https://www.architecturalrecord.com/rss/1313 en-us Hermès’s newest emporium has an unassuming facade and a pair of store windows with displays of furniture and flowers that fit neatly into the bourgeois row of shop fronts on the rue de Sèvres in Paris’s 6th arrondissement.

]]> hermes_rive_gauche.asp Tue, 15 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500 https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/7378-herm%C3%A8s-rive-gauche A grand stair leads from the street level down to the retail floor, where three huts occupy a space that was formerly a swimming pool. A recent illustration by Martin Veyron recaptures the pool in its heyday, imagining the pool raised to street level to enhance the comic conceit. Drawing © Martin Veyron The exterior of the Piscine Lutetia, designed by Lucien Béguet in 1935, was restored with shop fronts added. Photo courtesy RDAI The cavity of the 1935 pool was filled in and covered with a slab on which mosaic tiles are laid. The freestanding huts of ash wood are supported by wood laths with double radius curves. LEDs installed inside the huts give them a lanternlike quality, while three skylights dramatically illuminate the space during the day. Image courtesy RDAI Image courtesy RDAI