2011 - Roujan (34)

Oenological centre

Château de Cassan

The impressive and magnificent Castle Abbey of Cassan lies between two hills overlooking a Mediterranean landscape, a mosaic of vineyards, garrigues and woods. Anchor point of the Corporate Wellness Centre project of which the Oenology Centre is an extension, the castle is more than just a beautiful monument: it becomes an essential element for the territory’s social and economical life and thus rejoins today’s world.

The Oenology Centre faces the castle, on the opposite side of the vale and represents the other geographic end of a single project. The nature of the dialogue between the historical monument and today’s project is essential. The new architecture must offer a contemporary answer to the castle while taking into account a village-outskirts environment made up essentially of villas.

Our project is a synthesis between the data of a programme, the peculiarity of which is that it groups many types of different functions, and this unusual territorial location. The Centre brings together three operational entities: the cellar, the public reception space and the hotel and restaurant. We designed a layout allowing each entity to both function independently and be an integral part of a coherent whole; this combination generates the specific identity.

The Oenology Centre’s architecture creates a microcosm centred on winemaking where comfortably accommodated visitors stand at the heart of the winemaking activity and can see and taste the production. To create this microcosm we imagined a hybrid and unusual universe in which each element interacts with the others, the whole acting as a landmark in the landscape, echoing the Castle.

Location
Roujan (34)

Client
Sercib

Surface
10,779 sqm

Estimated cost
€23 M excluding VAT

Project Team
Hérault Arnod Architectures, design and project supervisor
Bureau Michel Forgue, economics
Batiserf, structure
Inex, hvac
Lasa, acoustic

Schedule
Competition 2011

Program
Oenological centre with chai and reception hall
Seminary platform
3* Hotel

Images
Labtop-rendering
Hérault Arnod Architectures