Château la Coste

architect Tadao Ando
project Château la Coste, Aix-en-Provence, France
written by Maroje Mrduljaš

 

As other parts of the Mediterranean as well as other regions in the world, Provence is a fine example of cultivated landscape. From pre-ancient times and especially during the period of ancient Rome, the nature was cultivated and adapted to human needs. The network of anthropogenic interventions – simple agricultural interventions, infrastructure elements, individual buildings and urban units – make an integrated system which stretches throughout the territory. The system is of different density, it is sometimes even completely inconspicuous, but nature and topography are both under the influence of human activities. Vineyards are paradigmatically cultivated landscapes: carefully shaped anthropogenic landscapes whose textures and forms depend on the complex rules of viticulture.