Hasta La Ideas

Translucent boxes propped up on a forest of steel rods display products by skincare brand Aesop at a Hong Kong fashion store.

Designed by architects Cheungvogl, the monochrome display at I.T Hysan One was inspired by a black and white photograph of floating lanterns.

The supporting rods become taller towards the back, so the 800 resin boxes appear to be stacked into a tower.

Australian brand Aesop are renowned for creating unusual displays for their products – see more of their stores here.

Here’s some more information from Aesop:

Aesop I.T Installation, Hong Kong by cheungvogl

Aesop has created an installation in Hong Kong’s I.T HYSAN ONE flagship store that builds on our reputation for architecturally remarkable retail spaces.

The installation also operates as a counter. Aesop consultants present selections from our range of exceptional skin, hair and body care.

Cheungvogl architects, inspired by a black and white image of hundreds of floating lanterns, have imbued the I.T HYSAN ONE exhibition space with a similar delicate luminosity.

Eight hundred resin boxes are arranged atop steel rods of varying lengths, creating the sense that each box is ascending at its own pace, as if being drawn upward by an invisible thread. Some boxes hold Aesop formulations while others are designed to reward visitors’ curiosity through unexpected sound, scent and touch.

At the end of its two-week tenure the Aesop installation will be deconstructed and re-formed as a permanent counter on the first floor of I.T HYSAN ONE.

Aesop and I.T share an acute sensibility; we are focused on the highest standards of quality and creativity. We also have a common desire to explore how our respective products function within the intelligent and restrained application of design.

This installation marks the beginning of what is certain to be a long, exciting and creatively inspiring collaboration.

Skincare products at Aesop‘s latest store in Paris are displayed on 427 steel caps that would normally be used in the city’s plumbing network.

Designed by Parisian studio Ciguë, the shop is located in the winding streets of the historically aristocratic Le Marais district.

The wall-mounted dishes are filled with clear resin to form a flat surface and finished in varying degrees of blackened, rusted and stripped steel. Larger plumbing caps create basins in the polished concrete counters.

The cast iron spotlights, steel window frames and plant pots in the courtyard beyond were all custom-designed by Ciguë.

Have a look at Aesop’s other stores here, including a kiosk in New York made of 1000 newspapers and another Paris store that’s covered in 3500 pieces of wood.

The information that follows is from Aesop:

Aesop Le Marais

Aesop is pleased to announce the opening of our third Paris store in rue Vieille du Temple in Le Marais. This historical precinct has successively been home to religious orders, nobility and artisans, and was thankfully preserved from Haussmann’s overhaul of Paris.

Today, it displays beautiful buildings in narrow streets, and hosts many excellent cafés and museums. We would not have dreamt of better neighbours.

Aesop Le Marais is a light, minimalist room of polished concrete, with windows on the back wall allowing light to fill the room, and offering a glimpse of lush greenery in the courtyard.

The key element of the design is the integration of 427 small polished steel dishes into the walls, an acknowledgement of the industrial history of this part of Paris. The dishes are, in fact, the curved ‘lids’ which close the pipes used as plumbing throughout the city.

Utilising this material – which is cold to touch yet catches warm light, aesthetically pleasing yet functional – lends the space lyricism and invites our customers to explore and interact with our products.

As always, the design serves to showcase Aesop’s full range of superb skin, hair and body products.

64, rue Vieille du Temple 75003 Paris

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Aesop Grand Central Kiosk by Tacklebox	Aesop at Merci by March Studio	Aesop Aoyama by Schemata Architecture Office

The walls, floor and ceiling of this store in Paris by Melbourne practice March Studio are covered by 3,500 pieces of wood.

Created for skincare brand Aesop inside an eighteenth-century building, the interior was inspired by parquet flooring.

Products are displayed on planks jutting from the walls.

The ash timber was sourced  from managed forests in Victoria, Australia, then cut and hand-worked on the outskirts of Melbourne before being labelled and shipped to Paris for assembly on site.

