Dominus Winery, Yountville, Napa Valley, California (Section, Gabion wall)
Mario Meier
Swiss, born 1938
1994–1996
A finely rendered pencil, graphite, and ink vertical section that documents how a gabion stone wall and its foundation meet the warehouse opening at Dominus Winery, meant to record construction logic and convey material behavior.
You are struck by the contrast between the densely shaded, pebble-filled gabion texture and the spare, precise orthogonal lines and annotations—the smudged graphite and crisp inked dimensions making the wall read as both a heavy, tactile mass and a measured technical drawing.
The drawing captures a 1990s architectural interest in exposing raw materials and tectonics—showing how hand-drawn detail work remained essential for resolving the structural, material, and aesthetic decisions behind Herzog & de Meuron’s celebrated use of gabion walls.
Medium
Pencil, graphite, and ink on tracing paper
Dimensions
24 × 9 1/4" (61 × 23.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron Kabinett
Accession
790.2018.1
Palette
Exhibitions
