Studio Jil Bentz

Project Domaine Claude Bentz by Studio Jil Bentz is an autonomous extension of a winery in Luxembourg’s Mosel region. It is a two-story high, 71 metres long building made of concrete and wood. Concrete carries the ground floor which combines the new winery functions of a wine shop, tasting rooms and an event room. Wood builds the first floor for a private apartment and office spaces.
One of the project’s main challenges was to fit this mixture of functions in an harmonious way together and into a narrow site constrained by its significant length and topography. The response to the challenge was given in the plan in a specific way on each level: the general approach was to create a special sequence by adapting the principle of enfilades. On the ground floor, the strategy was amplified by drawing a succession of squared rooms rotated 45°. The architectural move avoids linear corridors and thus the feeling of length. It opens up diagonal perspectives, which reduce the perception of narrowness. On the first floor, a grid of 18 identical orthogonal units adjacent to one another hierarchizes the plan. The 45° rotation of the ground floor’s rooms parallels the orientation of the saw-tooth roof.
The roof’s inclination, the façade’s division and heights as much as the dual material choice enter in a direct dialog with the neighbouring building of the original winery. A particular attention has been given to the selection of materials; they were placed where it made most sense in terms of structure, form and climate control. Genuine care was put in the selection of the concrete’s aggregates, sourced from the river nearby, to minimize its environmental footprint and to emphasize the winery’s strong ties with the Mosel region.