ARCHITECTURE
Bordeaux's Cité du Vin
Rising above the left bank of the Garonne River in Bordeaux, France, this newly opened attraction is arguably the largest museum in the world dedicated to the celebration of wine.
10 June, 2016
The $91 million Cité du Vin (City of Wine) is stunning in its architectural weaves and waves, an effect intentionally designed by Anouk Legendre and Nicolas Desmazières, who wanted the 10-story building to evoke a sense of the vineyard and reflect the flow of the adjacent river.
The Cité du Vin achieves the effect through smart, sustainable choices in materials. More than 4,000 glass panels, nearly a fourth of them custom-printed, work alongside 2,240 lacquered and iridescent aluminium panels to evoke the glow of white stone in Bordeaux building facades and connect in living dialogue with the lights of the Garonne, the changing sky, and the energy of the city.
The mission is accomplished by connecting the built environment's feel for "the soul of wine" with the human scale of the museum experience itself, allowing visitors to interact in the space with their own timing and grace. To that end, Cité du Vin offers its impressive array of exhibits in eight languages and includes interactive exhibits for children, a theater and concert venue, and boat tours geared toward exploring nearby vineyards accessible by river, as well as docking designed to welcome guests by water.
In addition to the tower, which offers a breathtaking sweep of Bordeaux, the museum aims to impress visitors with the menu at Le 7 restaurant and, of course, the wine. Visitors may choose from among 800 wines from 70 different countries while shopping at Cité du Vin, in a museum setting that former Prime Minister of France Alain Juppé, now the mayor of Bordeaux, has called his Guggenheim – referring to the renowned New York City art museum.
In addition to the tower, which offers a breathtaking sweep of Bordeaux, the museum aims to impress visitors with the menu at Le 7 restaurant and, of course, the wine. Visitors may choose from among 800 wines from 70 different countries while shopping at Cité du Vin, in a museum setting that former Prime Minister of France Alain Juppé, now the mayor of Bordeaux, has called his Guggenheim – referring to the renowned New York City art museum.
Museum CEO Philippe Massol expects 400,000 visitors over the next year, with 80 percent arriving as tourists from outside the Bordeaux region. What many of them won't realize is how mindful the Cité du Vin designers have been of the facility's environmental presence, and how much attention the entire project and its execution has paid to sustainability in order to remain "in perfect keeping with the district's ecological philosophy."
Choosing to use perforated aluminium is just one example of the architectural emphasis on energy efficiency at the site and the building's context within the larger ecosystem. At the Cité du Vin, 70 percent of the building's energy demand is met with local and renewable sources. The structure is designed for natural airflow that reduces cooling costs by 5 percent in summer and protects against heat loss in winter.
Rainwater is captured and used to water the landscaping and clean areas outside the venue. The facility is accessible by train, bicycle and other carbon-friendly transportation options, and there's even a composting area for food waste from the restaurant and organic matter from facility groundskeeping.
Image: La Cité du Vin
Rainwater is captured and used to water the landscaping and clean areas outside the venue. The facility is accessible by train, bicycle and other carbon-friendly transportation options, and there's even a composting area for food waste from the restaurant and organic matter from facility groundskeeping.
Image: La Cité du Vin
The Cité du Vin experience is further designed to be inclusive and connect with the Bordeaux culture in which it is immersed, assuring continuity in its different aspects of identity and placemaking. That remains a sustainability priority for any resilient and thriving community, but all the more for a museum dedicated to the viniculture that gave Bordeaux its name.
That respect for the local region resonates with guests at the Cité du Vin, but so does the museum's universal approach to a history of wine that dates back to 6,000 BCE in regions across the globe. That's why the Cultural Steering Committee, presided over by Prince Robert of Luxembourg, was engaged from the earliest planning stages of the architecture as well.
With one journey is complete and the other beginning, Cité du Vin kicked off its cultural program in the new theater space with a two-part look at that journey, scheduled for June 11 and 12, 2016.
That respect for the local region resonates with guests at the Cité du Vin, but so does the museum's universal approach to a history of wine that dates back to 6,000 BCE in regions across the globe. That's why the Cultural Steering Committee, presided over by Prince Robert of Luxembourg, was engaged from the earliest planning stages of the architecture as well.
With one journey is complete and the other beginning, Cité du Vin kicked off its cultural program in the new theater space with a two-part look at that journey, scheduled for June 11 and 12, 2016.
Banner image by XTU architects/P.Desmazières.