How Formafantasma Is Designing New Tools for Sustainable Coexistence

There are so many applications of design thinking in today’s world, and you’ve been extremely versatile in your projects over the years. What’s your definition of design, and how did you get into it?

Well, design, in the best case, is a fantastic tool for life improvement for people, other species, ecology and so on. But design is also often used for economic purposes, to expand the value and desirability of products. I think it is important to recognize that there is a distinction between the ethical possibilities of design and the economic interests at play.

During Miami Art Week, you unveiled Cohabitare, a project years in the making that celebrates biodiversity in an ecological and architectural installation perfectly integrated into the ecosystem of the Perrier-Jouët vineyards. How was the project conceived, and what inspired it?

This project developed when we were invited to visit Maison Belle Époque in Épernay, Champagne. It began once we saw what Perrier-Jouët was doing in terms of shifting their way of cultivating the land into regenerative viticulture. We thought this was extremely important and relevant because it is a different way of cultivating the land that introduced not only vines but also other plants that are beneficial for the growth of grapes and other species. The Champagne region is a monoculture for the production of wine, and so changing this to provide more biodiversity (beneficial for birds, insects and pollinators) was, in our view, a brilliant way to transform the approach to growing and producing wine.

Instead of producing an art installation that would be presented in Miami or at other art fairs around the world, we wanted to do an intervention in the fields where the real change was happening and avoid producing unnecessary elements. From there, we identified together with Perrier-Jouët a location in the fields and started the process of restoration in this area where there is also existing architecture, and the first step in these interventions was the creation of the Ilot de Biodiversité (Biodiversity Island).

SEE ALSO: Indigenous Futurism, Place and Kinship – An Interview with Crystal Bridges’ Jordan Poorman Cocker

Biodiversity Island is a plot of land where different kinds of plants have been installed according to the suggestions of a biodiversity committee. Here, species that struggle with the monoculture of wine can find refuge and also, this piece of land is untouched, which allows flora to grow throughout the whole year. It is cut only once a year, which is the best way of maintaining a piece of land where nature has its own rights. It’s a rather limited plot, but it is already providing more biodiversity for insects. We designed these modules out of ceramic that not only indicated where humans cannot enter but are also designed in such a way to provide, within the ceramic modules, habitats for pollinators such as bees, wasps, but also mosquitoes and so on. These modules were designed exactly for this purpose. The installation is made up of seventy-four modules, but only thirty-two have the cavities to avoid overpopulation.

Your holistic and conceptual approach to design introduces new perspectives on our relationship with the planet and with society. In a time where the need for ecological awareness is growing, how do you think design can contribute to conceiving, reshaping and inspiring new models of a more sustainable coexistence?

Not all the projects we do are research-based, and not all the projects we do have the same impact, because we can only do projects like this when there is a client involved who is willing to work with us and has the same aims. As you know, design also works on commission, so it is also about the commissioner. With the growing interest in ecology, more and more companies that approach us aren’t looking to work with us just as form-givers but also as independent researchers and developers. Companies have asked us to act almost as external advisors for their ecological development, and we think that’s really exciting.

Design has historically been linked to the production of new goods, contributing to the consumeristic and unsustainable output that led to many of today’s ecological issues. How do you think design can still conceive of novel objects without participating in this unsustainable circle of overproduction and overconsumption? Is sustainability in design only about adopting reusable materials, or is there another element to it?

This is a great question. Being a designer in today’s world is very complex because, at the end of the day, you’re asked to contribute to overconsumption, and I think it is important to admit that. That’s why, when you asked us to describe our definition of design, we didn’t only give a romantic, idealistic definition, but we also recognized that design is part of the economy. We are sometimes asked to design desirability, which can be problematic.

In our practice, we don’t only do commercial work; we also do research and independent work because we need all these different outlets to make sure that our practice is not taken over solely by economic interests. We obviously cannot do this with all the companies and partners we work with but some are ready to listen and to engage in a conversation with us. This goes deeper than a short commission and requires addressing the larger ecology of production.

