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Domaine De Montille Winery in Hakodate integrates and combines Terroir and Ainu philosophy through contemporary interpretation to fit our time and place in history and technology. Design emphasis is on subtlety of form and material, as opposed to overly decorative, shallow and superficial design character. Consistent with Ainu tradition and in a meaningful gesture of respect for the land and nature, the winery buildings are massed, shaped and partially buried to merge with and celebrate the landscape. These principles will remain consistent with the addition of each successive phase of development. Literally buried in part, the winery buildings are embedded in a field of scented gardens and sunlit vineyards.

The architecture is imbued with warm tones of local timber, stained with wine-processing residues; walls are rendered with the colours of sun-dried earth. Butterfly roofs and canopies provide shade and shelter to external activity areas, collect rainwater for reuse and provide a platform for photovoltaics harnessing the energy from the sun. Drainage and waste disposal systems are designed to return effluent and runoff to the land in a natural and sustainable cycle.

Interiors emphasize location, nature and the land by showcasing Hakodate’s unique, dramatic landscape, with focused views to Hakodate’s crescent bay and mountains; the vineyards ever-present in the foreground.