Le photographe Fabrice Fouillet a réalisé une série de clichés très réussies appelée « Corpus Christis » dans laquelle il expose l’intérieur d’églises à l’architecture moderne qu’il a pu visiter au cours de ses voyages. Avec des architectures étonnantes et visuellement impressionnantes, le résultat est à découvrir dans la suite.
Dans le même esprit : NYC Panoramic Churches
Wine bottles are displayed in rainbow-coloured cages in this wine shop in Stuttgart, Germany, by local studio Furch Gestaltung + Produktion (+ slideshow).
The branch of Weinhandlung Kreis had no storage area, so Furch Gestaltung + Production was asked to squeeze 12,000 bottles of wine into the 70-square-metre space.
They came up with a new shelving system by welding wire-grid mats into cubes.
Each cube has slots for 25 bottles of wine, and each slot can hold almost any shape of bottle. Clip-on holders display selected bottles in an upright position.
The grids are made of powder-coated steel in a spectrum of colours, with orange, red and yellow arranged around the shopfront and blue, green and grey in the sales room downstairs.
“The shelf disappeared and storage became shop,” explain the architects. “This shop should consist just of wine and no furniture – similar to a spreadsheet, which is full of data without wasting any space on structure.”
The only other item of furniture is the small tasting bar by the window.
Other wine shops we’ve featured on Dezeen include a shop that hides its goods behind wine bottle-shaped shutters and a shop in Zurich that uses built from the crates used to transport the bottles.
We’ve also featured a self-service interactive wine bar in New York and a sandstone winery that is partially submerged in the ground.
See all our stories about wine shops »
See all our stories from Stuttgart »
See all our stories about shops »
Photographs are by Zooey Braun.
Here’s some more from the architects:
Wine merchant Kreis, Stuttgart, Germany
Completed August 2012
The Store
The client, a high profile sommelier and wine merchant, had to move locations and came to us with a request for a ‘different’ wine-store with a strong design which reflects the modern and fresh spirit of a new generation of wine makers.
The predominant requirement was to place six or twelve bottles of about 1200 different types of wine (about 12,000 bottles altogether) and a small tasting bar on an area of about 70m2, spread over two levels and with no space for storage.
From the outset it was clear that this was not manageable with traditional wooden shelving, crates or boxes. The use of space has been optimised for the benefit of the product – the shelf disappeared and storage became shop. This shop should consist just of wine and no furniture – similar to a spreadsheet, which is full of data without wasting any space on structure.
An important aspect was the exact positioning and organisation of the various types of bottles in the shelf. A vertical sort sequence was developed, derived from the columns in a spreadsheet. Each element can carry 25 bottles, with the carries attached five cartons of wine can be stored in each of them.
The usual romantic and idealised aesthetic of wine culture – oak furniture; earthy hues – was reinterpreted according to the cool self-conception of many young winemakers, which is also reflected in many of the new labels on bottles. It quickly became clear that the manually crafted installation we first had in mind had to be replaced with a industrially produced serial product to match the required standards of precision, function and aesthetics.
386 ‘fourpointeight’ shelves were installed in a range of 21 colours: to soften the hard-edged industrial product, to give it some lightness and warmth, to create a sense of orientation and eventually to provide the location with some attention to the public.
These elements thus serve as a storage area, the visually appealing presentation of wine happens via a metal carrier, which lets the individual bottle float in front of the grid. To stage the installation the surrounding walls were rendered with black lime plaster, backlights were installed to add depth and the resin floor was made bright to let the light appear from below. A small tasting bar was installed in a display window. Customers can sit on a bench in the window and enjoy a glass of wine and some regional ‘tapas’.
The shelving element – ‘fourpointeight’ – Steel wire 4,8 mm, powder-coated:
4 prefabricated wire-grid mats, welded in two levels, are connected upright with 5 reclined wire-fans to create a spatial wire structure with the dimensions 520mm (w) x 520mm (h) x 350mm (d). The wire mats act as statically effective layers – the 5 wire-fans connect them to each other. These fans are equipped with runners, which enable the shelf to accommodate 98% of all established bottle formats elegantly. One of these elements can carry 25 bottles of wine. A circumferential wire with bend edges adds style and lightness.
The powder coating provides protection (the shelf from corrosion, the bottles from damage) and colour, but also dampens against vibration and clanging. The robot-welded steel wire piece fourpointeight was developed up to serial production in cooperation with our manufacturer. They are added modularly to each other with a connector consisting of two metal semi-shells, which are bolted together.
