Excerpt: House of Silk Bodegas Murviedro, designed by Ruben Muedra Estudio de Arquitectura, combines three original houses and their respective grottos. The Casa de la Seda was built to introduce its visitors to the entire process involved in wine production. With its Artisanal Winery, Museum, and Tasting Room, the House offers an integral educational experience that begins by showing how the people used to live and ends with the complete elaboration process.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by Architect] Located in the historical area of the Plaza de la Villa in Requena, the Casa de la Seda (the Silk House) is the result of a project sponsored by the City Council and Bodegas Murviedro. This project is the combination of three original houses and their respective grottos located beneath the actual plaza.
The Casa de la Seda was built to introduce its visitors to the entire process involved in wine production. With its Artisanal Winery, Museum, and Tasting Room, the House offers an integral educational experience that begins by showing how the people used to live and ends with the complete elaboration process.
In reality, the project consists of a singular Staircase, a sculpture of corten Steel that spans the equivalent of four altitudes and succeeds in connecting up to eight different levels (all of which correspond to the different functions in the plan). It initiates in the Cave and reaches, in order, the Hall, the Artisanal Winery, the Store, the Tasting Room, the Exhibit, the Meeting Room and finally the Technical area.
Of noted interest is the intervention (or lack thereof) in the Caves, where a single wooden walkway of Ipe Wood wraps deviously around the natural structures and illuminates the three caves while respecting their borders and not interfering with them.