Onze

As part of its explorations, FORMÆ is launching a fragrance dedicated to architecture, created by Jean-Michel Wilmotte and perfumer Emmanuelle Grin. Together with publisher Sébastien Maschino, they have composed Onze, a fragrance that extends space beyond its walls. Carried by the facets of vetiver, it embodies the verticality of lines, the memory of places and the light that passes through them.


When Jean-Michel Wilmotte talks about space, he doesn’t just see it as a built geometry, but as a sensory experience. ‘Space is something you breathe in. And if you accompany it with a note, a fragrance, it gives it another dimension’, says the architect. Their creation pays tribute to a material dear to Jean-Michel Wilmotte: vetiver. Elegant, woody and dry, it embodies both foundation and roots. ‘Vetiver is the scent of my childhood. It was my first fragrance, and it still is today.’ In Onze, it unfolds in smoky and mineral nuances, enriched with intense vegetal accords — a tension between anchoring and innovation, between raw material and futuristic brilliance.

But the uniqueness of Onze also lies in its symbolic dimension. Emmanuelle Grin was inspired by Ktoret, the sacred incense of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, composed of eleven ingredients, one of which remains a mystery. ‘This eleventh element represented the transition from the material to the immaterial. For us, it embodies the moment when the work escapes its creator to belong to those who contemplate it, or breathe it in.’ From this conviction was born the idea of a fragrance capable of dialoguing with architecture: Onze.•

photos : bottle shape designed by Jean-Michel Wilmotte © Wilmotte & Industries • olfactory inspiration, burnt wood • olfactory inspiration, vetiver roots • olfactory inspiration, smoked wood • olfactory inspiration, incense