Ground floor plan – click above for larger image
fourpointeight can be endlessly added to each other in pixel logic, gaps and cantilevers are possible. Spatial structures can be built up to a height of six elements (statically certified). The carriers for the individual bottles are made of bent sheet metal, which are suspended from the grid and secured against inadvertent dislocation with an O-ring.
Basement plan – click above for larger image
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Furch Gestaltung + Production appeared first on Dezeen.
French studio FREAKS freearchitects has renovated an apartment on the Rue de Rivoli in Paris, once the address of Napoleon I, so the architects decided to dress up as the former emperor for the photo shoot (+ slideshow).
“We’re getting more and more bored by the nice shots where everything is so clean, with the perfect Scandinavian-design chair, the perfect white orchid, the perfect art book on the table,” FREAKS freearchitects partner Guillaume Aubry told Dezeen.
Ober the course of the project, the architects learnt that Napoleon had been responsible for the construction of the street and that it was possible he’d lived in the apartment they were refurbishing.
“Napoleon supposedly having lived there was a running joke among the building team and us,” said Aubry. “That’s why we decided, the three of us, to sort of perform the photo shoot wearing Napoleon-style hats.”
The pictures show the architects exploring the rooms of the apartment, which include large living and dining rooms with a new kitchen and bathroom added to one side.
In addition to the existing bedroom, two children’s rooms are inserted into the former utilities area and each one features a mezzanine first floor accessed by an industrial ladder.
Period mouldings are retained in the front rooms, but the architects have added modern details such as fluorescent tube lights and faceted kitchen units. “One of the main interventions consisted of opening the new kitchen towards the dining room, while taking charge to use a contemporary architectural langage,” said the architects.
The renovation didn’t include the addition of furniture, which is why one of the photographs shows the architects sitting on imaginary chairs.
FREAKS freearchitects often take a playful approach to their projects and others we’ve featured include dimension arrows stuck to the facade of Oscar Niemeyer’s French Communist Party Headquarters and a cosmetics shop with a wooden tunnel inside.
See more architecture and design in Paris »
Photography is by David Foessel. The dog is Merlin (photographer’s own).
Here’s a description from the FREAKS freearchitects:
FREAKS has been commissioned to work on the transformation of a 170sqm flat downtown Paris, Rue de Rivoli. The Rue de Rivoli, which goes from Place de la Concorde until Place de la Bastille, has been built under Napoleon the 1st. The very first part of the street, facing the Jardin des Tuileries was his own property and he might have lived here or there in one of those chic flats.
The order was to transform that high ceiling stateroom into a familial flat, including two new children bedrooms in addition with the parents one. Therefore, the main target was to create new connections through the rooms ; some doors have been closed, some others have been pierced to avoid the typical dead-end distribution system. The service rooms on the backyard, at the end of a long and narrow corridor, have been transformed into the children area, to which one can acces by the service door, turning that part into an independant space within the flat. The bedrooms made profit of the high ceiling by embedding mezzanine, on which one can access by using a crinoline ladder.
A new kitchen + bathroom have been placed on the street side. Most of the existing moldings have been painted in white. The very cute venitian style boudoir has only been renewed.
One of the main interventions consisted in opening the new kitchen towards the dinning room while taking charge to use a comtemporary architectural langage within the space. No furniture or decoration were required, only a dozen of industrial waterproof neons (Sammode) with a special brass cladding have been used on the dinning room and billiard room walls.
Above: floor plan
Above: long section through bathroom and kitchen
Above: cross section through kitchen and front room
Above: cross section of children’s bedroom
The post Napoléon apartment by
FREAKS freearchitects appeared first on Dezeen.
Henrybuilt’s latest line of kitchen finishes works with a wide range of architectural and interior styles, allowing for a greater level of customization and functionality. The eclectic mix of reclaimed Douglas fir surfaces, tongue and groove construction, textured backsplash, and range of leather pulls give a highly personalized and refined look without sacrificing function.
Designer: Henrybuilt
–
Yanko Design
Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Yanko Design Store – We are about more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the YD Store!
(Custom-Looking Kitchen Enhancements was originally posted on Yanko Design)
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Having a walk-in closet is the envy of everyone who lives in smaller spaces where you have to get clever with storing all your clothes. This well-thought wardrobe design is the next best thing. Unlike standard wardrobes where clothes get lost in the darkness (and in turn never worn), it focuses on sensible arrangement and makes sure every item is visible at all times. Better yet, it really feels like a walk-in closet, making it a perfect solution for compact living.
