Maison Olivier Bernstein

In the heart of Beaune, in Burgundy, La Maison is the wine cellar where Olivier Bernstein produces small quantities of prestigious Premier Cru and Grand Cru wines. The ancient building, made of local stone and oak wood, was used for a long time as a storehouse. Olivier Bernstein has transformed it into a wine studio, a special space to welcome customers. In the past, rather incautious interventions and a consequent poor distribution of loads had affected the stability of the building and also its beauty. The space was suffocated by a subdivision into floors that had made it very chaotic and claustrophobic. The project by AMDL CIRCLE is an architectural restoration and a functional reconversion in order to perform the activities of a wine cellar. The intervention lightens the floor between the first and second storeys, vertically aligns their spaces around a central void, distributes the loads on the perimeter walls of the building and regains the overall view of the volume, characterised by very old beams. The result is an open space made of up and down, free spaces and hidden corners. The structure of pillars and beams is natural oak wood, a material typical of Burgundy with which the barrels for aging the wine are made.
The first floor is used to welcome customers. A previous plasterboard wall oppressed this space but was also necessary for the thermal insulation of the floor with respect to the staircase that climbs from the ground floor, an operational space and therefore colder. The plasterboard has been replaced by an extra-clear transparent glass veranda with metal frame to give the space brightness and scope. A new staircase, made of oak heartwood and metal, circles around a passage opened in the wall and leads to the second floor. Here the central space has been demolished to gain two mezzanines for office use. The oak wood structure is composed of main beams and secondary joists on which the wooden rafters rest that are both ceiling and flooring. The two spaces are connected by a new bridge-walkway, again made of oak. The dividing wall of this level, which was not symmetrical compared to that of the first floor, has been completely demolished and reconstructed in alignment to create a single smooth finished wall that frames the central void from the first floor to the attic. Wall grazing lighting creates a warm, familiar atmosphere, while at the centre of the void a suspension lamp descends from the attic to the first floor and illuminates the table for wine tasting. From the second floor you access a small loft used as a deposit for materials.
The beautiful slanting roof is the typical slate used in Burgundy. The old structure was extremely precarious: the tiles were applied directly onto the supporting beams of the roof and were damaged by the damp and by the presence of moss. It was necessary to remove all the tiles, clean them and then place them on a new rafter structure, reconstructed respecting the historical form. Internally the exposed wood positioned on the pre-existing beams characterises the attic.
The ground floor, used for bottling and packaging, was in good condition and the architectural part has been left unchanged. Some new furnishings have been fitted to create a space for use as an entrance for customers and separated from the work zone.
In the basement floor there are the cellars where the wine is aged.