The standardisation of vernacular architecture: Wine buildings in Andalusia

Abstract

Production buildings constitute a specific section of vernacular architecture, with distinct characteristics. In Andalusia, within this group, the architecture of wine, acquires an important relevancne, the wine cellars. They are a large number of buildings, which were built in the 18th, and 19th centuries. This happened when traditional Andalusian wine production was transformed into a modern wine industry. An industrial development generated a vast architectural ensemble of unique characteristics. This has been studied especially in the Sherry wine region, but it is also present in other regions such as MontillaMoriles or El Condado de Huelva. The architectural, and industrial wine development in the 19th century was fundamentally based on the repetition of a specific model: the basilica cellar. A simplified formal, and constructive system that comes from the standardisation of the vernacular cellar, and that establishes early points of convergence with the industrial building. A model that continues the tradition in terms of construction, and structure, but conceptually modern in its modular, and repeatable condition. Its reiteration, and extreme simplification made possible the construction of large industrial complexes, and the city transformation. The industrial importance achieved by the wine agro-industry, and the vernacular quality of its architecture introduce different references in Spanish industrial historiography