Designer: Hosun Ching
–
Yanko Design
Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Yanko Design Store – We are about more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the YD Store!
(Walk-In Wardrobe was originally posted on Yanko Design)
Related posts:
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New York architects Studio Cadena placed three white boxes inside this industrial loft in Brooklyn to make bedrooms for three flatmates.
Above: photograph by Ian Allen
Studio Cadena was asked to turn a 60-square-metre space in a former factory building into an apartment for three occupants.
The architects removed the existing partitions and added three compact boxes to create private bedroom spaces while maximising the size of the communal area.
Above: photograph by Angela DeRiggi
Glazed openings allow light inside the bedrooms, which are arranged to receive as much light as possible from the loft’s large windows.
Completed at short notice and on a tight budget, the loft took nine weeks, 141 emails, 64 calls, 55 texts and three contractors, according to the architects.
Above: photograph by Ian Allen
We recently featured a home in Japan with its top floor arranged across separate sheds and another house with four more tiny houses contained inside it.
Above: photograph by Ian Allen
Other New York apartments we’ve featured on Dezeen include a loft with glass ceilings and walls and a home for an art collector containing a library and gallery.
See all our stories about Brooklyn »
See all our stories about New York »
See all our stories about residential interiors »
Photographs and images are by Studio Cadena, except where stated.
Here’s some more information from the architects:
Three Small Rooms
A Loft in Brooklyn
Located in a former factory building in the burgeoning artist’s enclave of Bushwick, Brooklyn, a small industrial loft awkwardly subdivided by existing partitions was transformed into a bright and open space that could be shared by three young roommates moving into what would become their first shared loft in the city.
On Saying Yes:
Clients: We have a project for you.
Architect: Great!
Clients: But we have very little money.
Architect: No problem, I’ll work with what you have.
Clients: And we need to do it really fast.
Architect: Ok, how fast?
Clients: Can you design something for next week? We need to start construction next week.
Architect: ?
Clients: We plan to move in a couple of weeks. Can you do it?
Architect: It’s impossible…(silence)…Ok, YES. I will try.
Clients: Great!
Architect: You know this will probably take longer and surely end up costing more?
Clients: ?
Architect: Ok, give me a week. I’ll think of something simple; something interesting. If you like it, we’ll find a way to get it done.
Clients: Ok
Architect: Great!
Rather than subdividing the loft into the needed rooms, three small and separate volumes cluster around a large common area and are set apart within the raw space. Huddling together, these rooms within rooms create intimate spaces while maximising the shared living area needed for gatherings and daily communal living. Now unobstructed, the large windows open up to views of the rapidly changing post-industrial landscape, while allowing light to seep deep inside the loft.
Above: plan
1 Loft
3 Rooms
660 sq ft
9 weeks
141 emails
64 calls
55 texts
3 contractors
Above: section
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by Studio Cadena appeared first on Dezeen.
Three Royal College of Art architecture graduates have used stripped scaffolding boards and reclaimed parquet flooring to create a wooden cafe at the school’s Battersea campus in south London (+ slideshow).
Tom Surman, Joseph Deane and Percy Weston were approached shortly after graduating to upgrade the tuck shop at one of the RCA’s old buildings, which was too small to accommodate the extra students brought by the recent opening of the Dyson Building for photography and print-making.
They instead moved the cafe to a former seminar room, where they tore down the existing suspended ceiling and constructed a wooden framework around the walls.
“The cafe is conceived as a playful timber box inside a large concrete and steel shell,” Surman told Dezeen. ”We made the entire structure from ripped-down scaffolding boards and we refined them until they were almost unrecognisable.”
The designers laid the reclaimed parquet flooring by hand and sanded it down to remove most but not all of the leftover markings. “The nice thing about having an incredibly tight budget was we learnt to do stuff with our hands,” said Surman.
The cafe counter is separated behind another wall of wood, while the dining area is furnished with mismatched classroom chairs and wooden tables.
“It’s a very playful project, intended to reflect the slightly obscure nature of the sculpture department next door,” added Surman. “In this building, anything too precious starts to look terrible after a couple of weeks.”
The team designed and installed the entire project in just three months and have since launched their own studio named Weston Surman & Deane.
