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Jun 29, 2023

Hermès Taps Architect Lina Ghotmeh to Create the Saddle Workshop of the Future

By Dana Thomas In Normandy, Hermès’s new Maroquinerie de Louviers features arches of locally made brick. For its first saddle workshop outside its historic Paris headquarters, Hermès chose the

By Dana Thomas

In Normandy, Hermès’s new Maroquinerie de Louviers features arches of locally made brick.

For its first saddle workshop outside its historic Paris headquarters, Hermès chose the equestrian region of Normandy, in the commune of Louviers. As the company’s artistic executive vice president, Pierre-Alexis Dumas, noted at the inauguration in April, “Thierry Hermès was a saddlemaker for 10 years in Normandy before starting the company in the mid–19th century.”

Inside the atelier.

Even with this respectful nod to the past, the Maroquinerie de Louviers, designed by French Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh, is 100 percent 21st century in concept, with eco-responsibility at the forefront. For the construction of the 66,700-square-foot building, which sits on some 10 acres, Ghotmeh commissioned local artisans to hand-make the half million red bricks that now enrobe the pinewood frame, minimizing carbon emissions with what she calls “materials from nature” while supporting traditional Norman craft.

Hermès Cavale II Saddle.

To power the space, there is geothermal energy and nearly 25,000 square feet of solar panels. Low-consumption LEDs, skylights, and north-facing windows illuminate the atelier with diffuse light, “like an artist’s studio,” Ghotmeh says. For the grounds, Belgian landscape architect Erik Dhont retained most of the existing trees and built a rain-capturing drainage system that replenishes the water table. So green is the Maroquinerie de Louviers, it is the first industrial building in France to earn the E4C2 designation, meaning it is low carbon and energy positive. “It’s almost a piece of nature,” Ghotmeh says. “Like it belongs to the earth.”

Hermès Kelly II Sellier 25 bag.

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Ghotmeh is a rising star in architecture, best known for this summer’s Serpentine Pavilion in London, inspired by a shared table, and the 2016 award-winning Estonian National Museum, a wedge-shaped glass building on a former Soviet airfield. The Hermès team was so impressed by the museum’s design (completed while Ghotmeh was a partner at Dorell Ghotmeh Tane / Architects) they invited her to submit a plan for the workshop’s competition in 2019. The 35-member jury unanimously chose her proposal, which is rooted in classical design, with a series of Roman aqueduct-like arches for the façade as well as the interior. Their forms, Pierre-Alexis said, “echo the movement of the thread, and handbag handles. There’s a dialogue between the function and the structure.”

Inside the atelier.

Ghotmeh describes her approach as “the archeology of the future,” meaning how a building emerges in its environment and from the memory of its location. How apt, given that during the initial dig, workers discovered a Paleolithic campsite. Eventually, archeologists recovered 3,000 artifacts, including flint tools likely used for leatherwork, and stones to make needles. “What chance to choose such a place for our leather workshop,” Pierre-Alexis said.

The arch idiom continues inside.

To give the Maroquinerie de Louviers a bit of artistic flair, Hermès tapped French artist Emmanuel Saulnier to create a sculpture of seven 10-feet-long needles in sleek stainless steel, suspended above the entrance in stirrup leathers sewn by Hermès bridle makers. Pierre-Alexis described the artwork as a “symbolic gesture to represent this workshop now where there had been one so long ago.”

When the workshop is at full capacity, it will employ 260 artisans, handcrafting made-to-order saddles—including for French Olympic gold medalist eventer Astier Nicolas—as well as classic Kelly handbags. Many of the workers will come from the Louviers École Hermès des savoir-faire, an education facility that opened in town last year. As Hermès executive chairman Axel Dumas told the workshop’s artisans before cutting the ribbon: “We are making beautiful objects in beautiful surroundings.” hermes.com