Chateau La Coste, located just outside of Aix-en-Provence, was founded in 2004 by Irish tycoon as well as property developer Paddy McKillen, one of the few figures that emerged relatively unscathed from Ireland's crash in 2010. Since its founding, Chateau La Coste has become a world-renowned symbol for excellent wine, high-profile art and architecture and has succeeded to host one of the most envied and prestigious art collections in the world of wineries. Paddy McKillen has engaged the world's top architects and has commissioned buildings from them, dotted around the 250-hectare estate. Tadao Ando, Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry, Sir Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, Kenzo Kuma and Oscar Niemeyer are just some of the names who either have buildings there already, or which are under construction. Piano, for example, was commissioned in the summer of 2013 to build a photography pavilion to host exhibitions. While Kenzo Kuma is planning a pavilion in which a steel spring weaves a path in and out of the trees. As the Japanese archi-star says: 'The spiral moves according to people walking, and to the wind.' Artists including Richard Serra, Andy Goldsworthy, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Louise Bourgeois, Franz West and Paul Matisse have been invited to stay on the estate, be inspired by its miles of paths, vineyard and woodland, and create site-specific pieces for it. These are mostly monumental in scale, and are integrated into the landscape, built into hillsides, nestled underground, erected on top of hills and enclosed in woodland clearings. Some other works already part of the collection of Paddy McKillen have been installed in the winery, too like a piece by Japanese artist and architect Tadao Ando called Four Cubes to Contemplate Our Environment (2008), which explores sustainability and the environment, and is hosted in a pavilion specifically conceived by the architect for this work.

Tadao Ando, Four Cubes to Contemplate Our Environment (2008).

Tadao Ando, Four Cubes to Contemplate Our Environment (2008).

Tadao Ando, one of the first architects who contributed to shape the landscape of the winery, is also the author of one of the most mystical spaces on the property: a chapel dominated by silence ad a feeling of introspection. When Tadao Ando saw a ruined chapel on the top of a hill located within the borders of the Chateau that was used in the past by pilgrims moving along the Santiago de Compostela route, set in a small grove of trees among the vineyards, he said that he "wanted to wrap his arms around it to protect it," and the resulting work is a glass cube that surrounds the ruin. There is no ceiling to the chapel, so when the door is closed it is dark apart from light that floods in from the gap to to the pavilion roof, and through three small holes that illuminate a glass altar. Nearby the chapel, another work filled with highly meditative overtones is Oak Room (2009) by British artist Andy Goldsworthy. For Goldsworthy’s permanent installation, the artist literally wove together the trunks of oak trees cleared from a nearby forest to create a kind of cave within a hillside—a monumental, cathedral-like space that is one of the many surprises awaiting visitors to Chateau La Coste.

Tadao Ando’s Chapel.

Oak Room (2009) by British artist Andy Goldsworthy.

Around the domain, monumental artworks echo the architecture and fascinate the viewers with their poetic qualities, with their evocative yet majestic mood. Louise Bourgeois’ Crouching Spider, for example, was installed a few days before the artist passed away and dominates the pebble-filled pool reflecting the surrounding hills and vineyards outside Tadao Ando's visitor centre. Franz West accented the vineyard’s promenade with his bright yellow Faux-Pas (2006), a sort of phallic totem that blurs the line between sculpture and furniture. While Richard Serra’s Aix (2008), is made of vast sheets of steel inserted into a hillside at varying angles, like skewed steps. Hiroshi Sugimoto’s conical sculptural piece Infinity (2010) rises from the water and tapers to a point no more than one millimeter in diameter and encourages a zen-like quietness and introspection. Many other pieces of different scales are scattered around the property in both secluded and more accessible areas, and just await to be discovered by the public that can decide to visit the property with a guided tour or alone.

Louise Bourgeois’ Crouching Spider

Franz West’s Faux-Pas (2006)

Richard Serra’s piece Aix (2008)

Tadao Ando's visitor centre.

Alexander Calder’s 1976 work Small Crinkley outside Tadao Ando's reception building .

View of the Crouching Spider by Louise Bourgeois and the visitor centre built by Tadao Ando.

Hiroshi Sugimoto’s piece Infinity.

Architecture is another wonder of Chateau La Coste. In 2008, for example, a brand new, gravity-flow winery was built, and was designed by prominent French architect Jean Nouvel. This hangar-shaped building combines high-technology in terms of wine production with a futuristic approach in terms of materials employed and its outer shape. It is one of the examples of the blurring of the natural and artificial landscapes visible on site and that immediately strikes the viewer’s eyes for its being embedded and at the same time estranged from the landscape. Apart from Nouvel, Frank Gehry contributed a music pavilion, specially conceived for concerts and music events, thus proving the multi-faceted nature of Chateau La Coste.

Jean Nouvel’s winery.

The music Pavilion built by Frank O’Gehry.

The music Pavilion built by Frank O’Gehry.

The property’s collection is evolving on a constant basis. A five-star hotel, conceived for the site by Marseille’s Tangram Architects is scheduled for completion late this year. It is to be located underground, embedded in the Provençal landscape. Other exhibition spaces, research facilities, and a cooking school are on the drawing board, as is a concert hall designed by the world’s oldest living architect, the 105-year-old Oscar Niemeyer. A series of organic gardens is being designed by French landscape designer Louis Benech who reached international recognition for his renovation of Paris Jardin des Tuileries in the early 1990s as a member of the team that revamped the gardens during President François Mitterand’s Grand Louvre project.

The Chateau started in a very low profile way, and even without making too much efforts, and thanks to the thoughtful management of Paddy McKillen’s sister Mara it has soon become a must-see destination for both art lovers, architecture fans and wine tasters. Today it welcomes more than 200 people each day, and it is expected to host even more events contributing to bridging the gap between art and life, natural and man-made environment.