The response we gave to Perrier-Jouët–which was to ask them to reformulate the way they engage with designers and to propose land interventions and the restoration of architecture (the second part of the work)–will result in a more long-lasting intervention instead of a temporary partnership beginning and ending at an art fair.

This is also the case with Artek, a Finnish company with whom we have worked extensively over the years—not to design new products but to redefine their selection of wood. To make it more inclusive, we included features that are typically considered undesirable–those that may not seem visually attractive but are still completely functional. We did this so the company could utilize fewer trees by expanding the usable portions of a single tree for production. Reducing the need for cutting additional trees is another example of how designers can operate beyond simply offering new forms and objects. It’s about reformulating briefs and providing more long-lasting interventions that transcend design as merely an aesthetic gesture.

Your design studio embraces a remarkable breadth of approaches and typologies, from more conventional product design to spatial design, strategic planning and design consultancy. What are some of the factors you consider as priority when you approach this complex orchestration of elements? Is the human (user/visitor/attendee) at the center of your projects or something else?

First of all, I think what is at the center of what we do is the necessity or need to rethink biases. That’s our first instinct. Of course, the visitor or the user is taken into consideration, but it is important not to think about the user as a unified entity… to engage in the oversimplification that is often happening with content.

We have so many conversations with curators and also heads of companies and so on that show they underestimate their viewers, and we think that’s the worst. I know it sounds very self-centered, but we always try to do something that is interesting, intelligent and valuable. We don’t think we are so special, which means if we find it interesting or intelligent or engaging, other people will, too. We try to limit useless interventions as much as we can. We need to at least be aware that whatever we do has an impact and so has to contribute somehow to the world, either because of an ecological intervention or because it is work that helps the cultural discourse regarding ecology or what design is and so on. The ‘whys’ are extremely important in what we do.

At the dinner hosted by Perrier-Jouët during Miami Art Week to celebrate this collaboration, you presented a sound experience that brought the sounds of nature to the table. Can you tell us more about that work and how you approach the sound component of design?

With Perrier-Jouët, we thought of doing this banquet because we wanted to have a presence in Miami yet make it less physical. We wanted it to be less about stuff and more about the ideas. The sound intervention was a composition done by Italian composer David Monacchi, who is trained as a musician and also works with scientists on eco acoustics. Eco acoustics is a way of monitoring the change in biodiversity, used extensively in the Amazon, by making very careful and extremely precise recordings to measure how, over time, species population density changes and shifts. Creating, in a way, an archive of sound.

We wanted to use a medium that was at the same time scientific but also understandable by a larger public. What you witnessed during the banquet was, as we said, a sort of composition that gives back a portrait of the biodiversity in the region of Champagne, where Perrier-Jouët is cultivating their grapes. But the really exciting thing was that we introduced David to Perrier-Jouët with the idea of inviting him for the next three years to monitor how these new ways of cultivating the land are shifting or increasing biodiversity. We thought that this was the best way: Perrier-Jouët can have more data as well as a storytelling tool that is easier to put forward in front of the larger public to show how this different way of cultivating land is having an impact on biodiversity.

This collaboration is a good example of how design can integrate with creative fields, from culinary and winemaking to event organization. How do you approach these cross-disciplinary partnerships while preserving your studio’s original identity?

Actually, the real collaboration in this project isn’t just the installation in the vineyard. The true collaboration is with the scientific committee we’ve worked with in developing the longer-term elements of Cohabitare. We’ve only discussed the first installation, Biodiversity Island, but there is much more to come. We needed to collaborate with scientists to ensure our intervention was effective in improving biodiversity. We also needed to make sure that elements of the architectural plan—such as features for migrating birds and insects—were properly integrated with the right numbers, positioning and materials. This is incredibly exciting for us. Design should never happen in solitude but always through collaboration. Our office was founded by me and my partner Andrea, so collaboration is something that comes naturally to us.