The Royal College of Art‘s main building is located in South Kensington, but the school has been gradually expanding its Battersea campus in recent years with the opening of the Dyson Building and the Sackler Building that houses the painting department.
See more stories about the RCA »
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by Weston Surman & Deane appeared first on Dezeen.
A small courtyard separates a design studio from an exhibition gallery at this former launderette that architecture collaborative MAIO has converted in Barcelona (+ slideshow).
Architects Anna Puigjaner and Guillermo Lopez designed the studio for themselves and the other two members of the MAIO team but it also functions as an open studio for designers and architects in need of a workplace.
“The existing 40-metre-long building was a continuous space, with variable sections and extremely poor lighting,” explain the architects. “Hence the proposal focuses on the opening of a patio, literally conceived as an outer room, to improve the interior lighting.”
The courtyard is sandwiched between the two spaces and large square windows let in as much light as possible. ”The thickness and warmth of the three new, large windows opened in the patio has been carefully undertaken, making it a place to stay that allows enjoyment of the outer space while simultaneously turning intermediate thresholds into habitable spaces,” say the architects.
The gallery is positioned at the building’s entrance and leads through to a small timber office in front of the courtyard.
A corridor runs along the edge of the courtyard to link the exhibition room with the studio, where a 12.5-metre-long table provides workspaces down the centre and bookshelves offer storage along the walls.
The studio is located in the Gràcia area of Barcelona, where many other artists and designers are based.
Other new projects in Barcelona include the new European headquarters of Velcro and an apartment with mosaic flooring and an exposed wooden ceiling.
See more design in Barcelona »
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by MAIO appeared first on Dezeen.
Latvian designer Anna Butele used fluorescent paint and marker pens to write inspirational messages across the walls at the new office of her interior design firm Annvil in Riga (+ slideshow).
“Some are in English, some are in Latvian, but they are about being in the moment. It’s always a reminder about thinking of everything you can imagine,” Anna Butele told Dezeen.
Located on Alberta Street, Annvil‘s offices are located within an old building and parts of the original interior are retained, such as the parquet flooring and wooden doors.
The walls are coloured with pastel shades of lilac, turquoise and white, while the painted messages are stencilled in different fonts and fluorescent stripes line the skirting boards.
“The materials of the old building are there and we just coloured everything,” said Butele.
Furniture includes a mix of new and reclaimed pieces, plus a few items that were designed by Annvil. This includes the combined bookshelf and cabinet that leans against a wall and a mirror with bright yellow edges.
In the largest room, an abstract portrait of Butele made up of nine panels is the focus. “The pieces fit together like a puzzle,” she explained.
The project was completed this year and replaces the studio’s previous address on Stabu Street.
Other office interiors we’ve featured on Dezeen recently include the European headquarters of Velcro and a workplace for entrepreneurs in an old coffee-roasting warehouse.
Photography is by Ingus Bajārs.
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by Anna Butele appeared first on Dezeen.
Interview: recently Dezeen met up with Dennis Paphitis, founder of skincare brand Aesop. In this exclusive interview he explains why no two stores are of the same design, why he enjoys working with different architects around the world and how he believes “there’s a direct correlation between interesting, captivating store spaces and customer traffic within a store” (+ slideshow).
In the interview, conducted by Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs, Paphitis (above) explains how the brand has worked with different design teams to avoid “the kind of assault on the streetscape that retailers inflict through the ordinary course of mindless business.”
“I was horrified at the thought of Aesop evolving into a soulless chain,” he says. “I’ve always imagined what we do as the equivalent of a weighty, gold charm bracelet on the tanned wrist of a glamorous, well-read European woman who has travelled and collected interesting experiences. I felt and still do that it should be possible to grow in a lateral way without prostituting the essence of what the company is about.”
Above: Aesop at Merci, Melbourne, by March Studio
The slideshow [top of page] features several new and previously unpublished Aesop stores. See all our stories about Aesop stores.
Marcus Fairs: Tell me the story of Aesop.
Dennis Paphitis: I’m an ex-hairdresser. I guess the qualities that remain important in Aesop stores today were also important in the salon back in the days when I was cutting hair. In busy, high traffic environments a sense of calm and composure can quickly recalibrate how people feel. I attracted complicated and difficult clients, so keeping the space visually ordered and contained made it easier for me to think and work in.
