Last April, Hermès, a well-known fashion and leather goods brand, inaugurated its new facilities with a conception unusually committed to sustainable ways of building, in this type of building (in which not long ago the finishes were made with materials brought from another end of the planet) and whose project was commissioned to the Parisian architecture studio Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture.

The 6,200-square-meter building has been erected in the town of Louviers, in the Normandy region, 100 kilometers west of Paris, France. Its environmental involvement and the effort to generate a low carbon footprint have meant that 500,000 handmade bricks have been used in the construction of this factory workshop using clay from the area.

Lina Ghotmeh, with a long career, was widely featured in the media with the realization of a unique residential building in Beirut, whose realization paid special attention to both the place and the materials used.
Based on her different approach, rooted in what she calls «archaeology of the future», Lina Ghotmeh (before studying architecture she wanted to be an archaeologist) wanted the materiality of her building to respond both to criteria of low energy consumption and to be a reflection of the care and semi-artisanal process that the brand applies to the production of its products.

The Hermès workshop is, to date, the first industrial building to have obtained the French E4C2 label, and for this, it began by reducing its carbon footprint to zero by using the land from the place where the building would be built, (an industrial zone abandoned 70 kilometers from Louviers) for the creation of the bricks used in the construction, something that also brought support and recognition from the Normandy brick makers.

The rest of the building structure is made of wood and takes advantage of the site conditions to facilitate natural ventilation and limit the need for artificial lighting, heating, and air conditioning, which are covered with geothermal energy (with 13 probes at 150 meters depth). and more than 2,300 m² of solar panels.

The project is an interesting composition with a square plan articulated by a grid of arched walls made with bricks laid by hand and with falsework, whose curves adapt to the undulations of the gardens and make it easier for its image to blend in with the landscape.

The lines that lead to the entrance lead to an open patio, whose internal square leads to a central oak tree, which has become a meeting point for workers and artisans. A work by the artist Emmanuel Saulnier is suspended in this space.

The landscape that surrounds the building is also a work of recycling and conserving local biodiversity, where the excavated soil is manipulated by the Belgian landscape architect Erik Dhont, to create three hectares of undulating gardens, conserving most of the trees and equipped with a rainwater recovery and conduction system to the groundwater table.


Hermès Workshops by Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture. Photograph by Iwan Baan.

Hermès Workshops by Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture. Photograph by Iwan Baan.
 

Project description by Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture

This project emerges as a reflection on the history and values of Hermès with craft as a starting point and as the end point. Before drawing a line, I carried out with my atelier multiple "excavations": research on the history of this place, on the local resources, the particularities of this environment, of the ground of Normandy with its wet, clayey earth, ready to be modeled.

Built-in artisanal bricks, this construction narrates the power of the hand. 500,000 bricks, made from the local earth only a few km from the site, structure the space, announcing both resistance and lightness. Carefully laid, by companions and master masons, they have allowed the updating of know-how all while re-establishing an intimate, emotional link to the building.

Structural, Fine, and coupled, these bricks gallop along the building’s envelope, from span to span, they are orchestrated at 9 meters long intervals drawing a perfect square from face to face: the plan of this factory.


Hermès Workshops by Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture. Photograph by Iwan Baan.

Like "an archeology of the future", this building literally emerges from the memory of its place, on the remains of a Magdalenian hearth attesting to the relationship between humans and their tools. It invites nature at its heart, drawing time between the lines of architecture and the sinuous landscape remodeled by the excavated earth of the site.

The lines lead to the entrance where one is embraced by an open courtyard. An oak tree centers the space and leads into the internal square: a meeting point, a gathering place of dialogue between artisans under the wooden spanning beams. Here the space is magnificently dressed by the work of the artist Emmanuel Saulnier seen suspended in this “plaza” with large needles interlacing in mouvement and tracing the galops of horses in a similar way to the arches dressing this building’s architecture. This movement also echoes the gestures of the hands at work, as crafts-makers handle colors, under the light bathing the large volumes of the different workshops.