More Aesop interiors on Dezeen »
More retail design on Dezeen »

The information below (in French) is from Aesop:

Aesop Saint-Honoré

La boutique Aesop rue Saint-Honoré se situe dans un immeuble du dix-huitième siècle au cœur du quartier historique de Paris, proche du Palais Royal.

L’architecture intérieure a été conçue par Rodney Eggleston (March Studio, Melbourne), en collaboration avec Dennis Paphitis, le fondateur d’Aesop. Eggleston a réfléchi aux matériaux qui selon lui étaient le plus emblématiques de Paris. “Nous avons d’abord en envisagé d’utiliser du plâtre, mais nous avons vite été intrigués par les sols en parquets que l’on trouve un peu partout à Paris,” dit-il. “Nous sommes partis de l’idée d’utiliser un seul et unique matériau pour tout l’espace. Nous avons donc imaginé un agencement entièrement en bois découpé et posé de manière à recouvrir intégralement le sol, les murs et le plafond et permettant de créer une atmosphère à la fois chaleureuse et homogène.”

Le bois choisi pour la boutique est le frêne de Victoria, issu de forêts renouvelables australiennes. Environ 3500 pièces de bois ont été découpées et travaillées à la main dans un atelier situé à Richmond, un quartier de la périphérie de Melbourne, avant d’être soigneusement numérotées, rangées dans un container et expédiées à Paris par bateau.

Aesop Saint-Honoré
256, rue Saint-Honoré
Paris 75001

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Aesop at Merci by March Studio	Aesop Aoyama by Schemata Architecture Office	Aesop store by March Studio

Japanese architect Jo Nagasaka of Schemata Architecture Office used materials reclaimed from a demolished house for the interior of this Tokyo shop for Australian skincare brand Aesop.

Located in a former vegetable shop, the project involved reusing timber, handles and furniture found in the demolished house.

Features of the empty shop such as pipes and drain covers were highlighted by coating in resin.

“We find a demolished house anywhere in the world,” says Nagasaka. “We use a place in different purposes anywhere in the world. We get a space in skeleton condition anywhere in the world.”

More about Schemata Architecture Office on Dezeen »

Photographs are by Alessio Guarino.

Here’s some more information from Aesop:

Aesop is proud to open in Tokyo, on the Ground Floor of the Asada building in Minami-Aoyama. Behind the humble facade sits a small store with a remarkable story.

Architect Jo Nagasaka, when considering how to create a functional yet poetic retail space for Aesop’s range of skin and hair products, came upon an abandoned house, the Murazawa residence in Nakano- ku.

Recognising the possibilities for reusing the wooden boards and beams, Nagasaka collaborated with Aesop Director Dennis Paphitis on a design that incorporates old and new materials, and pays homage to Japan’s well-established tradition of fusing modern and traditional.

The project was challenging, but the result is a space that is simple, practical and warm.

Aesop was founded in 1987. We offer a range of exceptional skin, hair and body products through our thirty international concept stores, and department and specialty store counters.

The brand has attracted a loyal following from the beginning for our unwavering commitment to product ingredients, minimalist packaging, and intelligent communication with our customers.

While our beginnings were in hair care, Aesop now boasts a line of over seventy products, more than half of which are skin care.

Aesop stands apart from other companies in our refusal to be anything other than transparent, humble and sincere.

We make every product with the same attention to detail that we believe should be applied to life at large.

Our company advocates the use of our range as part of a life that includes good food, plentiful travel and a healthy dose of books.

Aesop Aoyama
Site: Shibuya ward Tokyo

Principal use: Shop
Structure RC

Total floor area 74.89m²
Office area 28.66m²
Shop area 46.23m²

Construction: Sekiguchi Corporation
Epoxy: Syuhei Nakamura

Completion: Dec.2010

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Aesop store by March Studio	Aesop store by Studio Ilse	More stories about retail