Forêt Atelier is a Rotterdam based design studio founded to explore the landscape and its relation to the human body by botanical sommelier, sensory artist and spatial designer Maidie van den Bos. Researching the natural and cultivated environment on its floral richness and human culture, both in the past as well as the present, we seek to craft future possibilities. EVENTS | BLOESEMBAR
‘Since 20
13 we have been working as designers within the hospitality branch.’
We develop beverages based on locations, seasonality and ‘sense of place’. In this way, we create awareness about our environment and offer instant relief for the connection with nature we crave. Arisen out of curiosity for the edibility of our everyday green surroundings, we’ve mastered many techniques processing the appropriate parts to use the delicate perfume we find in edible plants and trees. We deliver and perform tailor-made bar programs, pioneering in customer experience. Our leading ingredient is always a sensorial taste of theatre, where we connect our guest with the story of a place, and it’s elements. This approach leads up to a flavourful connection between natural ingredients, applied with the care of our mixologists, to the body and mind of our guests. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT | SENSORY DESIGN
‘By brewing with wild nature, we become distillers of a local sensory experience.’
Forêt Atelier creates products for cultural, natural and municipal institutions, for the hospitality business and for consumers. These products can vary tremendously in its scale of manufacturing, the only way we limit our yield is with a respectful approach to ingredients available. We love full circle producing, where we leave no stone unturned to use all of the elements that come with a harvest cycle. It is our creativity to come up with all types of beautiful, delicious and smart objects to stimulate our senses. Whether it’s a field of invasive exotic flowers, or the terroir of milk, to a fully grown spruce tree, we know what to create and how to lead the whole process. Our technical ability goes from all kinds of alcoholic and non-alcoholic bottled beverages, in house fermented floral vinegars, to care products, derived from steam-distillation, like perfumes, facial mists and massage oils. We test thoroughly in our lab and scale up to produce larger quantities if necessary at a different location. ARTIST WORK
‘At the core of our work is endless walks; an exercise in being there in the lands with body and mind.’
We have found great love for the edibility and fragrance (wild) flora offers us, through applications in healthcare, both historically and in all its future possibilities. The use of these elements are specifically selected to empower the body or brain, combined with their base in medicine, tradition or folkloric beliefs; their cultural purpose will be put to new use, as a new method to adopt nature, delivered by the experience we design. By matter of drinking, vaporising, touch and massage, well-being becomes the intention, and a wholesome way to experience time and place and find a new respect for what is given us. Bringing nature back into our bodies, consciously caring for ourselves with nature's strength. Therefore we work under the subtitle “Atelier voor Landschap en Lichaam”; ‘Atelier for Landscape and Body’
KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE
‘All our technical knowledge on captivating the surroundings holds a strong balance with the ability to curate the relationship between landscape and body.’
The foraging of the available elements gives way to captivating the experience. Ancient techniques like brewing, fermenting, steam distillation, tincturing, macerating and enfleurage are part of our technical process, dependent on the available flora and other elements to respectfully create new elixirs. Our workshops are location bound; we forage with a group, through walking we become familiar with the surroundings. Forêt Atelier shares knowledge on plant life, types of soil, and the fauna as far as our expertise goes; next to that we appreciate the sharing of memories on nature-based on family traditions from our group members, as it is a way of keeping the culture intact.
