What’s Happening: On a verdant site near Normandy, the French label tasked Lina Ghotmeh to channel her “archaeology of the future” approach to build a state-of-the-art workshop fit for its master saddle artisans.

The Download: Hermès is best known today for highly coveted handbags like the Birkin and Kelly, but the French maison founded in 1837 by Thierry Hermès originated as a saddle maker. Even as equestrian transport waned with the advent of the automobile, Hermès has remained an undisputed master in saddle manufacture. Its historic Parisian headquarters is staffed by seasoned artisans who meticulously construct ergonomic saddles cut from the house’s finest leathers. As the family-owned label has lurched into expansion mode following consecutive years of billion-dollar profits, it’s doubling down on building state-of-the-art workshops around France so its artisans have more space to master their craft.

Spearheading the design for the latest atelier is Lina Ghotmeh, the ascendant French-Lebanese architect who recently unveiled her Serpentine Pavilion in London. Located in the equestrian region of Normandy, where Thierry worked as a saddle maker for ten years before founding Hermès, the workshop occupies a compact single-story, square building—an homage to the shape of the brand’s famous silk scarves. Further nodding to craft are the half-million bricks, produced using traditional methods at local brickyards, forming a series of dynamic arches that gallop across the ten-acre site. “Not only is brick a local material,” Ghotmeh says, “it’s made by hand and is dimensioned for manual use, so its presence in the architecture reflects the trace of the hand in Hermès’s craft manufacture.”

The workshop reinforces Ghotmeh’s self-described approach to architecture as an “archaeology of the future,” in which every design gesture is drawn from traces of its location and the past. That aligns with Hermès’s policy of “responsible, structured growth,” workshop leader François-Pierre de Feydeau says, as well as its commitment to only building new facilities on brownfield sites. Perhaps kismet struck when a Paleolithic campsite was found during construction, leading archaeologists to recover 3,000 artifacts including flint tools used for leatherwork and stones to make needles. As an homage, the fashion house tapped French artist Emmanuel Saulnier to create a sculpture of elongated needles suspended above the entrance in stirrup leathers sewn by Hermès artisans.

In Their Own Words: “There’s beautiful nature nearby [in Normandy], but a lot of the industrial buildings show little care in their design,” Ghotmeh tells Architectural Record. “The challenge was to create a place you don’t identify as industrial, to go beyond the stigmas of what a place for making can be—to render it timeless in a certain way, and in resonance with the natural landscape.”

Surface Says: Do MetaSaddles suddenly seem like a promising business venture?

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It may be difficult to believe that Michel Ducaroy’s Togo Sofa is celebrating 50 years. First presented at Salon des Arts Ménagers in Paris, where it coincided with Ligne Roset’s launch, the sofa both perplexed and transfixed viewers. “The main shock was that it had no base,” recalled Antoine Roset, the great-great-grandson of Ligne Roset’s founder who serves as the brand’s marketing director. “People thought we forgot or didn’t have time to build one.” No matter: the sofa became a ‘70s design icon and continues to prove popular with the Instagram generation, even sparking memes poking fun at its ubiquity. Credit its ground-hugging frameless silhouette, formed of crumpled, slouchy folds and stuffed with polyurethane foam. Ducaroy described it as “a tube of toothpaste folded back on itself like a stovepipe.”

To celebrate the anniversary of its signature product and bestseller, Ligne Roset is offering Togo in a variety of limited-edition upholsteries this year. Among them is Atom, the speckled, pointillism-inspired bouclé fabric designed by fashion icon Raf Simons for Kvadrat. Equally compelling is La Toile du Peintre by Pierre Frey, which reinterprets painter Heather Chontos’s graphic, colorful brushstrokes that practically recasts Togo as a canvas. Not in the market for a sofa? Tune into “Sofa, Looking for Togo,” a new podcast hosted by journalist Aurélie Sfez that traces Togo’s origins and enduring popularity, from the hallowed museums of Paris to the hotel lobbies and influencer living rooms of Los Angeles.

When: Until Sept. 15

Where: Sant’Andrea de Scaphis, Rome

What: The poet and sculptor is known for her installation-based explorations of nature’s power. In her latest, she takes to deconsecrated Roman church-turned-gallery Sant’Andrea de Scaphis to sow a bucolic—and toxic—verdant wonderland. A kaleidoscope of black butterflies create their homes amid a garden of jimsonweed, lantana, bitter nightshade, and stinging nettle, all plants from which poison can be made. The scene, set to otherworldly melodies by cellist Kelsey Lu, takes an absurdist turn when a sleeping animatronic bear wakes to greet viewers with piercing howls.

As anticipation builds for the U.S. Open this month, the fragrance house is serving up irreverence in the form of its latest limited-edition launch. Crush Balls is an ode to the confluence of discipline, dedication, and sometimes sheer luck that make it possible to crush a game of singles or doubles. D.S. & Durga co-founder David Moltz initially doubted whether “another green, fresh fragrance” was really necessary, but its summer-forever notes of green grass, verdant hedge flowers, and white cotton have us convinced—and eager to make the trip out to Flushing. $280

Collisions with glass buildings kill up to one billion migratory birds per year in the United States—an issue that architects will eventually need to address head-on thanks to mounting public interest and a recent slew of bills mandating avian-friendly construction. The American Bird Conservancy and Yale University’s Law, Ethics, and Animals Program released a study on this topic, focusing on the use of bird-friendly glass technology to enhance wildlife safety. It highlights practical design changes such as using fritted glass, reducing glass curtain walls, installing window screens, and minimizing light pollution. Meredith Barge, one of the study’s co-authors, painted a grim picture: “The types of building renovations that trigger most laws will not happen fast enough to save many threatened birds in the decade ahead.”

Paul Loebach is an American designer whose work spans historical, material, and narrative references across product, furniture, and lighting. He has collaborated with, among others, Roll & Hill, Matter, Umbra, and The Future Perfect. His approach is influenced by his family craft history, an interest in American manufacturing, and a deep sense of curiosity about the relationship between objects and emotions.

Surface Says: Loebach’s work, whether it be in the realm of lighting, decor, or even storage, delightfully subverts expectations thanks to his acute sense for the impact design can make.

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