Leather, earth, brick, and wood, this building lives in synergy with nature. Bioclimatic, it takes what nature offers it without asking too much of it. Its energies are renewable, and low carbon. It is a positive E4C2 building like all this human adventure. It proves that we can always do well and better thanks to our perseverance and the wise collaboration of disciplines.

More information

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Architects
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Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture. Lead architect.- Lina Ghotmeh.
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Collaborators
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Environment-Fluids.- Franck Boutté - Consultants.
Landscaper.- Erik Dhont.
VRD.- ATEVE.
Structure.- EVP.
Acoustic.- Clarity.
Economist.- AE75.
SSI.- Systea - Namixis.
Cuisine.- BEGC.
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Client
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Hermès International.
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Area
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6,200 m².
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Dates
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2019 - 2023.
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Photography
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Iwan Baan, Emmanuel Saulnier, Takuji Shimmura.
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Lina Ghotmeh. Born in Beirut in 1980, she grew up in this millenary and cosmopolitan city marked by the stigmata of war. If she wanted to become an archaeologist, her studies at the Department of Architecture at the American University of Beirut, led her to question the traces, the memory, the space and the landscape differently by developing her projects with a profoundly sustainable approach. to the approach, according to its terms, of an "Archeology of the future". After graduating with the Azar and Areen awards, Lina continues her training at the Special School of Architecture in Paris where she becomes an associate professor between 2008 and 2015.

It is in London that she collaborates with Ateliers Jean Nouvel and Foster & Partners and that she wins, in 2005, the international competition of the National Estonian Museum. At this event, she co-founded the agency D.G.T Architects in Paris and leads, then with its partners Dorell and Tane, this great National Museum to its realization. Hailed unanimously by the international press and prestigiously awarded (Grand Prix Afex 2016, nominated for the Van der Rohe Award 2017), the museum has become emblematic of avant-garde architecture combining relevance and beauty of the gesture.

The approach of Lina Ghotmeh, imbued with extreme sensitivity, testifies in each of his proposals of his visionary vision and his libertarian spirit like the projects noticed: Really Masséna (winner of Réinventons Paris) or the complex of the El Khoury Stone Garden Foundation in Beirut.

With its multicultural experiences and strong involvement in the issues of his time, the architect is regularly invited to speak at conferences, juries or workshops in France and abroad. She is distinguished by several prizes including the Ajap prize in 2008, the Dejean prize from the 2016 Academy of Architecture.

By Christine Blanchet, Journalist, Art Historian
Photograph © Hannah Assouline
 
Lina Ghotmeh leads her practice Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture, an international firm of architects, designers, and researchers based in Paris. She carries her works worldwide at the crossroads of Art, Architecture & Design. Echoing her lived experience of Beirut – a palimpsest of unrest – her designs are orchestrated as an "Archeology of the Future" where every project emerges in complete symbiosis with nature following a thorough historical and materially sensitive research investigation.

Ghotmeh’s projects include the Estonian National Museum (Grand Prix Afex 2016 & Mies Van Der Rohe Nominee); ‘Stone Garden’, crafted tower and gallery spaces in Beirut (Dezeen 2021 Architecture of the Year Award), Lebanon; ‘Réalimenter Masséna’ wooden tower dedicated to sustainable food culture in Paris (laureate of Paris’ call for innovative projects), France; Ateliers Hermès in Normandy, first passive low carbon workshops building, in  France; Wonderlab exhibition in Tokyo and Beijing & Les Grands Verres for the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France.

She is a 2021 Louis I Khan visiting professor at Yale School of Architecture in the United States and Gehry Chair 2021–22 at the University of Toronto, Canada. She co-presides the Scientific Network for Architecture in extreme climates and was a member of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2022 Jury. Among Prizes, she was awarded in 2021 the 2020 Schelling Architecture Prize, the 2020 Tamayouz ‘Woman of Outstanding Achievement’, the French Fine Arts Academy Cardin Award 2019, the Architecture Academy Dejean Prize 2016 and the French Ministry of Culture Award in 2008.
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Published on: June 7, 2023
Cite: "Artisanal material and future archeology. Hermès Workshops by Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/artisanal-material-and-future-archeology-hermes-workshops-lina-ghotmeh-architecture> ISSN 1139-6415
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