At the Milan Furniture Fair this year, Hermès laid a majestically intricate mosaic across the concrete floor of a cavernous 1940s sports facility in 16 traditional patterns. Elegant and oversized, it was created using more than 22,000 pieces of porphyry, slate, terracotta, unfired clay and pebbled Carrara marble – materials chosen to evoke timelessness.

“We wanted to work with the earth because the earth anchors us,” Charlotte Macaux Perelman, the co-artistic director of Hermès’ home division, said at the time. “It’s our roots; it’s our base.”