Bodegas Portia

Located in Ribera del Duero, in the heart of Spain's winemaking region, Norman Foster's first winery, Bodegas Portia, is a state-of-the-art facility that cleverly applies the winemaker's concept of "terroir"--that the geography of a specific location greatly influences what grows there--to its own architecture. By rethinking the complex process of winemaking, Foster's firm created an admirably efficient design. For example, the access road puts the winery's steep terrain to good use by leading directly to the top of the building, delivering the harvested grapes straight into the core of the structure with the aid of gravity. Once inside, the grapes go through the usual three-step process of winemaking: fermentation, barrel-aging and bottle-aging. The concrete structures for each stage form a trefoil in which form follows function: the fermentation wing is left unconcealed, allowing the carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere, while both aging cellars are rooted into the ground, providing premium conditions for the wine (produced at a rate of up to one million bottles per year) to mature properly. Along with being ideal for the bottling and aging of fine wines, this ingenious set-up also allows the winery to better control its energy demands, making it an impressive example of modern sustainable design.