A-bureau builds vertical alcohol distillery based on execution device

A-bureau builds vertical alcohol distillery based on execution device
all images courtesy of A-bureau

for the palp music festival in switzerland, the experimental architects of A-bureau have designed an installation firmly rooted in history called ‘thomas’. the concept spurs from the story of thomas derrick, a hangman from the elizabethan era who chopped more than 3000 heads during his lifetime. beginning as a soldier, derrick and his comrades were responsible of rapes and numerous atrocities during the war and were thus condemned to the death penalty. the official hangman being absent, he exchanged his condemnation for a new job: executioner. with the aim of ever improving his working tools, he invented a vertical mat at the top of which hung a pulley. this device became quickly an eponym of his own name: ‘the derrick’.

oil drilling mechanisms

the firm also looked into the life of edwin drake, a man from the late 1900s who dug the first oil well in pennsylvania. the precious extracted liquid was then distilled to obtain lighting oil, the kerosene. this very first drilling tower from the oil era was also called ‘the derrick’ by analogy to the executioner’s tool. it could, however, be assimilated to the monumental architecture of claude-nicolas ledoux, particularly the un-built project for the canon forge.

(left) exterior view
(right) Entry door

these utopian and somehow subversive smoking, head cutting and digging tools have been freely interpreted for the project. here, a new function has been added to the long and fascinating narrative of the device: alcohol production. working as a vertical distillery, it aspires to revive an illegal, yet very common, activity in some part of switzerland, one that is far from moral aspirations.

view of the bar

(left) view of the structure while the construction
(right) looking up towards the sky

detail of the bar

alembic system during the construction process

the structure at night 

neon light above the entrance 

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.