Students from The University of Queensland showcased their visions for the future of Queensland’s premier winemaking region at the 2004 Granite Belt Spring Wine Festival.
Over the past five months 56 final year students undertook a major design project entitled Wine with Design, which involved developing design concepts for 14 wineries throughout the Granite Belt region.
Five fourth-year Bachelor of Architecture students Undine Sheldon, Christina Waterson, Anton Superlan, Catherine Watts and Jeremy Slater were presented with awards honouring their designs during the festival on October 16.
A joint initiative of the Granite Belt Wine Industry Association, Stanthorpe Shire Council and UQ, the Wine with Design project recognised Stanthorpe and the Granite Belt region as the centre of a distinctive landscape and of a developing viniculture industry.
The brief for the students was to present a vision of the Granite Belt for the future.
UQ lecturer and project coordinator Anthony Gall, who last year won a national competition for the design of a winery in Hungary, said the wine industry was going through a period of change and expansion.
“There are very few architects working locally in these areas so the idea was to bring new ideas to an issue that had been identified by the industry,” he said.
The students focused on wineries including the Granite Ridge Winery, ThunderBolt Farm, Harrington Glen, Ravenscroft Wines and Kominos Wines.
Mr Gall said the project offered students and wineries a unique opportunity to redesign the built landscape of one of the most promising and rapidly growing wine-producing regions in Australia.
“The students were required to research the design of wineries around the world before starting the Granite Belt project, which has been a wonderful challenge and opportunity for them as future professional architects,” he said.
“The results are quite spectacular and I’m sure will serve as a catalyst for inspiration and future changes to the landscape for many of the wineries involved,” he said.
The Wine with Design project was developed as an initiative of the National Year of the Built Environment, which aims to raise awareness of the buildings, structures and spaces in which we live, work and play.
The successful students were presented with their awards during a dinner presentation at the festival attended by representatives from the Ministry for Tourism, Fair Trading and Wine Industry Development, the Royal Institute of Australian Architects and UQ.
Media: For more information or photos, contact Anthony Gall (telephone 07 3365 3779, email: a.gall@uq.edu.au) or Chris Saxby at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2479, email: c.saxby@uq.edu.au).