Product-wise I started by adding essential oils to the commercial hair colour we were using at the time, because the smell of ammonia is quite overwhelming. Clients responded well to these less aggressive aromas. I then looked further into other ingredients and started work with a chemist on a small range of hair care products. Eventually the hair product extended to a hand and body product category and finally skin care. I started to think this could be developed into a more substantial offer if I gave myself fully to it.
So in 1996 I stepped out of the salon altogether, and spent the next few years with our first chemist setting up the foundation for a fuller product line and more serious development. All this was done without a great deal of commercial aspiration. I was simply interested in what was happening with the product and learning more about the science of manufacturing and ingredient sourcing, product shelf life: all the necessary components of developing product and trying to do something well. The idea was to use fewer, better ingredients in a smarter way.
Above: Aesop Shin-Marunouchi, Tokyo, by Torafu Architects
Marcus Fairs: Why did you decide to open your own stores?
Dennis Paphitis: We would try and explain to retailers that were retailing our product how we would like to be represented and communicated, but we didn’t have a tangible example to demonstrate this to them. It was all in our heads yet there wasn’t a physical reference. So the moment you do that and you control the smallest, most innocuous details such as temperature, lighting, music, smells, tactility, and the materiality of a space this has a very profound impact. Of course there must be a solid and serious product offer to have legitimacy, but these peripheral factors actually compliment the product line up. It was liberating and we were able to express ourselves as who we are.
Above: Aesop Saint-Honoré by March Studio
Marcus Fairs: Where was the first store?
Dennis Paphitis: The company is 25 years old however the first Aesop store proper is only 10 years old this month and we’re happy it’s still there. It’s in Melbourne, in an area called St Kilda, which I guess is a little bit like the Shoreditch or the Hackney in these parts. It felt like the appropriate area to begin in. We couldn’t find a location however there was an iconic hotel called The Prince that had a car parking ramp that was 3m wide and 25m long. They gave us this space to work with and we redirected the car park users to enter an exit from around the corner. So that was the bones of our first store.
Marcus Fairs: How many do you have now?
Dennis Paphitis: At this moment I think we have 61 stores and there are nine stores in progress; four of those are in the US, which is a huge step for us in that part of the world.
Above: Aesop Grand Central Kiosk, New York, by Tacklebox
Marcus Fairs: The design of each of your stores is different, and you’ve worked with several different architects around the world. What’s the thinking behind that?
Dennis Paphitis: After St Kilda we opened a second store in the central part of Melbourne and opened our first store in Taipei within a few months of both. So through necessity we began to work with different architects, because of the overlapping timing. For example we needed to work with a local Taiwanese architect on the first store there. And that just got me thinking about the kind of assault on the streetscape that retailers inflict through the ordinary course of mindless business, the idea that one size would so often be forced to fit all. It wasn’t so hard to respectfully consider each space individually, consider the customer, the context and to bring a little joy into the conversation.
I was horrified at the thought of Aesop evolving into a soulless chain. I’ve always imagined what we do as the equivalent of a weighty, gold charm bracelet on the tanned wrist of a glamorous, well-read European woman who has travelled and collected interesting experiences. I felt and still do that it should be possible to grow in a lateral way without prostituting the essence of what the company is about, to have the confidence to evolve yet the retain the core of what distinguishes us. It’s become politically incorrect to discuss good taste but actually this what Aesop does best. We aspire toward a certain quality, discretion and restraint in our work. These are qualities that are almost counter intuitive in a retail market desperate to cater to short attention spans and infinite choice.
Architecturally our criteria is always to try and work with what is already there and to weave ourselves into the core and fabric of the street, rather than to impose what we were doing. We didn’t ever want a standard Aesop shade of orange or green that was plastered onto stores with a nasty logo over it, but instead to look at the streetscape and try to retain and redeem existing facades that are there, and work with a local and relevant vocabulary to contextualise what we do.
There remains a core palette of ideas that we work with: we know that every store has to have sufficient display space, by product category. For example you need to be able to walk in and say to the customer, “This is where the skincare is, this is where the hair is, the body care,” etcetera. We need a counter for transactions to occur, we need water, we need back-of-house storage, some space to sit and contemplate and think about the day. So there are all these factors that don’t vary by region but the possibility of expressing them fully will vary according to space, light and budget. It’s the same product that we’re selling worldwide but it needs to fit and connect locally.
Above: Aesop Newbury Street, Boston, by William O’Brien Jr
Marcus Fairs: When did you start expanding internationally?
