Firmenich has teamed up with arts and design college Central Saint Martins in London to reimagine the future of fine fragrance.
Previously: Firmenich Utilizes ScentMove Tech for Fragrance Creation
21 projects provide a unique, “fragrance forward” vision for game-changing uses of fine fragrance, from heat relief, water conservation and community empowerment, to mindful eating and scent travel.
Partnered with Firmenich Fine Fragrance perfumers, students in the Master of Arts of Narrative Environments and of Material Futures worked collectively to imagine seven future worlds with both utopian and dystopian attributes: Hope and Re-Enchantment, Danger/Chaos/Risk, Circularity, Generations and Memory, Hybrid Experiences, Identity and Pleasure and Wellbeing. Together, teams co-created prototypes, installations and bespoke fragrances inspired by the students’ work to show how fragrance will impact our world in the years to come.
One example of the realized prompts was student Lars Dittrich’s fragrance ventilator. Looking at the theme of Danger/Chaos/Risk, Dittrich provides a solution to manmade heat. Global warming has formed urban heat islands in heavily populated areas and cities worldwide, where natural land is replaced with buildings and surfaces that retain heat (such as pavement). The fragrance ventilator captures hot air as it rises, humidifies and cools the air in a tube and then releases jets of fragrance from vents as cool, scented breeze.
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Senior Perfumer Dora Baghriche imagined a scent to emphasize a refreshing sensation, with a green accord to emulate the relieving sensation of vegetal freshness and a mineral facet to suggest an implicit petrichor effect of fresh rain. She also added a touch of Freezestorm®, a breakthrough technology, delivering a long-lasting cooling sensation that reinforces the hyper-sensoriality of the project.
The impressive, thought-provoking prototypes were showcased in a live, day-long, closed-door exhibit held at Central Saint Martins in London in December 2020. Students walked attendees through their concepts, constructions and fragrance creations. Access to the projects is now available exclusively on Firmenich’s RE|GENERATION website so that customers and consumers can view the intricate works via images and video footage of each project.
“Firmenich is empowering a positive future for fine fragrance,” said Ilaria Resta, president, Global Perfumery, Firmenich. “Through both RE|GENERATION and Olfactive Design, we are writing a new story including creation, distribution points, distribution methods, and physical or digital experiences, to reinvent the value of fine fragrance. Perfume becomes a social intermediary, identity marker and mindful catalyst.”
Bethany Shepherd, professor of MA Narrative Environments at Central Saint Martins, said, “This is the first time our students have worked with perfume. With the rise in popularity of immersive experiences and meaningful interactions, students were keen to explore how scent can link both personal and cultural memory, and how olfactive experiences connect people to better understand each other and their environments.”
