YUE GARDENS WINE CELLAR & MUSEUM by SHANGHAI GODOLPHIN
Built in 1969, Our 3,000m2 bunker resides twenty meters beneath the historic 1887 British Consulate in Wuhu, China. Since being founded as a Treaty Port in 1876, rice had been the major commodity of the past, today it is wine!
The Yu Geng Shan Private Cellar is divided into two parts, Wine Culture (Yu Geng Shan Wine Experience Museum) and Wine Storage (Private Member Lock-ers & The Chalice Cellar). The wine culture aspect endeavors to emulate the journey of a fine wine, from planting, harvesting, aging and tasting adding another dimension to the wine experience. We named this procession “from terroir to table” and it is the ethos of this project. The journey begins with an educational digital experience describing the history and agricultural background of the wine making process, followed by the museum’s antique gallery showcasing a variety of old wine elements from the vineyard harvest, and finally people can enjoy a finale of fine wine tasting in the wine lounge, or even purchase a bottle for themselves. Terroir, translated as “a sense of place”, means the characteristics of a local environment interacting with the plant genetics gives a regional distinction to the wine. Just as the land from which the grapes are grown imparts a unique quality, the de-sign of the Yu Geng Shan Cellars brings a terroir of experience to visitors adding another dimension to the wine tasting experience.
Construction of the existing bunker ex-posed a beautiful granite rock beyond the other side of the cemented bunker walls. We asked the client to keep the ex-posed granite completely and not to pour more concrete, but met regulatory challenges. After continuously engaging with the client, structural engineers, and council members, we were eventually able to open portions of walls to the exposed granite, while also using the quarried rock from the site as our primary construction material and motif. This allowed us to use 75% recycled material on site as a part of the finish product. The use of the rock from the site was not only an aesthetic choice, but one that connected directly back to our concept “from terroir to table”, giving the museum a sense of place.
The storage section of this is a 1000 square meter Member’s Only Cellar containing 1000 custom designed private wine lockers for Wine Club Members, including the clients own custom designed commercial cellar now nicknamed the “Chalice Cellar”. The client’s vision for their own “Chalice Cellar” focused around creating a space far different than anything found above ground and a new memorable experience to visitors of Wuhu, China. The 20,000 bottle 200m2 Chalice Cellar is a single space designed to create an explorative experience for visitors to meander through, take photos, and inspire further discovery. As visitors walk towards the narrow entrance, their view is blocked by a looming structure. Upon approach it curves away to reveal the expansive space inside the cellar giving it wow factor. The curves of the looming steel wine racks widen and narrow in the space serving as a way to curate views and also emulate the fluidity and sex appeal of the wine culture. The curvature of the space requires you to twist and turn as you move through it revealing a new vantage point from moment to moment. It also allows pockets of unseen space behind the wine steel shelves where we created stacks of wine crates for mass storage. This solves the challenge of adequate storage while also maintaining functionality of the space. If one explores deep enough into the cellar they will find a stair case, leading atop of the central sculpture. Inspired by a chalice (a large cup or goblet, typically used for drinking wine), the center sculpture allows visitors to see the curves of the space within the bunker from a bird’s eye perspective and provides a chance for a prime instagram picture. #yougardenwinecellar
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