44. The Académie des savoir-faire, the stone
The Académie des Savoir-Faire was founded by the Fondation d’Entreprise Hermès in 2014 to harness shared intelligence in a cross-sectoral, forward-thinking approach. Twenty or so professionals will be exploring a universal material together, combining innovation and the transmission of skills under the educational leadership of a well-known professional from the field of design or architecture.
In 2023, the Fondation d’Entreprise Hermès held the sixth edition of the Académie des Savoir-Faire, which was dedicated to “Stone” under the educational leadership of architect Lina Ghotmeh. Twenty-one artisans, designers, architects and engineers were selected as academicians and were given the chance to learn from each other, sharing their own personal expertise related to stone. Following on from a semester of public talks and master classes, they met with the Compagnons du Devoir et du Tour de France in Saumur for a final two-week-long workshop.
The workshop created by Lina Ghotmeh was centred around the local area — in this case, the Loire Valley —, and participants had the chance to work with an iconic stone from this natural region: tufa stone. This material almost seems alive as it is a key part of an ecosystem of minerals, plant species and thousands of m3 of water flowing from the Loire. Its inherent diversity offers the academicians so many possibilities for experimentation using a vast range of approaches and techniques, from sculpture to stereotomy, inlaying and engraving. They were provided with blocks of tufa stone measuring 25 cm on each side, and they then explored the sometimes paradoxical properties of the stone, which is solid yet fragile, powerful yet delicate.
Throughout the workshop, the academicians worked together to create a micro-landscape of stone, devoted to the Loire’s unique resources. This multifaceted installation reflects the many intertwined disciplines at the Académie des Savoir-Faire, including poetry, geology, history, decoration and architecture. The large-scale construction was built during the second semester in 2023 and is now exhibited at the Domain of Chaumont-sur-Loire, where it will act as a vessel for the living in its setting at the core of La Forêt du Futur designed by Bas Smets.
