Wine City Gurjaani ComplexGurjaani, GE2026

We are pleased to present "Wine City", our competition concept for a wine museum and an associated scientific, cultural-educational and tourist complex in Gurjaani (58a Vano Sarajishvili St.). The site lies at the north-eastern entrance to the town, next to the Tbilisi-Telavi road and roundabout, gently sloping towards the Alazani Valley and the Caucasus range.

A courtyard plan turns a solid outer perimeter towards the busy road, shielding the neighbouring houses from noise, while opening inwards onto a protected recreational garden. Surrounded by newly planted collection vineyards and built of clay brick and Corten steel, the building seems to grow directly out of the Kakhetian soil.

The compositional centre of the complex is a cylindrical observation tower, a new landmark for Gurjaani. From the underground storage vaults, evoking the qvevri buried in the earth, a spiral staircase leads visitors up to a glazed top floor with 360-degree views, a metaphor for the growth of the vine and Georgia's 8,000-year winemaking tradition.

Above a fully glazed ground floor, the perforated brick volume of the upper storey appears to float. Its relief brickwork, a contemporary reading of traditional Kakhetian architecture, casts shifting patterns of light and shadow inside by day and turns the building into a glowing lantern at night.

On two floors above ground and one below, the complex brings together permanent and temporary exhibitions, an immersive hall, a library, an auditorium, laboratories, a tasting room, a semi-open marani (wine cellar), an enoteca, a café and a restaurant. The central courtyard and the spaces around it remain freely accessible to everyone.

Wine City Gurjaani — competition concept for a wine museum with a research, cultural, educational and tourism complex in Gurjaani, Kakheti, Georgia. Designed by ISYNC architects.