On October 3 in France, Maison Ruinart unveiled a reimagined complex for its historic address with 4 RUE DES CRAYÈRES in Reims. After three years of extensive renovations, the metamorphosis revealed a contemporary site celebrating champagne’s essence, complemented by new interior, landscape, and building designs. Upon approaching the site, visitors are now greeted by a maze of tall, chalk-colored walls designed by the landscape artist Christophe Gautrand. Inspired by Ruinart’s underground crayères, or “chalk caves,” where the champagne is stored, the entrance pours out into an expansive garden that’s filled with local biodiversity. Dotting walkways and garden beds are around 20 commissioned artworks by international artists that emphasize Ruinart’s ties to contemporary art, too, including interactive sculptures, sound installations, paintings, and more by names like Thijs Biersteker, Côme Di Meglio, Lélia Demoisy, Ugo Gattoni, and Pascale Marthine Tayou.
In addition to the grand gardens and art collection additions, 4 RUE DES CRAYÈRES is illuminated by a new building designed by the renowned Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. Working with Ruinart to execute a harmonious vision, Fujimoto created a brand-new contemporary pavilion that hosts spaces for discovery, dining, education, and gathering, including a boutique, a restaurant and champagne bar, a private champagne cellar and cave entrance, and more. Inside, interiors by the French designer Gwenaël Nicolas dazzle the eye, outfitted in materials, hues, and artworks that embrace natural elements and a champagne color palette. There for the opening in Reims, Whitewall spoke with Fujimoto about how the idea of harmony and the essence of champagne informed his striking new building for Ruinart.
Gwenaël Nicolas, Frederic Dufour, Sou Fujimoto, and Christophe Gautrand; portrait by Alice Jacquemin, courtesy of Ruinart.
Henrique Oliveira, “Desnatureza 6,” Photo by Raul Cabrera, courtesy of Ruinart.
WHITEWALL: For this project, what inspired you about the champagne brand’s heritage and history? The crayères, or the landscape here in Reims?
SOU FUJIMOTO: Many things. When I came here for the first time, they explained their art collection—their many contemporary art pieces—and they said that even though they have a long history as the oldest champagne maison, they like to do new things; reinterpret their history by art pieces. That was very inspiring, because they are not just an old maison, but they always try to do something new by reinterpreting the history and identity.
Then, I understood that they were expecting something completely new, but at the same time, to create a nice harmony and beautiful contrast between this history and tradition and today’s architecture. And of course, champagne is wonderful, so I wanted get some inspiration from champagne itself.
Landscape-wise—well, when I came here for the first time, the landscape was completely different. In front of this historical zone, there’s just a normal road, and then the trucks go in back for loading. So it was quite difficult to imagine what would happened after the new buildings. And then of course there was the normal warehouse on the location of our buildings, so we needed to imagine the future positively for the entire vision.
The important thing was that the historical mezzanine is here, and we are building right in front of that. So, how can we create nice contrasts, not the conflicts, and harmony by our buildings? This old one should start to shine, and then vice versa is possible.
Exterior of the Nicholas Ruinart Pavilion, photo by Raul Cabrera, courtesy of Ruinart.
Sou Fujimoto is Inspired by the Ruinart Champagne Bubble
WW: You said you were inspired by the shape of a champagne bubble for the building’s spherical design. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?
SF: We thought, “Okay, this is a champagne maison. How we can relate the new project to the champagne?” It’s not a joke, but it’s a casual conversation. We thought about the thin layers of the bubble on top of the champagne. If the building is something like that, floating in the light, that must be fun. On the other hand, we thought about the experience, from the new building to the historical maison. I wanted to make it really open so that once you enter the building, the view to the historical maison is really open. I thought, “That must be beautiful.”
This idea of the champagne bubble and the open view, at certain point, combined. If you have a full height, normal glass, because this is facing to the south, the sunlight is really spoiling everything—the heat, and then spoiling the champagne itself. So, we needed to do something. The idea of the bubble—white glass on the upper part and then it gets gradually transparent. It was a sustainability point of view. It’s nice to protect daylight and also create, from the outside, a floating lightness. Inside, there is a clear view, but the upper part is a bit cloudy, misty—some kind of dreamlike mysterious view to the maison.
So, a bubble combined with function, to experience things together. Then, the first concept of this gradient white facade. And then the idea of the roof, we also thought it as a big bubble sphere. At the beginning, we thought a flat roof was too boring and some kind of elements are needed, and we tried to do something curvy. And then at some point, we thought about the bubble of the champagne. A big sphere, a big bubble, could create a curvy roof—that makes sense. We tested slightly different curvatures, and really symmetrical ones, too. Finally, we chose the unsymmetrical one—one side is lifted up—because a historical maison is really symmetrical, really strong. But if it could be floating, with subtle movement, breaking the balances, it could bring new interactions between the old and the new.
That was unconscious, but maybe my Japanese cultural judgment influenced that to make imperfection unsymmetrical, but in a really subtle way. Step by step, those kinds of ideas became the shape.
“Inside, there is a clear view, but the upper part is a bit cloudy, misty—some kind of dreamlike mysterious view to the maison,”
Sou Fujimoto
Crayère Blanc de Blancs, 4 RUE DES CRAYÈRES, photo by Gregoire Machavoine, courtesy of Ruinart.
Balancing the Past and the Future for Maison Ruinart
WW: The building beautifully balances the future—these future concepts of harmony and the future of architecture—and the past, including the heritage of the site and the heritage of the maison. How were you thinking of balancing the past and the future for today?
SF: That’s the most exciting topic because we have a wonderful past history for different cultures. Every culture has such a tradition and history, and now we are here because of this past. But how to create the future? If you make the future independent from the entire past, I feel that’s a pity. The history is continuing, so it should not be cut out and divided. So, how we re-understand the whole past and tradition and history, but create something new for the future, as Ruinart has been doing? Contemporary art is completely new, but it is a context they have studied—all the history and traditions—and they reinterpreted all the history and past to the future. Every architect, I think, likes to think about the future, but every architect, I think, likes to respect the whole path and its traditions. How to make a link is a wonderful part of our profession, I believe.
WW: Is this something that you consider in your everyday creative practice as an architect?
SF: Yes. This time, the history is quite special and strong, but even for a family house, they have a history. They have a past. For urban development, they have context and the history around it. So all architecture projects have a certain wonderful history and the context behind it. And how to respect it? Not following what they had, but a new invention inspired by the history—or even reinterpretation by wonderful context—could create the future.
The Philosophy of Sou Fujimoto
WW: Do you have a personal tie to contemporary art?
SF: Oh yeah, as a creative person, but not so much in detail. We are doing several art museum projects. I have many friends that are curators and directors of museums, so I really like respect artists.
WW: What museum projects are you working on?
SF: It’s in Japan for a contemporary art collector to have like a space for them. Not a big museum, but two private art properties—clients’ homes. One in Okayama and one in Kyushu.
WW: Have you been to visited any art spaces recently that are keeping you inspired?
SF: Actually, two weeks ago, I flew to São Paulo, but I made a stop in New York because I like to go to Dia:Beacon. That’s a really wonderful museum. I was dreaming to go there, and then I used this trip because the transit time was more than 10 hours. So, I arrived before noon and then the whole entire afternoon. It’s a beautiful space with beautiful daylight, and there’s a wonderful harmony of the art pieces with the architecture spaces. It was amazing.
NILS-UDO, “La Pierre,” Photo by Raul Cabrera, courtesy of Ruinart.
Côme Di Meglio, “Le chant des origins,” photo by Raul Cabrera, courtesy of Ruinart.
