Portugese Architect Siza Vieira--Part 2

Lana here!!  We arrived at this beautiful winery and were immediately taken by the beauty and amazing architecture of the building. When we checked the architectural model I noticed that the designed was none other than Alvaro Siza Vieria, the same architect who did the Port glass re-design. Well, now my curiosity was piqued :) Turns out Alvaro, as he's known internationally, has designed some pretty cool and amazing buildings. He's also won the Pritzker Prize, the "Nobel Prize" of the architecture world. I can see why.

We are told that the owner of the winery Rui Nabeiro met with Alvaro to discuss the building of a structure of the winery. Alvaro immediately schemed a design out on a napkin based on what he envisioned. Taking a picture of the building itself would be difficult as it's surrounded by rows of grape vines, but I was able to take two pictures from a slide show that highlight just how stunning this design is:

The winery was built in 2006 with a design purposely meant to echo the surrounding agricultural landscapes.  

This was the original napkin sketch. 

The rooftop where we had our picnic is green space complete with marble, grass and a shallow pool--not for swimming. The marble is meant to absorb the heat from the sun and ensure that no heat transfers into the barrel room which is located directly underneath. As well, the grass keeps the ceiling cool. There is no direct sunlight that comes into the building because that would affect the outcome of the wine aging within. So the windows that are available, stream light into offices and meetings rooms and are only reflected down into the lower barrel room where no heat will transpire.

Lastly and I think this was incredibly ingenious, you need to look at an aerial view of the top roof deck. Alvaro designed it to look like a face, but not sure any face, look closer and you'll see the artistic likeness of the winery founder/owner Rui Nabeiro!! For the architect to recognize this was so creative and I can understand how he's won the Pritzker prize. Apparently he is now 82 and still hasn't stopped designing. This man clearly has a gift and it's one he happily shares with the world.

This is a model of the owner's face from above.