From Saddles to Sculptures: Hermès’ Equestrian Legacy Meets 3D Printing – 3DPrint.com

May 25, 2025

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A horse within the park, birds in flight, and a window that tells a narrative with curves and colours. That is the newest visible story from Hermès, unveiled at Amsterdam’s Crystal Homes, a well-known glass brick storefront positioned on P.C. Hooftstraat, town’s luxurious purchasing road.

Hermès 3D printed window show at Amsterdam’s Crystal Homes. Picture courtesy of MVRDV.

In collaboration with Dutch design agency Aectual and structure studio MVRDV, Hermès offered Galloping Via the Park, a 100-square-meter 3D printed window show unveiled in Could 2025. Spanning two ranges of clear glass, the set up exhibits a horse saddled in traditional Hermès model, trotting into Amsterdam’s Vondelpark as birds swirl round. The scene feels dreamlike and technologically superior on the similar time, created with Aectual’s customized Freeline 3D printing system and sustainable, plant-based supplies.

Hermès’ roots hint again to 1837, when Thierry Hermès established a workshop in Paris, specializing in harnesses and saddles for carriages. This equestrian origin stays key to the model’s id, influencing designs from the enduring Birkin bag to the Galop d’Hermès watch. The horse, as soon as a logo of transportation, now represents Hermès’ journey by means of time, combining custom with modernity.

Thierry Hermès, founding father of the model, is proven with early saddle and leather-based items designs from the corporate’s beginnings in 1837 in Paris. Picture courtesy of Hermès.

Hermès has been recognized for its artistic window shows for many years. At its flagship retailer on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, the model celebrated the constructing’s one hundredth anniversary with surreal figures and dreamlike scenes. In different cities, like Stuttgart, Hermès has proven home windows with robust equestrian themes. Every is greater than a show; it appears to be like like a narrative advised by means of objects and design. Its newest window in Amsterdam carries on that custom, however this time, 3D printing is on the coronary heart of the story.

Hermès’ Galloping Via the Park 3D printed window show in Amsterdam. Picture courtesy of Aectual.

Aectual used its large-scale 3D printing know-how and upcycled, plant-based plastics to make a part of the show, together with the horse, birds, and park surroundings. These items had been designed digitally after which printed, so the intricate particulars and shapes match completely into the glass entrance of the shop. All of the printed elements will be recycled, which makes the entire challenge extra sustainable, aligning with Hermès’ dedication to craftsmanship and environmental duty.

Aectual’s 3D printer. Picture courtesy of Aectual.

The thought of a park scene within the window comes from a design idea from 2016. That’s when MVRDV first created the Crystal Homes, well-known for his or her “absolutely clear glass-brick façade.” On the time, considered one of MVRDV’s idea pictures pictured folks having the ability to look proper by means of the constructing towards Vondelpark, town’s most well-known park. That early picture impressed the setting for the brand new show, turning the storefront right into a form of open-air stage.

Every year, Hermès picks a artistic theme for its shows and designs. For 2025, the theme is Drawn to Craft, which celebrates the instruments, processes, and other people behind handmade and digital design. So, as a substitute of utilizing conventional sketches or hand-drawn scenes, MVRDV explains that its group turned to laptop wireframe drawings, easy outlines utilized in structure to plan shapes and areas. These colourful digital strains turned the bottom for the 3D printed shapes within the show. Wavy strains counsel clouds, and the horse’s physique contains the chaîne d’ancre, a traditional Hermès chain sample utilized in many designs, from jewellery to scarves.

Rendering of the Hermès window show, Galloping Via the Park. Picture courtesy of MVRDV.

The 3D printed items had been made in eight completely different layers, every in a vivid coloration like orange, yellow, pink, or blue. These layers helped form and assist every a part of the show, from the clouds to the horse. Aectual used recycled plastic to print the entire scene, and as soon as the show comes down, all the materials will be despatched again and reused.

Quite a lot of the main points within the window have two functions: they assist inform the story and likewise exhibit Hermès merchandise. Birds carry scarves and small baggage by means of the air. A motorcycle has a purse sitting on its rack. Footwear are positioned within the grass, and a blanket is draped over the bridge. Even the horse wears an actual Hermès saddle, a nod to tie the 3D printed scene again to the model’s origins in driving gear. The saddle proven, the Cavale II leaping saddle, is considered one of Hermès’ most iconic and costly gadgets. Often made to order, these saddles are crafted for each rider and horse, and so they mirror the place the corporate started greater than 100 years in the past.

Hermès’ Galloping Via the Park 3D printed window show as seen from inside. Picture courtesy of Aectual/Kasia Gatkowska.

This isn’t the primary time Hermès and Aectual have labored collectively. Their first challenge was the Monde d’Hermès Kiosk, a touring pop-up set up impressed by the traditional Parisian newsstand. First created in 2021, the kiosk was designed to carry the Hermès universe into public areas in an surprising means. It was arrange in cities like Prague, Barcelona, Singapore, Knokke, Rotterdam, Dubai, and Bahrain. Constructed utilizing Aectual’s Freeline 3D printing system and plant-based supplies, the construction mixed the acquainted look of a Paris newsstand with a contemporary twist.

Monde d’Hermès Kiosk touring pop-up set up. Picture courtesy of Aectual.

From crafting saddles for the Aristocracy to designing avant-garde window shows, Hermès continues to honor its heritage whereas welcoming new methods to inform a narrative. Galloping Via the Park is greater than a visible deal with; it exhibits how Hermès holds onto its heritage whereas exploring new applied sciences and artistic approaches.