Study 91: The Architecture of Absence: How Hermès Transformed La Pelota into the Most Precise Western Implementation of Ma Seen This Year

Every year, Milan Design Week produces one installation that the rest cannot replicate, and every year it is Hermès at La Pelota. For 2026, Charlotte Macaux Perelman and Alexis Fabry deployed plaster and beechwood volumes across the former Basque sports court in a loose grid: low blocks, raised elements, objects perched atop plinths as coordinates on a spatial map. The press called it a city of objects. OAC calls it something more precise: the most disciplined Western implementation of ma, the Japanese philosophy of productive emptiness, seen in any luxury presentation this year.