Get spirited away with these architectural flights of fancy. From Scotland’s Speyside to Utah, Dublin and the rolling hills of Hampshire, we travel and explore some of the best recent examples of distillery architectureMaking spirits is one thing; you find your raw material, turn it into alcohol, age it if necessary, then bottle it and release it to the world. But designing for a distillery is an entirely different matter.
And then there’s the view. Whether it’s Speyside glimpsed from the windows of Glenrinnes, Islay from Ardnahoe or Skye from Raasay, magic can happen when a distillery celebrates its surrounding landscape.What’s most impressive about the design of The Macallan’s distillery on the Easter Elchies estate in Speyside, Scotland, is its invisibility. Blink and you’ll miss it as you approach the site from nearby Craigellachie.
Chivas Brothers said it didn’t want an ‘industrial shed’ when it commissioned the designer, instead specifying that its 15th Scotch distillery should be open and transparent. Walking round Dalmunach, it’s easy to appreciate how the project met its brief, with the layout of the stills for making the whisky and the huge glass walls creating a sense of space. The combination of dark grey metal, white-washed walls and oiled timbers in its palette creates a crisp and classic finish.