Paris Design Week 2026 : fragrance makes its way into the courtyard of Victor Hugo's House

At Maison Victor Hugo, design goes through the nose with Anankè, an olfactory installation showcased in the courtyard from September 4 to 20, 2026 during Paris Design Week.

As the new season begins, Paris Design Week is set to awaken all the senses. From 10 to 19 September 2026, the urban design festival returns to transform Paris into a full‑scale laboratory, where galleries, museums, secret courtyards and heritage addresses lend their walls — and sometimes their gardens — to designers. Furniture, architecture, materials, craft and more unexpected experiences step out of the showrooms to meet the public directly, with numerous free events. And since design isn’t just about what you look at, some installations are also meant to tickle the nose,

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The proof is staged in the courtyard of the Maison Victor Hugo, where Lucas Huillet and Alexandre Helwani lend their noses to literature with Anankè, on view from 4 to 20 September 2026. Drawing primarily on Notre-Dame de Paris and Les Contemplations, the duo seizes this Greek word tied to the urge to trace the origins of architecture, writing, and memory. At the heart of the installation, a contemporary menhir releases incense while its fractured twin becomes ceramic furniture adorned with scent capsules, with an olfactory creation imagined by master perfumer Nathalie Lorson of dsm-firmenich. The pairing is no accident: Lucas Huillet moves between design, interior architecture, and ceramics, while Alexandre Helwani is a perfumer and historian of fragrance; the two have been crossing their disciplines for four years. Even the museum café joins in the game with a menu inspired by the installation’s scents.

Hugo could make stones talk; here, they’re also set to tickle our noses.

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