Maroquinerie de la Sormonne, Ardennes

For Hermès, Coldefy designs a unique, passive and low-carbon leather goods factory.

Hermès entrusted Coldefy with the design of its second leather goods factory in the Ardennes. The project was designed according to our signature approach: a sensitive and pragmatic vision of architecture that interacts with the environment and respects its identity. 

With the Maroquinerie de la Sormonne, Colefy revisits the archetypal workshop, reinvents the work environment for the benefit of the artisans, and creates a high environmental performance building with E₄C₂ certification.

The Maroquinerie de la Sormonne project is part of a formerly cultivated natural space, in the heart of a region with a rural and forest tradition.

Against the backdrop of a tree-lined valley and reed beds sheltering the nests and broods of marsh birds, time seems to have stood still like a painting by Renoir.

Respectful of this environment, the bioclimatic project offers a contemplative immersion of it, within a large horizontal house, whose ‘folded’ design forms a new canopy of wood, a topography sheltering an artisan village.

This reference to the symbolism of the house, a place of life but also a place of history, of heritage, of family transmission, its inscription in the surrounding nature, and the challenge of revisiting the archetypal workshop and reinventing the work environment guided the whole conception of the project.

By creating an architecture with simple volumes and transforming the traditional design of the shed roof in an unprecedented way, Coldefy creates for Hermès a timeless architecture with high environmental performance, serving the well-being of its occupants.