Hermès Petit h

2014

Escher GuneWardena creates for Petit h a curious cabinet of curiosities. Inspired by various sources including historical chambers of wonder, California modernism, mythical treasure caves, and Hermès own private museum at Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris, architects Frank Escher and Ravi GuneWardena have designed for the Petit h collection's West Coast premiere a shimmering constellation of cubic volumes which occupy the entire length of the store at Hermès, South Coast Plaza. Quartz-like formations of metallic boxes push out of the walls and floor encasing both wondrous and whimsical Petit h objects. The nearly one hundred foot long scenography is punctuated by outbursts of contemporary ikebana-like arrangements of California plants.