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PROVIGNAGE
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By Thio Lay Hoon : ID Magazine
Vol. 15 No 5 Oct | Nov
1997
The vaulted part of the room is at the counter immediately
facing the main entrance. To the left is a wine cellar. Cement is the dominant finish used
in replicating the underground textures of a wine cave. Even the economical bulbs strung
over the counter are part of the thematic idea. The bar is an unusually long chunk of
concrete that has no bar stools. (Ed Poole: 'There never will be!') Patrons can stand or
gather around it when they want to drink here. At the other end is the cashier counter.
As drapery, enhanced with ambient lighting, soften and blur
the hard edges of the concrete accessories, such as this life-size painting by Willy Baet
(Poole Associates) at one side of the center seating area and custom designed medieval
candelabra, further create an enigmatic, theatrical kind of expression to the spaces.
The central seating area. Says Ed Poole: 'The whole point
of wine-tasting is the smell, the texture, the color...wine-tasting involves your senses
which are heightened, and you pay attention more'. The raw textures of the brick, which is
a representation of carved limestone dug out of the earth, and the cold concrete of the
bar - 'when you are standing up against the bar and leaning against it, you're going to
feel the chill on your arm' - are contrasted with the very soft and velvety drapery. High
quality carpeting in this room helps to dampen echoes and absorb sound reverberations in a
very 'live' space which can be a problem when there are so many hard surfaces all around.
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la cave du vin
I N A
C A V E B Y T H E R I V E R
Next to coffee, wine is easily the most popular
beverage consumed in Singapore, if the slew of wine bars that have opened to date are any
indication. Besides its remarkable selection of French wines, Provignage at Riverside View
stands apart uniquely from the rest in two main aspects - its partially subterranean
interior is modeled after the underground wine caves of France, and it doesn't serve
cigars.
Says Andrew Jones of Poole Associates: 'Amongst the people
funding it were direct importers of wine and they have connections with certain vineyards,
particularly in France. One of the company directors had experience going down into these
old wine cellars underneath the chateaus to taste the wine there, so she was keen on the
idea to replicate the surroundings somehow back here'.
Given the newly developed site - 'an interesting but
currently remote location, and in a building that we didn't find any architectural
connection with. There was nothing there that we could use to bring into the interior' -
it would have seemed more appropriate, anyway, to internalize the concept, one that would
'take away the feeling that you are in a new building somewhere in Singapore. When you are
in there, you are in a totally different environment to the way you actually approach the
building'. But this may change when the immediate riverside walkway areas are developed.
Then, there will be outdoor seating next to the river, with plantings under an open sky.
And when that is realized, there will be two distinct environments where patrons can
choose to 'stay outside to enjoy the river there, while those inside can feel like they
are in a cellar somewhere'.
Says Ed Poole: 'Provignage's concept is directly opposed to
the general concept of China Jump, where the idea was to try and integrate the whole
architecture and ambiance of the complex in the fit-out.' Consequent to the idea of a wine
cave for Provignage, the designers came up with a series of curved vaulted spaces, in a
very literal interpretation of three vaults running through the site space with a series
of intermediate arches connecting them together in a quite complex three-dimensional form.
Says Andrew: 'We went through maybe half a dozen different ways to see how we can build
this. But in any way which we detail it, put it together and try and get near the client's
budget, none of the contractors we spoke to were capable of constructing it'. Eventually,
they retained only one-third of the vaulting in the original proposal, placed over the bar
and cellar.
And the rest of the room became more of a reinterpretation
of a theatrical environment, 'on the basis that around the corner (in Merbau Road) they
intend to build the Singapore Repertory Theatre there'. Patrons to the theatre can come to
Provignage before or after a show to partake in wine, and to savor some sort of lively
theatrical environment. Even with this modification to the underground cellar theme, the
French connection isn't completely deferred from. The designers had, in material finishes,
furnishing and accessories, and in a brilliant play with lighting in the form of oil lamps,
candelabras, hidden halogen spots, detailed the rest of the space to retain an atmosphere
akin to that found in places closely associated with wine-making in France - 'the
monastery, European abbey, chateau, church vineyards and cellars, that sort of thing'.
The current two-in-one concept turned out a 'happier'
solution. Says Andrew: '(The original idea) is twisted into something unique on its own,
rather than just a wholesale replication of a wine cellar'.
Project Team:
Andrew Jones, Ed Poole, Marie Bogart, Rey Tadifa, Wong Kim Mei, Willy Baet, Quek Hock Kie
(Fuji)
Photography : Peter Mealin, C I & A
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