Kyrö Barrell Storage Building by Avanto Architects

Avanto Architects has designed Kyrö Barrell Storage Building for a Finnish craft producer of spirits. Located in Isokyrö, Finland, the storage measures 1,065m² (11,465ft²).

The site is bordered on the South side by the memorial for historic Napue battle that gave name for company’s famous gin. The storage buildings were to be placed in a dense forest housing also flying squirrels’ habitat. This gave us the idea to design the storage buildings as traditional barns clad in wooden planks and hiding in the middle of the forest. The project is the first building in a row of five identic buildings. It soon came out that designing industrial buildings should be done in very tight framework conditions. In order to call spirit whisky, you need to store it at least three years in oak barrels. Huge storage buildings needed to be constructed even if you don’t know whether the product will be selling well after the storage period. To minimize the financial risk the buildings were assembled from standard concrete pillars, beams and elements unlike in the first sketches that were based on wooden structures.

There are very strict fire regulations concerning the barrel storage buildings as whisky is classified as a flammable liquid. This is why the space needed to be divided in five separate compartments. Each room has a strictly controlled indoor climate with certain temperature and humidity. The amount of alcohol evaporating from the wooden barrels is measured so that the air doesn’t get flammable. The façade is inspired by typical local wooden barns. The concrete exterior wall sandwich elements were cast on a mold made of planks from a dismantled barn owned by the mother-in-law of one of the distillery owners. Funnily, concrete reproduces the weathered wood material so well that many people have been touching the façade and still believing it is wood. Typical for the playful Kyrö people, the barrel storage building was inaugurated by organizing a rave in the empty warehouse.

— Avanto Architects

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