This design project focuses on mediating two distinct yet interrelated processes: the production of wine and the fabrication of traditional Georgian wine fermentation vessels, qvevri. In order to establish an architectural identity for the town to move on from its lingering Stalinist past, the sanatorium site, which was initially built for collective institutionalised recreation, is reconfigured to host a program of collective cooperative production. The proposed winery achieves this by absorbing the existing ruins through a new typology informed by participatory production processes and ritualistic celebration.

Georgian culture is already heavily centred around the notion of celebrating everything from small everyday pleasures to important occasions. The supra (feast) presents the common format for these celebrations and follows a traditional ritual process led by the tamada, the toast master, aided by the merikife, the wine runner. In stretching the concept of the supra over a year-long period, the building is structured to accommodate three key celebratory rituals along the annual cycle of its wine and ceramics production. Each represents a toast dictated by an interactive architectural embodiment of the tamada and the merikife.