Magazine for USD 20.00 Architectural Entertainment Issue 22 FLOW Plus: A Water Special by Wolfgang Tillmans Featuring Johnston Marklee, Cookies, Leong Leong, Arno Brandlhuber, Guy Nordenson, Tom Burr, WOHA, Smiljan Radic, David Hartt, Olson Kundig, and much more… LOS LOS DESTINOS: CHILE, MEXICO, URUGUAY MEXICO! D ESpring Summer 2017 URUGUAY! ST CHILE!I NO S ALSO: Akira Minagawa, Ania Jaworska, Asger Carlsen, Christ & Gantenbein, Jillian Mayer, LOT-EK, Nathan Browning, and Peter Opsvik. MEXICO

THAT LOS RUSTLING YOU HEAR? IT’S THE WINDS FROM THE SOUTH, MUSCLING PAST THOSE WHO URUGUAY WOULD SOONER DIVIDE US, BRINGING WITH THEM A REVITALIZING BURST OF CREATIVITY, RESOURCEFULNESS, AND ROUGH-HEWN GLAMOUR. HEADING DOWN SOUTH IS NOT JUST CHILE FOR BIRDS — IT MIGHT BE YOUR DESTINY, TOO!

DESTINOSPORTFOLIO SPECIAL The hills are alive: Owners Alexander and PORTFOLIO SPECIAL LOS DESTINOS Carrie Vik have grape expectations for Viña Vik, their artfully appointed hotel and winery in Millahue (“place of gold” in the Mapuche language). A holistic winery at the foot of the Andes Photography by EE Adrian Gaut Text by Horacio LL Silva

At first glance, Viña Vik, the II avant-garde retreat and wine- spa owned by Alexander Vik and his wife Carrie, suggests a cult compound as imagined by Frank Gehry. LocatedHH among the hills of the Millahue Valley in Chile, about two hours’drive from Santiago, the imposing hotel building is crowned by a gleam- ing bronzed-titanium roof that brings to mind an alien landing pad. It’s a fittingly exaltedCC venue for the Viks. Their boutique luxury properties in José Ignacio, Uruguay have earned them a sect-like following for their artful embodiment of the beach town’s pricey but diablo-may-care allure. As the newest addition to their portfolio, Viña Vik, which stems from Alexander Vik’s decision a decade ago to join the pantheon of wine greats, doesn’t disappoint.

PORTFOLIO SPECIAL For the hotel part of the project, the Viks A westward view from the transcendent res- collaborated with Uruguayan architect Marcelo taurant terrace reveals an infinity pool and a Daglio, who also designed their popular hotels reservoir that flows from the Cordillera de los and restaurant in the beach town José Ignacio Andes and irrigates the six surrounding valleys. in Uruguay. Perched on a hilltop that offers 360- degree views of 11,000 square feet of densely planted vineyards below, the blissfully remote hotel was designed by the Viks them- selves, with help from Uruguayan architect Marcelo Daglio, and is a feast for the eyes as well as the palate. As with the couple’s other prop- erties, there is a premium placed on meaningful artistic col- laborations, with each of the 22 rooms and suites (only 50 guests are allowed at a time) essentially being site-specific installa- tions featuring work by leading Chilean and international artists, including Marcela Correa, Antonio Seguí, and James Turrell. The airy reception area is dominated by a muscular Anselm Kiefer triptych, and a serene bonsai garden fills the hotel’s courtyard.

222 PORTFOLIO SPECIAL The wines produced at Viña Vik are a blend A short walk from the hotel is the Viña Vik of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carménère, Syrah, winery, designed by Chilean architect Smiljan Merlot, and Cabernet Franc. They were Radic. A plaza of running water (and a sculp- developed with Patrick Valette, a noted tural installation by Radic and his wife, Marcela Chilean vintner who was raised in France. Correa) marks its entrance and cools the building below, where the barrels are stored.

But it’s the state-of the-art Vik Winery itself, ten minutes’ walk from the hotel, which really rounds out the Chile wine-country experience and invites communion with nature. It’s here that the Viks have been producing since 2014, their eponymous premium blends — three well-regarded vin- tages and counting. Framed by the Andes to the east and the Pacific to the west, and designed by Chilean architect Smiljan Radic, the spectacular production facility is partially buried in the middle of a field. Visitors approach the loca- tion, which was selected for the diversity of its terroir, on pathways made from locally sourced granite that traverse a gently rippling pool — the “water mirror” as it is known in Vik mythology — which reflects the indigenous shrubs and trees of the region (boldo, litre, quillay, peumo). “The water is part of a symbolic system for me, but it doesn’t end there,” explains Santiago- based Radic, who beat seven other architects in the competition to design the project. “The ancient rocks out front place the building in a different geological context, and the way the wind and the light play on the roof are also important.”

Continued on page 228 224 PORTFOLIO SPECIAL Stone is a recurring motif in Radic’s oeuvre. For the 2014 Serpentine Pavilion, for example, the architect designed a primordial orb mounted on stone stilts. When placed alongside water, he explains, stone “adds an element of time to the project.”

226 PORTFOLIO SPECIAL On the ground floor, a series of sloping pylons The serenity of the exterior belies the chaos mark a corridor used to transport grapes that takes place underground during harvest into the building. The eerie procession and season—a duality that particularly appealed polished concrete floors suggest a James to Radic, who had never worked on a winery Bond villain’s lair. before the Vik commission.

“I never explain these things too much, but you feel these kinds of rela- tions.” Beyond their symbolic connections to the immedi- ate region and the Cordillera de los Andes in the dis- tance, Radic’s choices are part of a holistic com- mitment to minimize the need for energy use by maximiz- ing natural resources to heat, cool, ventilate, and irrigate the 280-meter- long complex. The water mirror isn’t just mes- merizingly beautiful, it also moderates the temperature of the underground space where the barrels are kept; the special polytetrafluo- roethylene (PTFE) double membrane of the winery’s roof allows the light to sneak through but keeps the heat out.

228 PORTFOLIO SPECIAL Light, temperature, and humidity control are Viña Vik’s proximity to other attractions makes crucial to the winemaking process. At Vik, it a satisfying port of call on any Chilean they are regulated through several sculptural adventure. In two hours, you can travel north interventions, including a transparent fabric to the bustling capital of Santiago (increas- roof that allows sunlight to flood into the “It was important for the property to be visually ingly referred to as “Sanhattan”), or west to production plant. While much of the winery is Pichilemu, to surf the coast at renowned Punta underground, from the outside, this sail-like stunning but to also be technologically creative de Lobos (pictured). roof defines the building’s profile. and highly sustainable,” explains Alexander Vik. “The vision was to create a beautifully integrated winery that utilizes the earth and its capabilities to continue to help make great wine, while sitting elegantly among the vines with only the roofline visible.” It’s an opinion shared by Radic. “So much of what we do as architects involves inflicting damage. The idea here was to create the least amount of damage and to contribute to the actual landscape as much as we possibly can. I want to create beautiful details that feel like they have always been here, but that at the same time are practical, useful, common sense. I don’t just want it to appear eco- logical — it has to be more than deoration in the end.”

230 PORTFOLIO SPECIAL