The clients have an extensive collection of contemporary art. Many works are large in scale or otherwise best experienced in an environment more appropriate than the existing traditional interior.

The aim of the project was to add a 6,000 square foot controlled environment to house the collection and support its growth. A key challenge was the question of how to integrate such a large-scale intervention into the site without removing vineyard or disrupting the character of the landscape.

Taking advantage of economical cave-drilling technologies developed for the local wine industry, the art cave is conceived as a large-scale, passively conditioned, subterranean space. Inside the seemingly boundless space of the cave, the encounter with art occurs in a context unencumbered by traditional functions or associations.