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The recently opened Bordeaux-based wine museum and cultural centre, La Cité du Vin, takes visitors on an unparalleled discovery of wine-growing civilizations from all over the world. Designed as an ‘iconic’ building, it stands out with its bold curves and shape. The initial aim of the building’s architecture was to create a link between La Cité du Vin and the spaces surrounding it through perpetual movement.
Anouk Legendre and Nicolas Desmazières of XTU Architects have designed a space shaped by symbols of identity: gnarled vine stock, wine swirling in a glass, eddies on the Garonne. Every detail of the architecture evokes wine’s soul and liquid nature: ‘seamless roundness, intangible and sensual. This building does not resemble any recognisable shape because it is an evocation of the soul of wine between the river and the city.’ This roundness transcribed in the building’s exterior can also be felt in its indoor spaces, materials and scale.
La Cité du Vin dazzles with a golden shimmer reminiscent of the light stone found on Bordeaux facades. Its own facade is made up of silk-screen printed glass panels and perforated, iridescent, lacquered aluminium panels. Changing with the sunshine or the time of day, the building dialogues with the river through its reflections: there are very close parallels with a wine’s constantly changing appearance. This very distinctive shape causes you to look at the river running past from a different perspective.
The building’s two entrances on either side create an impression of movement, ebb and flow between inside and outside. One entrance faces the city and the other faces the river. Higher up, the viewing tower enables visitors to discover the illuminated city and the surrounding land, almost like a watchtower. The ground floor is raw as an immersion stage for diving into the project, a crossing point. The mirror reflections are disorienting and encourage visitors to move upwards towards the light. They feel this light on the courtyard then follow it through the structure until it finally explodes.
There is no fixed route to follow, just worlds to discover. The wooded arch of the permanent tour, the strongest area of La Cité du Vin, is like a varied sky. The sky is everything in winemaking, determining the harvest. This wooden sky rises, undulates and tightens. Once again, this is all about movement. The wooden structure is reminiscent of a timber frame, of boats, of wine on its travels. It is an immersive break with reality, a world of roundness, fluidity and elevation, approximating the wine experience. Visitors are in a discovery mind-set initiated by the architecture, which creates the right conditions for them to discover and complete this immersive, initiatory journey.
