Samos, Greece
Aiming to connect the Metaxa brand to its roots, Liknon designed K-Studio, and Fytron is located in a 100-year-old vineyard in Samos, where its special ingredient, the sweet muscat grape grows.
Liknon has recently been awarded a 2023 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The project is a landmark in a valley beneath the village of Vourliotes, that will showcase the origins of Metaxa which are tightly bound to the island’s culture, one with a long tradition in high-quality goods and winemaking.
In Liknon, the vine is the protagonist, and the traditional concept of a museum building dissolves into a walkthrough and an exploration of the vine’s habitat.
Rather than a building, it is a landscape, where the visitor wanders around and under the vines’ birthplace, and submerges underground to get in touch with the brand’s history through an interactive experience and a series of sensory activations.
The architecture of this scenery is an extension of the productive dry stone terraces where vines grow and borrow the dynamic and roughness of the natural and traditional productive landscape in order to blend into the valley.
Together with the experience in the Kifisia premises, Liknon showcases not only the origins of Metaxa but also the continuation and expansion of its production circle beyond its limits, through experimental new products and practices, as well as the exciting exploration of the drink’s textures when it is found in a table with local goods.
Following the traces of an ancient path, it unravels onto consecutive plateaus held by “pezoules,” taking the visitor on a walkthrough around and under the vines’ birthplace, submerging underground in order to get in touch with the roots of the brand through an interactive experience and a series of sensory activations.
Project: Liknon
Architects: K-Studio
Landscape Architects: FYTRON
Design Team: Dimitris Karampatakis, Christos Spetseris, Stavros Kotsikas, Marina Leventaki, Achilleas Pliakos, Argyris Mavronikolas, Arianna Mechili, Dimitris Eleftheriadis, Natassa Kallou, and Thalia Sachinidi
General Contractor: Ballian Techniki S.A.
Clients: Metaxa ABE and Remy Cointreau Group
Photographers: Claus Brechenmacher and Reiner Baumann (BREBA)
