Innocent Bystander Winery

RESEARCH BACKGROUND This new winery and cellar door complex for Innocent Bystander Winemakers is located in the main street of Healesville township in the Yarra Valley, Victoria. The strong architectural form evolves from a diagram in which wine production is stratified into programmatic bands. The long textured panels of Thermomass concrete form the external facade and evoke the programmes within (the barrel store), articulated by a cast image of a vineyard. The defensive concrete box locks into a timber-clad cellar door entry. Here, a large glass wall reveals a section through the barrel store and processing facility, exposing the complexity and alchemy of winemaking to visitors. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE The winery continues a line of research by Martyn Hook (IPH) into the manner that the aesthetics of 'environmental architecture' may evolve from landscape, programme and materiality rather than technological systems. It also researches how standard industrial detailing in architectural production may be refined to produce work that is both economic and robust. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE The project formed part of the 2007 travelling exhibition and symposium: New Trends in Architecture Europe Asia Pacific, which visited Patras (Greece), Tokyo, Melbourne, Perth, Luxembourg and Barcelona. It has been published in Architectural Review Australia magazine. The design received a positive review from The Age newspaper architectural critic, Norman Day, and won Best Winery Restaurant in The Age Good Food Guide Awards 2007.