Hasta La Ideas

French designers Ciguë modelled this north London store for skin and haircare brand Aesop on a 1930s medical laboratory.

Bottles and tubes are lined up in neat rows on metal shelves, intended to reference the “modest utilitarian spaces of the early twentieth century,” says Aesop.

Ciguë used a palette of traditional materials, including reclaimed wood sourced from a 200-year-old French monastery for the floors and cabinets.

A single surface of polished white marble provides worktops and washbasins, with glass taps and pipes that show liquid flowing through them.

Wooden plant pots infill some of shelves, adding splashes of colour between the dark brown bottles, while more leafy plants grow in a hollow behind the sinks.

Aesop regularly commission designers to come up with unique concepts for their stores and Aesop Islington is the fourth one created by Ciguë. Another we’ve featured by the studio is a Paris shop filled with steel caps from the city’s plumbing network.

Other interesting branches include a Singapore shop with coconut-husk string hanging from the ceiling and a New York kiosk made from piles of newspapers. See all our stories about Aesop here.

The brand’s founder Dennis Paphitis also recently started up a gentlemen’s outfitters in an old factory in Melbourne. Read more in our earlier story.

The post Aesop Islington
by Ciguë appeared first on Dezeen.