Saxum Vineyard Equipment Barn | 2018

Paso Robles, California, USA

Architects: Clayton Korte 
Design Team: Brian Korte, Josh Nieves, Derek Klepac, and Brandon Tharp
Client: Saxum Vineyards
General Contractor: Rarig Construction
Photographers: Casey Dunn

Located in the Templeton Gap area of West Paso Robles, California, this simple agricultural storage structure rests below the 50-acre James Berry Vineyard and the adjacent Saxum Winery sitting just over 800 feet away.

Designed as a modern pole barn, the pipe structure’s primary objectives are to provide an armature for a photovoltaic roof system that offsets more than 100% of power demands on the winery and to provide covered open-air storage for farming vehicles and their implements, workshop, and maintenance space, and storage for livestock supplies. Minimalistic materials on the barn were selected to withstand the particularly dry climate, regional availability, long-term durability, and minimize the need for maintenance.

The primary column and roof structure are constructed of welded salvaged Schedule 40 oil field drill stem pipe, left to weather naturally. Laminated glass solar modules, serving as both the solar system and the roofing, are supported on wood and steel flitch purlins welded to the pipe trusses. 22 ga Cor-Ten corrugated perforated steel panels provide shading and filtered privacy to equipment bays.

Salvaged materials do more with less. Barn doors are clad in weathered steel off-cuts that were saved for reuse from the adjacent winery shoring walls, reused in a ‘calico’ pattern to fit the oddly shaped drops to tube steel framed door leaves. Storage boxes are skinned with stained cedar siding with the interiors clad with unfinished rotary-cut Douglas Fir plywood.

Designed to harness the local climate to maximize cross ventilation, daylight, and solar energy, the steel pipe structure holds the photovoltaic roof system that reduces the purchase of electric energy (kWh) by 171% (roughly 88,697 kWh per year), eliminating the dependence of grid-tied power for the winery and the vineyard irrigation wells through net metering. Utilizing 192 Lumos Solar LSX frameless solar modules as both the actual primary roof and the renewable energy generator, offset any additional costs to construct an additional roof with separately mounted crystalline solar panels.

Projecting the estimated carbon reduction over the life of the system eliminates 2,150 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the project footprint.

Sitting sentry as the foremost structure present upon entering the vineyard lined property, the barn, and its renewable energy system speak to the winery’s commitment to sustainability and subservience to the natural landscape. This structure is completely self-sufficient and operates independently from the energy grid, maximizing the structure’s survivability and resilience.