Maison Hermès / Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Architects: Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Year: 2001 (Phase One), 2006 (Phase Two)
Photographs: Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Michel Denancé, wikiarchitectura.com/wikipedia.org
Design: Renzo Piano Building Workshop, architects in collaboration with Rena Dumas Architecture Intérieure (Paris)
Client: Hermès Japon
PHASE ONE (1998-2001):
Design Team: P.Vincent (partner in charge), L.Couton with G.Ducci, P.Hendier, S.Ishida (partner), F.La Rivière and C.Kuntz; C.Colson, Y.Kyrkos (models)
Consulting Executive Architect: Takenaka Corporation Design Department
Consultants: Ove Arup & Partners (structure and services); Syllabus (cost control); Delphi (acoustics); Ph. Almon (lighting); R. Labeyrie (audio/video equipment); K. Tanaka (landscape); Atelier 10/N.Takata (code research); ArchiNova Associates (site supervision)
Sculpture: S.Shingu
PHASE TWO (2002-2006):
Design Team: P.Vincent (partner in charge), F.La Rivière; O.Aubert, C.Colson, Y.Kyrkos (models)
Consultants: GDLC Architectes/L. Couton (consulting architect); Ove Arup & Partners (structure and services); Delphi (acoustics); Ph. Almon (lighting); K. Tanaka (landscape); M. Gonzalez (specifications); ArchiNova Associates (site supervision); Takenaka Corporation Design Department (consulting executive architect)
City: Chuo
Country: Japan

Maison Hermès, designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop with Takenaka Corporation between 1998 and 2001, serves as the flagship store and headquarters of Hermès in Tokyo’s Ginza district. Inspired by the Japanese “magic lantern,” the 13-story building glows at night and shimmers by day while meeting strict seismic and fire regulations. Spanning 10 meters along Harumi Avenue and 56 meters along a side street, it houses retail, offices, exhibition areas, and a hidden rooftop garden. Its facade, made of 13,000 fire-resistant glass blocks from Florence, acts as a luminous urban screen resembling a shoji. The seismic-resistant design, influenced by Shinto temples, suspends cantilevered slabs from a fixed central mast, allowing controlled movement. The facade, hung on steel arms with flexible seals, absorbs seismic shocks. With a shop spanning four floors, offices above, and a concealed rooftop garden, Maison Hermès merges Japanese aesthetics with advanced engineering, standing as a refined symbol of craftsmanship and resilience.

Maison hermès / renzo piano building workshop

Maison Hermès, the flagship store and corporate headquarters of the celebrated French fashion house, was designed by Renzo Piano in collaboration with Takenaka Corporation between 1998 and 2001. Located in the heart of Tokyo’s densely built, neon-lit Ginza shopping district, the building had to meet stringent earthquake and fire regulations while standing out in an area of architectural diversity. The design was inspired by the Japanese “magic lantern”, a traditional light fixture that hung from the doors of houses, giving the structure a glowing presence by night and a shimmering, translucent quality by day. The slim building, measuring 10 meters wide on its Harumi Avenue frontage and extending 56 meters along a side street, rises 13 floors (three of them underground) and contains a shop, ateliers, offices, exhibition spaces, and multimedia areas. A planted courtyard garden tops the structure, yet remains hidden from the street behind the luminous facade. The ground floor provides access to a subway station below Harumi Avenue, with an escalator integrated into the design.

The Glass Facade: A Contemporary Japanese Screen
The defining feature of Maison Hermès is its bespoke glass-block facade, which acts as a continuous, luminous screen that both filters and reflects the city’s vibrant surroundings. Composed of 13,000 glass blocks, each measuring 45 x 45 cm, the facade was specially designed to comply with fire resistance and seismic integrity. These glass blocks, manufactured by Vetroarredo in Florence, Italy, have a stamped textured finish, making them translucent rather than transparent, similar to a contemporary version of a traditional Japanese shoji screen. At night, the entire building glows from within, transforming into an immense symbolic torch in Ginza’s glittering cityscape. During the day, it takes on a silvered, shimmering appearance, responding to the changing light conditions. Along the longer side-street facade, occasional clear glass bricks frame selective displays of Hermès products, offering a subtle interplay between opacity and visibility. The narrow Harumi Avenue frontage is the only section featuring full-height shop display windows.

Structural Innovation: Seismic Resistance Inspired by Shinto Temples
The building’s anti-seismic system draws inspiration from traditional Shinto temples, which use a central mast to suspend floors, allowing flexibility during earthquakes. In this project, a narrow bay of stiff metal frames forms a fixed core, from which the cantilevering slabs hang. The central row of pillars is embedded in the foundation, while the innermost pillars rest on a viscoelastic material, absorbing seismic tremors. Furthermore, the glass facade itself is designed to respond to earthquakes. Hung from the structure on steel arms, it behaves like a flexible curtain, allowing 4mm of movement via the flexible seals between the blocks. This innovative approach enables the facade to absorb rather than resist seismic shock, ensuring both safety and structural integrity.

Interior Organization & Circulation
Inside, the building is functionally divided across multiple levels:

The shop extends over four floors, from the ground floor to the 3rd floor.
Ateliers and offices occupy the upper floors.
A double-height exhibition space is located on the 7th floor.
A French-style rooftop garden, open to the sky yet concealed behind the glass facade, crowns the structure.
The services and circulation are housed at the back edge of the building, in an opaque strip along the party wall. The glass facade stops short of this section, curving inward to reveal the emergency stairwell, subtly defining the building’s rear boundary.

A Landmark in Tokyo’s Urban Fabric, Renzo Piano sought to create a serene, timeless structure, a “quiet building” in the midst of Ginza’s restless energy. This project, like his earlier Kansai Airport, embodies a sense of lightness and ephemerality, resonating with Japanese aesthetics while also showcasing an advanced technological gesture. By merging traditional inspiration with contemporary engineering, the Maison Hermès stands as an elegant, glowing landmark—both a store and a symbol of craftsmanship, resilience, and modernity.