Concept Alpine museum can go hang

What could be more appealing to the educated wine tourist than a trip to Switzerland's Lavaux region, where the ideal conditions on the northern shore of Lake Geneva have encouraged the cultivation of vineyards since at least the 11th century? A brand new Museum of Wine – that might work. Better still, Mauro Turin Architectes suspects, would be a brand new Museum of Wine suspended over the edge of a cliff.

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Cantilevers, horizontal parts of a structure supported at only one end, aren't unusual in architecture. The humble balcony is a cantilever, and horizontal protrusions are increasingly de rigueur in skyscraper designs seeking to out-iconify those that came before.

But Mauro Turin's concept is basically all cantilever. "The Museum wants to be a small iconic object in a great iconic landscape," the company's website says. They've picked the right landscape. The visualizations depict the museum overhanging the stepped vineyards, out towards the lake and the Alps beyond. The views would be quite good, one suspects.

Though the concept was produced for Swiss magazine, Hochparterre, Dezeen reports the company is in talks to bring the idea to fruition.

One suspects the historic vineyards are draw enough for the wandering wine nerds of the world. A cantilever museum may just say a few architecture nerds come along for the ride.

Sources: Mauro Turin Architectes, Dezeen