Duttweiler (DE)

Weingut Nett

Wood meets pumice concrete: Unusual and above all sustainable materials were chosen by the architects for the new building of the Nett winery in Rhineland Palatinate.

The result is an impressive commercial and residential building that combines tradition with modernity. WIEHAG was responsible for the bearing system as well as the timber roof and wall panels.

Task

An innovative new building made of timber

The task was a complete new building with astonishing dimensions of 60 by 80 metres, which accommodates all the production processes of the winery with warehouse, sales area, office including a flat for the wine-growing family under one roof. While wine cellars are traditionally buried behind thick walls or – as in recent decades – erected as industrial steel halls, the architects combined the advantages of both approaches in this project: Here, an outer shell made of lightweight timber spans a solid interior made of pumice concrete. Use of these ecologically high-quality building materials reflects the production of high-quality foodstuffs, and is also intended to have a sustainable effect on the life cycle of the building.

Implementation

Tradition and modernity

The building for the Bergdolt-Reif & Nett winery in the Rhineland Palatinate region of Germany is light, modern, spacious and representative: Two elongated halls connected by a roofed passage look like a geometric ray unfolding over the landscape. Inside, the wines of the successful German winery mature over an area of 4,500 m². The load-bearing structure of the halls consists of 32 glued laminated timber beams that extend without supports in spans of up to 25 metres over the huge complex, thereby keeping the floor area completely free. This means that flexible room design will be possible in the future as well, if the use of the space changes.

All this is clad in a shell of highly heat-insulated timber roof and wall panels. In combination with the non-load-bearing pumice concrete as a climatic reservoir, an excellent energy standard is achieved. The canopies, which project generously to the south and north, also allow work to be performed outside under shelter, whatever the weather.