Architect Zaha Hadid Designs Unique Bottle & Box For Leo Hillinger's Icon Hill Wine.

Leo Hillinger presents an iconic wine with packaging created by an icon herself. On October 4th of this year, at the Albertina in Vienna, Austrian winemaker Leo Hillinger unveiled his exceptional red wine blend, the 2009 Icon Hill in a precious bottle and box created by Pritzker-winning architect Zaha Hadid.

"With the unique design and the ICON HILL ​​is optimally presented. Powerful and intense it is drawn from the creation in its spell. Zaha has perfectly embodied in the wine bottle shape."-- Leo Hillinger

Zaha Hadid, above, says of the design:
"The elongated volume of the bottle has been derived from the profile of liquid droplets. A continuous spatial curve was then projected onto the bottle’s surface, defining areas for the concave indentation and suggesting the waves created when droplets break a liquid’s surface.

The concave indentation and the bottle’s surface have the same curvature, enabling a set of bottles to interlock and be perceived as singular whole. A smaller indent and volume has been created at the base of the bottle for correct handling and to accommodate any tartrates.

To achieve the precision and accuracy required for production, the shape of the bottle was created using NURB-based CAD software. The bottle manufacturer directly implemented this 3D master geometry to produce the cast iron moulds for the glass forming process."

The Reviews
If you are wondering whether or not the wine is as good as the bottle, it has received a rating of 95/100 from Falstaff, the ultimate Austrian wine guide.



Falstaff chief Peter Moser who tasted the wine in advance and gave the following critique:
"Deep ruby ​​garnet with purple hues, subtle edge whitening. In the nose with fine Kräuterwürze backed mature heart cherry fruit, a hint of dark berries, spices in the background and nuances of fine wood, a delicate hint of nougat, multifaceted bouquet that develops well with air. On the palate, complex, extraktsüße dark fruit, prominent and well-integrated tannins that give the wine length, hints of blackberries and ripe plums, pleasant acidity that for vitality provides, salty minerality on the finish holds good, disposes of secure aging potential, fine cherry fruit in Rückgeschmack. If one were to fully enjoy this wine at this youthful stage, it is advisable to decant the bottle for a good two hours." (optimum eating ripeness 2016 - 2030)

and from René Gabriel:
"The color is a deep dark red with black core. On the nose the wine is fresh, cool and seems so very precise, fruit and seasoning are very harmonious with black berry fruit, smoky Brazil tobacco, licorice and black pepper. ICON HILL ​​displays a beautiful concentration. On the palate it is creamy, with dark caramel, prunes and ripe, balanced tannins stützende. This is not a wine that comes as a new multi-bomb wine, but considered his future and first in terms of class and harmony. Its beautiful balance we must here assume a potential that is loose and overheating of the first 10 years. His most beautiful ripe to eat I expect in about three to four years."



Only 999 bottles of ICON HILL are available. The ICON HILL ​​is available at 99 euros per bottle in all Leo Hillinger retailers and online www.leo-hillinger.at.

The Mirror House, Transformed Into A "Fun"ctional Pavilion In Copenhagen by MLRP

MLRP of Denmark transformed a somewhat sad existing structure into an inviting reflective pavilion to engage interaction and play. The structure, which is in a public playground in Copenhagen, is now used by kindergarten classes and includes restrooms.




Funhouse mirrors are mounted on the gabled ends of this playground pavilion as well as behind the doors. This engages a play with perspective, reflection and transformation.




Instead of a typical closed gable facade, the mirrored gables creates a sympathetic transition between built and landscape and reflects the surrounding park, playground and activity. Windows and doors are integrated in the wood-clad facade behind facade shutters with varied bent mirror panel effects. At night the shutters are closed making the building anonymous. During the day the building opens up, attracting the children who enjoy seeing themselves transformed in all directions.





With simple means it has succeeded to transform an existing, sad and anonymous building to a unique and respectful installation in the newly renovated park. The roof and facade is clad with heat-modified sustainable wood and the gables and shutters are clad with mirror polished stainless steel. The Mirror House is a flexible space and restrooms, used by kindergarden classes.







INFO:
Project type: Playground Pavilion
Year: Completed Nov 2011
Site: Fælledparken

, Copenhagen
Client: City of Copenhagen – CAU and the fund of Mærsk McKinney Møller & wife Chastine McKinney Møller
Engineer: Grontmij A/S
Landscape: GHB Landskab A/S
Contractor: A.F.Hansen
Area: 140 m2
Building Sum: 1.700.000 Dkr

TEAM:
Robert W. Paulsen, Mads H. Lund, Joana Pimenta, Sara Marie Malmros



MLRP / Architecture, Research & Development info@mlrp.dk / +45 2971 4515 / Ryesgade 19a / 2200 København N / Denmark

Two Unusual Partially Submerged Modern Homes Create A Green Paradise In Paraguay.

Partially underground with arching green roofs, a sharp triangular swimming pool and unusual architecture, these two homes (named Green Haven) are located in Luque and designed by Paraguay-based architects Bauen.






The below article courtesy of Bauen Architects (taken from their own translation so the content and punctuation may seem wonky):
We design in an exposed and desolate plane, no limits shown. For this reason we fold the base plane and we generate the “refuge”. We understand that the main feature of dwellings is care, and the essence of building is letting dwell*. Keeping the space from the popping of any foreign object but for the folding of the base plane, so the dwelling is prepared in is wrinkles, respecting the environment and making that the green constant, allowing the preservation of the inhabitant’s intimacy with its corrugations. Where these folds are broken, openings are generated. And they joined together with bridges wrapped in transparencies at double height, and topped by a fragment of sphere like a roof. Thus, the “Culata Yovai” is ready and disposed in his “tekoha”.








Inside: 








The interesting front door from both the exterior and interior:



In this project the search for a protected human space that suits to the topography, the vegetation, the tropical climate, and where people find comfort in the broadest sense of the word; takes us to propose a vindication of the knowledge contributed, and often forgotten, by our vernacular architecture. The “Culata Jovai” or “House of Confronted Rooms” is a real bioclimatic solution belonging to one of our traditional ways of living in harmony with the environment in Paraguay, and constitutes our base typology for a new reinterpretation according to new functional programs, needs of symbolic representation and new technologies, framed in a sustainable project.




With the inclusion of green roof, we recovers the original space of vegetation displaced by the construction, also reduces the gained heat due to the thermal inertia of the underground spaces, therefore reducing greatly the conventional energy consumption of homes.

Plans and drawings:







Architects: BAUEN Architects
Project: Green Haven – Two houses
Location: Luque, Paraguay
Design: Architect Aldo Cristaldo
Type: Single Family
Year: 2011 (Start) – 2012 (completion)
Size: 660 m2 (together)
Contributors: Jorge Ortiz, Olga Villagra, architect René Sosa, Constance Olmedo, Nathaly Cáceres, Alice Peralta, architect Marcelo Jimenez.
Construction: Mr. Peter Cataldo, architect Beatriz Heyn

all images courtesy of Bauen Architects and AEC Cafe
photos © Mónica Matiauda and © Marcelo Jiménez