The Macallan Distillery and Visitor Experience

The new Macallan Distillery and Visitor Experience is set into the landscape of the estate that has been responsible for creating the single malt whisky since 1824. The Macallan is already established as one of the most famous whisky makers in the world and wanted a new brand home that could reveal the production processes and welcome visitors while remaining sensitive to the beautiful surrounding countryside.

The new RSHP building provides a facility capable of increased production and also allows for easy expansion in years to come. Internally, a series of production cells are arranged in a linear format with an open-plan layout revealing all stages of the process at once. These cells are reflected above the building in the form of a gently undulating roof, formed by a timber gridshell. Grass-covered peaks rise and fall from The Macallan estate grounds, signalling to approaching visitors the activities housed beneath. Set into the naturally sloping contours of the site, the design makes direct references to ancient Scottish earthworks.

Easter Elchies House, the Macallan spiritual home – an original 18th century Highland manor house – must remain the primary focus of the estate and so the main access to the new Visitor Experience begins near this building. The estate is as important to The Macallan as the buildings that make up the distillery and so a subtle manipulation of the terrain is used to reveal the built form and control views without appearing forced or overtly grand. The great 18th century garden designers knew the importance of flow and movement in a large landscape; that parks should be experienced on a meandering journey. The new distillery project celebrates the whisky-making process as well as the landscape that has inspired it.

Awards

2018

Scottish Design Award

2019

RIAS Regional Awards for Best Commercial Building & Special Category Award for Best Use of Timber Award

RIBA Award for Scotland

Location Speyside, Scotland, UK

Date 2012 - 2018

Client Edrington

Cost £140 million (includes build and production equipment)

Size 159,305 sq ft

Structural Engineer Arup

Services Engineer Arup

Landscape Architect Gillespies

Lighting Design Speirs Major

Construction Contractor

Robertson

Construction Group

Location Peñafiel, Valladolid, Spain

Date 2003 - 2008

Client Bodegas Protos

Cost

£15 million

Gross Internal Area

209,358 sq ft

Co-Architects

Alonso Balaguer Arquitectos Asociados

Structural Engineer Arup/Boma/Agroindus

Services Engineer

BDSP/Grupo JG/ Agroindus

Bodegas Protos is a wine cooperative in a small village in the Ribera del Duero region of Spain, where almost everyone in the village has a stake in the winery. In response to increasing demand for Protos wines in recent years, a new building to extend and modernise production facilities has been built. The winery is an industrial building whose design and arrangement follows the process of wine making, from the harvesting of the grapes to the bottling of the wines. Most of the winery’s internal area is underground, where the thermal mass of the ground is used to keep the wine cool, with the production area at ground level beneath a dramatic vaulted wooden roof.

This building connects via an underground link to the original winery and also provides custom-designed areas for tastings and special events, as well as administrative functions.

Because the building had to be cost efficient, the architect chose to use materials found locally. Timber parabolic arches were used as the main structure, taking advantage of the forms ability to carry large loads on very slim beams.

Terracotta roofing tiles are common to the architecture of the region, and the stone that forms the walls is waste material from a local quarry. The use of traditional materials such as wood and stone and the sensitive use of form to break down the scale of the building has resulted in a winery which complements the surrounding traditional architecture style of Peñafiel.

With building work completed in September 2008, Bodegas Protos processed its first harvest of grapes from the vineyards surrounding Peñafiel during October 2008. Over a fifteen-day period, tractor-pulled trailers carrying the grape crop were driven up the ramp to the processing area on the south side of the building and unloaded into vats for fermentation. The facility is now providing capacity to process one million kilos of grapes a year.

Key Awards

2009

RIBA European Award

Shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize

Chicago Atheneum Award

World Architecture Festival –

Production, Energy and Recycling

Civic Trust Award

Conde Nast Traveller ID & D, Gourmet Category

IStructe Award

Industrial