Rehabilitation and memory in the Dussart Pedrón winery
- Project by CRUX Architects
- Photographs by Milena Villalba
In the rural area of Los Pedrones, Requena (Valencia), CRUX architects has tackled the reconstruction of an old winery with multiple previous lives. The project is based on the emotional and patrimonial value of the original building, transformed for decades: from barn to wine warehouse, then abandoned cooperative enclosure. The people in charge, descendants of its initial promoter, have returned from France to revive both the wine production and the family memory.
This background defines the strategy: it is not a matter of imposing a new form, but of adding a new layer that dialogues with the existing. Thus, the intervention is inscribed as a layered architecture that respects the scars of time.
Program, structure and organization
The renovated area covers approximately 156 m², emphasizing the economy of means to accommodate modern winemaking functions without forgetting the genesis of the building.
The first floor houses the fruit reception program, laboratories, and process spaces. In the western nave, the old concrete tank in the basement has been converted into an aging chamber, taking advantage of its
The work is supported by a reinforced concrete structure that stabilizes and consolidates the old walls. Essentially, the new structure acts as a contemporary skeleton that rests on top of the traditional building without neutralizing it.
Materiality and touch
One of the most respectful gestures is to preserve the original corrugated roof, adding a water treatment system on top of it. In the intervened areas, tongue-and-groove type wooden slats are incorporated, replacing reeds, and recovering the original tiles after cleaning. On the north façade, cracks and holes remain visible that speak of the past.
Inside, the old masonry walls (brick, stone) are still present and dialogue with new partition walls. Indirect lighting (“mood lighting”) reveals the texture of the walls and the curvature of the existing vaults.
This project does not intend to erase the former, but to turn the passage of time into material. The rehabilitation is not a nostalgic restoration, but a coherent reinvention. It is a new phase in the life of the building, a chapter that honors its history without imposing itself.
The winery dialogues with the agrarian landscape of the area, without building excessive walls: the openings perforate without violating the existing walls.
With The Dussart Pedrón Winery, CRUX architects demonstrates that contemporary architecture should not start from scratch but can offer new life. An example of technical precision and poetic reading of the existing, where the new gesture does not propose domination, but continuity.
