Raising the bar: Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance’s immersive lounge for Perrier-Jouët

Last year, Perrier-Jouët unveiled L’Eden, a multidisciplinary lounge space which was presented in Miami and Tokyo, created in collaboration with glass artist Ritsue Mishima and Austrian design duo mischer'traxler. For London Design Festival, the champagne house resurfaced the concept, based on a dynamic bar and lounge space. Working with French designer Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance on the design of the space, Perrier-Jouët explored a new way of serving champagne, adding new gestures and approaches to the idea of a bar.

‘This platform gives us the opportunity to explore all the different facets of the Perrier-Jouët house,’ says Axelle De Buffevent, the company’s style director. ‘The idea behind the space is about exploring totally new ways of consuming champagne and serving it, reinventing the bar, playing with the house’s DNA.’

The French designer looked at the company’s illustrious Art Nouveau heritage, exploring nature both in its creative manifestation and in the more literal sense, going back to the grapes that serve as the main ingredient for Perrier-Jouët champagne. The space he created revolves around brass and Plexiglas structures, a stylised pergola which holds the traditional champagne glasses of the maison. ‘I was thinking of transforming the gesture of serving champagne, like if you were picking some grapes, and directly from a vine,’ says Duchaufour-Lawrance. His design recreates nature with a new interpretation, using light, shadows and materials to pay tribute to Perrier-Jouët and its product in a playful manner. ‘Champagne is serious because of all the process behind it, but it’s also about fantasy, about enjoying the moment and most of the time when you drink champagne it is for celebration.’

In the space, a lounge area is furnished with seating modules the designer created for Bernhardt, that complement the sinuous shapes of his bar structures. Sound designer Bastian Zeiselmair, whom Duchaufour-Lawrance met at Domaine de Boisbuchet, created a bespoke soundtrack to animate the space.

‘The only thing we asked Noé was to reinvent the moment of consumption,’ adds De Buffevent. ‘Make sure we are not just standing behind a bar – reinvent this action. And the result is all about curves and movement. The installation answered the question in an amazing way.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Perrier-Jouët website