Heritage Site

Selina Denman , February 9th, 2010

A revamp of China’s Wen Jun Distillery paid tribute to the site’s cultural significance

Bernard Arnaud, chairman of Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), has famously said that “heritage is the lifeblood of the luxury brand”. The company, which has a portfolio of over 60 prestigious brands, put its money where its mouth was with the 2007 acquisition of the Wen Jun Distillery.

Over 450 years old, the distillery carries the name of Chinese heroine, Zhuo Wen Jun, whose legend dates back 2,000 years. After falling in love with a visiting scholar, Zhuo Wen Jun eloped to Qionglai in the Sichuan Province, where the distillery is now located. The couple renounced their social positions and established a hostelry in the town, where they distilled a famous spirit.

The Wen Jun distillery today uses the same underground water source originally used by Wen Jun – a historical link that no doubt appealed to LVMH’s sentimental sensibilities. “The cultures of Wen Jun and LVMH are perfectly aligned,” suggested Edward Billson, director of Hong Kong-headquartered MAP Architects and Planners, the company responsible for overseeing a complete renovation of the 12 hectare-site after LVMH acquired its 55% stake.

The revamp had to pay tribute to LMVH’s respect for heritage, and be mindful of the distillery’s cultural significance. “MAP competed in an international design competition for the master planning of the heritage renovation of the Wen Jun distillery,” Billson said.

MAP won the competition with a scheme that included a redeveloped administrative precinct, an adjacent visitor centre, a new boiler house for the spirit manufacturing process, a boutique hotel for the entertainment of wholesale guests, a connection between the east and west portions of the site, and associated landscaping.

Eastern influences

The project’s sophisticated, oriental-inspired design language is established from the outset. An entry gate featuring a porte cochére greets guests as cars are ushered into a landscaped courtyard.

A central sculpture depicts Zhuo Wen Jun and her lover Xi Ma, and acts as a striking and immediate reference to the history of the site.

The covered drop off area leads through to a lounge and bar, which are located in a traditional pavilion. A second courtyard provides access to a dining pavilion and a music pavilion, which can also accommodate tea ceremonies.

In a further nod to tradition, surrounding walls are finished in the local red sandstone, while pavilions are finished in traditional grey brick and roofed with grey clay tiles. Timber columns are used to soften the space.

The office precinct represents the largest component of the project. In attempting to remodel the building into a highly modern, stylish office facility, MAP drew on influences as diverse as the Jean Nouvel-designed Cartier Foundation in Paris, and the Art Museum in Fort Worth by Tadao Ando.

Ever mindful of incorporating local influences, MAP “combined the best of eastern and western architecture to develop a design that is European, sophisticated, restrained, efficient and stylish”, Billson explained.

The structure includes large cantilevering roofs on all sides, which provide shade for the offices in the summer. Dramatic V-shaped columns were also a practical choice for a building that is set on soft foundations on the edge of seismic zone. A drop-off under the first floor leads into the reception and atrium, which connects all three levels of the building. A void culminates in a skylight supported by stainless steel trusses.

The ground floor of the office building is fitted with a lounge bar, for entertaining customers in more relaxed surroundings. The first floor is home to a lecture theatre, while executive offices are located on the second floor.

“The office building is probably the most striking element because it is the biggest building. It has delivered on all the promises of sophisticated restraint and, by all accounts, is working well for the occupants,” Billson said.

Visitor-friendly

A sense of place is even more evident in the visitor centre, which draws on the traditional design of local distillery buildings. “The visitor centre was based on a vernacular distillery building and we visited several in the surrounding countryside to understand the design of these buildings,” Billson explained.

“They are long rectangular buildings with an odd number of bays. Entry is in the centre to minimise travel distance to all parts of the floor. The roof is pitched with a clear storey to let the steam out during mashing and mixing of the yeast to the mash. The upper roof is also pitched and the roof material is traditional grey-clay, half-round Chinese tiles. We used all these elements in the design of the visitor centre.”

MAP introduced a tasting room on the first floor of the centre, as well as a terrace that extends out towards Distillery 4. An observation gallery was also introduced, to allow visitors to see directly into the distillery. “This is so that visitors can go into a real production distillery and safely observe, smell and hear the production process, which is fascinating,” said Billson.

The third major element of the project was the boiler house, which, if the local design institute had had its way, would have been little more than a concrete box. Instead, MAP proposed an elaborate structure that once again included a strong local design language.

“The boiler house was rescued from the local design institute and redesigned in Han style, with traditional tile roof timber barge boards and ornamented trusses under the eves. A massive sky light had to be incorporated to satisfy local regulations. The final result is a building that looks like it should be an art gallery,” Billson explained.

The Han Sichuan style was reiterated in the VIP guest house, which is composed of three residential garden villas able to accommodate visiting wholesale clients. Two of the villas offer a single bedroom, while the third, the presidential villa, incorporates two bedrooms, a living room and a dining room, all set around a central courtyard. “The VIP guest house was again designed in Han Sichuan style, with water running through and little waterfalls at the bridges to each of the three villas.”

Key to the success of this – and any project in China – is ensuring that you have the support of the local authorities which, in this case, MAP did, Billson explained. “The key challenge with any project in China is the Local Design Institute and getting them on board, to help rather than hinder,” he warned.