Volta Estate Winery, PEC

WINNER OF A 2025 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

This project operates inventively at the intersection of industrial function, landscape, cultural identity and experiential design. It reinterprets regional architectural precedents with sophistication, transforming familiar forms and materials into a compelling architectural vision that expands the possibilities of a winery. Its formal gestures respond innovatively to site, regional typologies, a complex program, and rigorous sustainability principles. The jury was impressed by the project’s ability to balance bold architectural expression with contextual sensitivity while fostering engagement. – Kelly Buffey, juror

LOCATION Prince Edward County, Ontario

The family-owned Volta Winery aims to adapt exacting, Old World winemaking practices to the terroir and agrarian landscape of Ontario’s Prince Edward County. Giannone Petricone Associates has designed a four-season production-and-hospitality facility for this client that takes cues from the rugged informality of Ontario farm architecture, while reflecting the family’s commitment to sustainable winemaking practices and emphasis on providing an exceptional gastronomic experience to visitors.

In their organization and orientation, the facility’s architectural elements respond to the specifics of climate, program, and industrial function. Two small structures—a gate house and a residence for winery workers—are positioned close to the site entrance off the Loyalist Parkway. The winery itself is set well back from the road, on land planted with twenty acres of vines in 2022. The building’s three main volumes, webbed together by a courtyard-covering wood roof, radiate out around the circular tasting bar. 

Clad primarily in Canadian Corten steel and ‘pulled apart’ in a manner recalling a traditional farm’s freestanding combo of farmhouse, barns/sheds, and silo, the winery’s forms offer a contemporary re-interpretation of Prince Edward County’s vernacular architecture. Extending out from and around the building are various elements designed to mitigate the extremes of the region’s weather—namely, wind, rain, and annual temperature fluctuation. In addition to what the design team describes as “hard-working canopies,” these elements include deep overhangs, pergolas, and an amphitheatre that nestles into a grade change southwest of the winery facility.

Fittingly for a client committed to organic farming, this net zero-targeting project incorporates a host of sustainable design strategies. A productive geothermal system provides heating and cooling, and photovoltaics supplement building power. These systems, in tandem with design devices including deep overhangs, wind buffers, and outdoor fire pits, contribute to the viability of shoulder-season use and help minimize the volume of environmentally controlled interior spaces. The structural system contains structural steel with high recycled content, responsibly sourced timber products, and low-carbon insulation.

The winery complex is serviced by a well-water system, and ground water is absent seasonally because of the shallow overburden and upper fractured bedrock. To support the responsible use of water on the site, the drainage management system includes a retention pond for stormwater management and fire extinguishing, and cisterns have been provided to ensure adequate water is stored for manufacturing and hospitality activities.

Some aspects of the design allude to the cultural traditions of northern Italy’s Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, the owners’ ancestral home. In an alcove within the restaurant, for example, the freestanding fogolar, or cooking fireplace, evokes the central gathering place in a Friulian home. The design team appears to have achieved its stated objective of creating architecture that “will reflect the wine in its quiet grandness and unexpected beauty while embracing and warming the palette.”

CLIENT Volta Estate Winery | ARCHITECT TEAM Ralph Giannone (FRAIC), Pina Petricone (FRAIC), Andria Vacca (MRAIC), Liane Werdina, Emily Guo, Tess Macpherson, Andrea Bickley, Serafima Korovina, Grace Leong, Olivia Carson | STRUCTURAL Blackwell | MEP/CIVIL Hallex | LAN

DSCAPE Janet Rosenberg & Studio | SUSTAINABILITY Purpose Building | PROCESSING Laporte Consulting | GEOTHERMAL Rathco Engineering | RENDERINGS Office In Search Of | AREA 2,900 m2 | BUDGET Withheld | STATUS Design Development | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION 2027

ENERGY USE INTENSITY (EUI) 152.3 kWh/m2/year | THERMAL ENERGY DEMAND INTENSITY (TEDI) 61.9 kWh/m2/year

As featured in the Canadian Architect December 2025 Awards of Excellence issue.

Read our jury’s full comments here.

You can see all of the 2025 Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence winners here.

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