatic. It is this connection between the people and its land, and between the place and this centuries-old activity in the Istria region which defined the architectural intention.

However, the building is a factory – a structure that hosts a state-of-the-art machinery where the ancient cycle of harvest-fermentation-nurturing takes its course. It is as if almost, the place “knows” what to do with its annual yield, and we simply had to facilitate it. Hence, the winery devotes 85% of its space to a gravity-led system (a first in Croatia) for the making and storing of its annual 400,000 litres of Istrian Teran and 300,000 of Malvasía.

And it was not for the architect to make a bold visual statement with a notice-me building; working with this land has taken place for centuries, and will likely outlast any building. Like in a Swiss clock in which we sense its complexity, the structure is excavated 12.5m into a sloping hill orientated to the sun. Only one level of its four floors is visible, acting as a warm and friendly welcome to the visitor.

Its red pigmented concrete and corten steel give the building a rough and noble character. Embracing the “aesthetics of imperfection” and of the passing of time inherent to those materials, the winery is a place for “making” and for “being” in the land.

This discreet integration is not a hindrance but an expression of the clarity of vision, allowing for the joyous celebration of the activity in the winery, expressed in the modern furniture and lighting of its interior design and by the placing of a contemporary sculpture by artist Mirko Zrinšćak at the front of the winery. This piece acts as a visual catalyser, and is in keeping with the credo of VVA of collaborating with other artistic disciplines as part of its architectural practice.