Winery Sonnberg (Sonberk)

In 2004, a competition was held among four architects for a new winery overlooking Pálava and the Novomlýn Reservoir for a private investor. Since I had previously failed with a number of projects, I wanted to win this competition at all costs. Our team dedicated a full three months to the design. The cellar master explained to us that wine production must take place by gravity, by free flow without pumping. Therefore, we located the facility in a spot with maximum slope. It seemed reasonable to us to design a compact structure measuring 30 x 30 m with one side just seven meters underground. Another principle was that from the wine tasting rooms, there would be views of both the landscape towards Pálava and all technological areas: the pressing room, tank hall, handling areas, and also the wine shop. The cellar master was very pleased because he could also see Pálava from his laboratory during daylight. At the same time, I learned that my design was favored by both the investor and the Austrian wine technologists.
After the joint presentation of all four designs, however, the investor sent us an additional contract, under which we were to forfeit our copyright for a hundred years. I refused to sign this contract and informed my best friend Pleskot, who was also competing.
Shortly thereafter, to my great surprise, I discovered that I was not the only one who refused to sign this outrage. Pleskot subsequently won the competition with a linear design measuring 70 meters long and extending 11 meters underground, with views from the tasting room only towards the landscape and with the cellar master deep underground.
In 2007, apparently at the request of the investor, the cellar master, and the Austrians, a winery was unlawfully realized based on my spatial concept of 30 x 30 m and my idea concerning the tasting and cellar master.