A new Hermès flagship has opened in Beijing’s Sanlitun district, designed by RDAI in collaboration with French architect Arthur Mamou-Mani. The five-storey building takes the form of a glazed volume enveloped in an openwork ceramic shell in a pinkish-terracotta hue. Developed at the intersection of traditional craft techniques and digital design tools, the lattice lends the façade a sense of depth while still allowing natural light to filter through into the interiors. Its appearance shifts with proximity: from afar, the shell reads as a solid, continuous surface, but up close it dissolves into a finely patterned mesh of repeating ceramic units.
Throughout the project, RDAI’s architects draw on Beijing’s architectural heritage without resorting to literal historical references. The curving lines of the glazed roof echo the silhouette and colour palette of the nearby Forbidden City, yet the building remains firmly rooted in a contemporary architectural vocabulary.