Formafantasma designers on creating a nature refuge in Champagne

As part of Perrier-Jouët’s annual artistic collaborations, Milan-based Italian designers Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin of Formafantasma tell Dionne Bel how they have built a refuge for indigenous flora and fauna in a vineyard in Champagne 

Last september, andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, the founders of Formafantasma, presented Biodiversity Island: 74 terracotta columns composed of stacked modular cylinders, some perforated, hollowed and grooved, imagined as homes for insects, birds and bats. Set on a wild patch of land in the Perrier-Jouët-owned Agusons vineyard in the village of Ambonnay in the French wine region of Champagne, it is an experimentation in how design can enhance biodiversity, alongside the work of scientists monitoring the impact of regenerative viticulture on the nature- aligned champagne house’s 65 hectares of vineyards. 

A decade ago, Perrier-Jouët introduced trees, shrubs, hedges, stone walls and beehives to its vineyards, embarking on a programme to adapt its practices to minimise its environmental footprint and boost biodiversity, which includes biomass and floral plant covers and the elimination of herbicides. At present, it has converted 28 hectares to regenerative viticulture with the aim of extending this to 100% of its vineyards by 2030. 

Believing that design should not only draw inspiration from nature but benefit it, Formafantasma – renowned for its research-driven approach spanning furniture, product and exhibition design that champions a deeper understanding of our natural and built environments – created Biodiversity Island to become a green corridor that will enable the continuous flow of species between vineyards. It is accompanied by a pair of wooden sound sculptures hand-painted with local plants and animals inhabiting Biodiversity Island that broadcast the biodiversity found in Agusons vineyard to the world, harmonies that were recorded onsite by Italian composer David Monacchi, who captures the sounds of ecosystems. 

The music boxes will travel to international art and design fairs alongside the multi-sensory Banquet of Nature by Perrier-Jouët curated by Formafantasma, which unites the house’s pillars of art, nature, champagne and gastronomy to spark conversations on biodiversity. As it marks just the first chapter of a larger project called Cohabitare, Formafantasma will next year rehabilitate a grange and an observatory tower currently lying abandoned in Agusons. The first will become a space dedicated to education and community engagement, while the second will morph into a sanctuary solely for flora and fauna.