Hermès Workshops – Lina Ghotmeh
Designed as a contemporary expression of craftsmanship, the Hermès Workshops by Lina Ghotmeh are France’s first passive, energy-positive, low-carbon industrial building. The architecture translates the precision and ritual of leatherworking into built form, with a rhythmic sequence of arched brick spans that evoke movement and lightness while grounding the structure in its rural Normandy context.
Oriented by an orthogonal grid and composed of locally sourced materials, the building merges craft and sustainability. North-facing clerestories deliver soft, diffuse light ideal for meticulous work, while passive strategies and Bpos E4C2 certification affirm its ecological ambition. Subtle and dignified, the workshop embodies a fusion of material intelligence, environmental ethics, and architectural poetry.
