2014 – Hermès Pavilion: Moving Pavilion 2
Program An Arts Moving Pavilion designed for Hermès.
Floor area 890 m²
Context Arts Pavilion Design Competition
Team Eric Cassar, Veneta Vladimirova Previous project team Arkhenspaces : Eric Cassar, Shenglin Yang, Christophe Grange, Mourad Bencheikh + Nicolas Moulin architect + ARUP HK (Structural and building services engineer) + WT Partnership HK (cost consultant) + Leigh & Orange (Local architect)
General principles This mobile pavilion floating over nature seems to levitate on a veil, it evoques the famous silk « Carré Hermès » waving in the air.
It proposes different environments playing with natural events. Its envelope is a curved ground-wall-ceiling, cut by a multilayer glass wall. Similar to a cocoon, it invites visitors to discover exposed content while being immersed in the sky. By night, the space can host any types of events.
Thanks to new technologies, Moving Pavilion integrates virtual connections with the area and others Hermès building (foundation space, shops …)
Program
Main parts of the project :
THE BASE which includes plant rooms and a cafe. It is covered by vegetation.
THE ENTRANCE, similar to a tunnel, centralizes the facilities and prepares access to the exhibition.
THE PAVILION which is the convertible exhibition room.
The moving pavilion
1 – Depending on the exhibitions, interior space adapts itself.
2 – Hermès Moving Pavilion position changes several times a year. It reinvents itself, inviting visitors to rediscover its environment.
Movement happens in 2 directions :
Principally through the north-south axis : the 15° movement permits to change the configuration of the pavilion both from inside and outside.
Secondly through the east-west axis, a small movement helps to regulate light and temperature depending on the seasons (sustainable purpose).
The icon
In the distance, depending on its position, the building is pointing to the sky or to the ground. Its changing appearance in the landscape is extended thanks to light, informing people that a new event has started.
Inside environments
White space and atmosphere inside Hermès Pavilion are convertible. The ground is not horizontal, it is curved and oblique, it invites visitors to sit and lay down, to move, to experiment space.
The facade is made of 2 glasses with a stainless steel panels covered structure in-between. In addition to its sustainable purpose, this facade creates complex light and reflection games.
Indeed, the views are the result of the superposition of different layers of reality made by the reflection from the inside and the real view including the reflections of the fabric and the view on the stainless steal panels. Vision changes depending on the visitor position.
The cafe
The fabric is folded from vertical to horizontal creating shadow for the cafe’s terrace underneath. This cafe encourages social links as it aims to become a gathering place, an Hermès café under the pavilion.
