Stone-Ideas.com

The aim was to provide builders with the latest knowledge about the ancient material and with practical experience

Every two years since 2014, the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès (Hermès Foundation) has organized an Academy of Know-How (Académie des savoir-faire), the sixth edition of which, was dedicated to natural stone. Over the course of a semester, there were lectures on various aspects of processing and using the material, later followed by an artistic project that the participants worked on together.

Hermès is one of the great French fashion brands. The company was founded in Paris in 1837 as a saddlery. Together with Louis Vuitton, it is now one of the most valuable luxury brands in the world.

The Academy is best thought of as a kind of think tank with practical elements: This time, 21 architects, designers, civil engineers and artists were to be given basic knowledge about the use of stone in the past and today in lectures and, as a conclusion, to creatively implement this know-how in a workshop together with experienced stonemasons.

As is usual at the Hermès Academy, the approach went beyond simply learning facts: the participants should understand what can be done with stone and also come to an exchange with the practitioners – learning from each other was the key word. In the documents for the final workshop, the terms “shared intelligence” and “a cross-sectoral, forward-thinking approach” appear at one point.

Public lectures were held in the first half of 2023. You can watch them (in French) on YouTube. We have linked below to the recording of the event held in the Arsenal in Paris. The topics were:
* The building of the Nabataeans, keyword Petra in Jordan, speaker: Laïla Nehmé, archaeologist and director at the Centre nationale de la recherche scientifique (CNRS);
* walls by the architect Carl Fredrik Svenstedt, Paris, and the use of CNC technology (see link below);
* variants of modern solid construction with stone, Pierre Bidaud (stonemason and mastermind) and Amin Taha (architect), both London;
* a “meteorological architecture”, Philippe Rahm, architect, Paris.

This was followed by visits to quarries and companies.

In the second half of the year, the participants came together for a 14-day workshop in the town of Saumur, one of the stops on the Loire Castles Route. Experienced stonemasons from the Compagnons du Devor were also present. This is a professional organization that, among other things, promotes the itinerancy of stonemasons.

The artist Lina Ghotmeh was in charge of the meeting in Saumur. It was about practical know-how, such as inlay work or engraving, as well as construction principles with stone, such as stereotomy.

The participants had a stone block with an edge length of 25 cm at their disposal to realize their ideas.

The works will be on display at the Domaine du Chaumont-sur-Loire (upriver between Tours and Blois) until November 04, 2024. “This multifaceted installation reflects the many intertwined disciplines at the Académie des Savoir- Faire, including poetry, geology, history, decoration and architecture,” according to the Academy’s documentation.

Some finds from the banks of the Loire have been incorporated, and a poem is engraved on the outside.

The next Academy in 2025 will focus on paper.

Video: Lectures (French)

Video: Final project (French)

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(06.09.2024, USA: 09.06.2024)