The Quinta de Adorigo Winery has emerged as one of the standout winners at the World Architecture Festival in Miami. The project secured a hat trick of honours, including one of the 18 Completed Building Prizes – for Production Energy and Logistics (one of the fastest-growing categories), before also claiming the Best Use of Timber and Best Use of Natural Light awards at the Gala Dinner.
Designed by Atelier Sérgio Rebelo, the winery is defined by its sweeping mass timber frame—a structure that Sérgio Rebelo, founder of the firm, vividly described as “the skeleton of an ancient, giant animal.” Speaking exclusively to Wood Central, Mark Thomson, chair of the judging panel for the category, called the timber roof “masterfully conceived as the primary architectural feature of this functional rural building, in a UNESCO region of Portugal.”
The winery at Quinta de Adorigo, completed in 2024, is part of a family-run wine tourism development in Portugal’s Alto Douro Wine Region, a UNESCO World Heritage Site recognised for its natural and cultural significance. Designed to minimise environmental impact, the project utilises existing infrastructure while anticipating future adaptations. Its curvilinear architecture echoes the zigzag vineyards without compromising functionality. (Photo Credit: Fernando Guerra / FG + SG)
“Its hypersurface roof design is beautifully positioned in the challenging landscape. The laminated timber portals pay homage to timber’s important role in the winery industry over thousands of years, both in the storage of the wine and supporting the vines in the vineyards,” Thomson said.
Sérgio Rebelo, from Atelier Sérgio Rebelo, accepted the WAF Best Use of Timber 2025 prize at the Gala Dinner in Miami, United States of America, on Friday. (Photo Credit: Supplied to Central PR Group / Wood Central for use)
Wood Central understands that several of this year’s awards featured mass-engineered timber, including T3’s Diagonal Mar Offices in Barcelona (for Office) and the Osaka-Kansai Expo 2025 Japan Pavilion (for Display), underscoring the material’s growing use in both structural and aesthetic applications. Judges Banu Ucak of Turkey and Eduardo Tibuzzi of Italy agreed that this year’s entries achieved the highest environmental standards they had seen at WAF, following seven hours of deliberation in the Production, Energy and Logistics category.
Meet the judges: Eduardo Tibuzzi of Italy and Banu Ucak of Turkey, with Mark Thomson, from Australia, who judged the WAF Completed Buildings – Production Energy and Logistics category at the World Architecture Festival in Miami, United States of America, last week. (Photo Credit: Supplied to Central PR Group / Wood Central for use)
The winery itself is composed of a series of curving, barn-like volumes that step down the hillside, their geometry echoing the contours of the surrounding terrain. Rebelo explained that the design went through “many iterations until we found something that just seemed natural and as though it was always there.” His ambition was for the architecture to dissolve into its setting: “I wanted the building to blur with the landscape, in a way that you can’t tell where the building starts or ends.”
The facility is formed of barn-like timber volumes. “The geometry of the winery’s roof interprets the vernacular gable roof structured in wood,” Rebelo told Dezeen earlier this month. “This structure has been taken over and exposed in this winery and has become a sinuous, continuous and organic sculptural element that flows through the tangential curves of the vineyard slope.” (Photo Credit: Fernando Guerra / FG + SG)
At its core, the project is a study in timber. Laminated wooden frames, infilled with cross-laminated timber panels and glass-fibre-reinforced concrete, form the gabled volumes. The twisting framework has been left exposed both inside and out, transforming the vernacular gable roof into what Rebelo calls “a sinuous, continuous and organic sculptural element that flows through the tangential curves of the vineyard slope.”
Quinta de Adrorigo Winery’s timber frame has been left exposed throughout the inside of the winery. (Photo Credits: Fernando Guerra / FG + SG)
Visitors enter at the lowest point of the building, through a cave-like shop and up a sculptural concrete staircase. At the heart of the winery lies a double-height ageing hall, partially sunk into stone retaining walls to stabilise temperature. Here, industrial vats and barrels are overlooked by steel balconies and a glazed tasting room. “The section of this space is very similar to a church—about 10 meters high—with natural light coming from above,” Rebelo said. “In a way, this makes the room feel very spiritual and with a special connection to timelessness.”
The winners all lined up: In total, more than 1,800 architects and designers visited the Miami Beach Convention Centre, with the winners across all 40 categories, recognised at the WAF 2025 Gala Dinner on Friday. (Photo Credit: Supplied to Central PR Group / Wood Central for use)
The festival concluded with a gala dinner, during which the winery was also highly commended in the Best Use of Timber and Best Use of Natural Light categories. To learn more about the World Architecture Festival, including the winner of the Future Prize, the Gelephu International Airport, which will use a massive timber diagrid system, click here for Wood Central’s special feature from Friday.
Jason Ross, publisher, is a 15-year professional in building and construction, connecting with more than 400 specifiers. A Gottstein Fellowship recipient, he is passionate about growing the market for wood-based information. Jason is Wood Central’s in-house emcee and is available for corporate host and MC services.
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