Dennis Paphitis: Five or six years ago we looked at where we would open the first offshore company-controlled store, because Taiwan was an arrangement with an external party there. Four of us took a trip to LA, San Francisco, London and Paris and we knew that it would be one of those four cites. We opted to set up the first stall in Paris, which was really quite absurd because none of us at that time spoke French and we were aware of the commercial bureaucracy and so forth that one deals with in France.
But actually it was quite a straightforward and invigorating process once we found a store that appealed to us in the sixth. We looked at some spaces and found a bookstore that we liked and tracked down the architect. He spoke little English but there was an immediate human connection between all of us. We worked well together, and more or less from that moment on we then started to explore the possibility of working with local architects project managing development from Melbourne.
We’ve continued on this path since with some architects that we’ve worked with many times over such as Rodney Eggleston, who is the founder of March Studio in Melbourne; we’ve just completed our twelfth project with him at Bleecker Street in New York [above]. Similarly Kerstin Thompson from KTA who we’re working on our sixth project with a new Adelaide store. We’ve completed five projects with Ciguë who are a fantastic young Paris based firm and are also beginning two London projects with them in the New Year.
My personal criteria in selecting architects for long term unions is not singularly the excellence of their work but more so their psycho-emotional state and capacity to communicate, function under pressure and ultimately deliver the goods with minimal trauma. There are some very impressive characters out there, this year we’ve begun three projects with NADAAA in Boston who are perhaps the most professional and sophisticated firm we’ve worked with.
Marcus Fairs: You tend to have clusters of stories in cities like London and Paris, rather than one store in every city. Why is that?
Dennis Paphitis: The thing with us is we like to go deep rather than wide, so we can’t set up a store in London then just open another one in Barcelona and in Glasgow because it seems like a good idea. We need to do a series of interconnected stores in London or whichever the chosen city is because we need the back office support structure to make it all work and hang together well. Less spread, more depth of presence with a strong and switched on infrastructure to support this.
Marcus Fairs: What influence does interior design have on sales and the performance of the shop?
Dennis Paphitis: There’s a direct correlation between interesting, captivating store spaces and customer traffic and interest within a store. I’m personally more comfortable with under-designed looking design, if that makes sense, or design that dissolves and recedes rather than screams ‘look how clever I am’. It’s not singularly the design but also a whole series of seemingly miniscule decisions and very fine calibrations that converge together to make space captivating and comfortable to be in.
Above: Aesop at I.T Hysan One, Hong Kong by Cheungvogl
Marcus Fairs: How do you choose your architects?
Dennis Paphitis: We like to take them green but not too green; they need to have a little bit of blood on their hands. The minimum criterion is five years post-graduate working experience unless they’re extraordinarily talented and there’s some compelling reason to consider them. But if they’re 15 years into their professional journey we need to check that they’re not having a mid-life crisis or whatever it is that might implode or distract them during the process. It’s a fine line.
We sit down and share coffee and meals and try and understand their motivations. Often we are the ones seeking them out, we will see something they’ve done, hear about a talent graduate, discover some long ago project that captivates us. And then we present what we need to achieve with them and give the scope to interpret this whilst at the same time ensuring that there are sufficient shelves to store our product and a space for our staff in the back room to have lunch, a point of sale, and basins because we need water in every store, and a provision to have music, and all of the practical details that make a retail space functional and successful.
Above: Aesop Ginza, Tokyo, by Schemata Architecture Office
Marcus Fairs: How involved do you get in the design of the stores?
Dennis Paphitis: Once an architect has my allegiance and loyalty they’re pretty much given carte blanche but they do need to earn it and they need to be respectful to keep it. With the guys in Paris, Ciguë, who are almost like some sort of contemporary experiment in architectural socialism, they’re extraordinarily hard working, committed and diligent, earnest and talented. Nothing with them ever runs on time, nothing runs to budget, nothing emerges in the way that you expect it to, but they pour their hearts into every job, see it through and remain responsible for the upkeep with an almost Victorian sense of propriety and dignity. I like this sense of responsibility.
We had hand-blown glass taps made by them for the Islington store, which exploded! But they will hand-blow them again and we’ve all learnt from that. It never regresses into a vulgar conversation around blame and who is responsible.
Conversely there are arrangements that we have in other parts of the world that are much more structured and sober and these are the ones that deliver at 10am on Monday 13th because that’s what’s been agreed. The work is still of a very high standard. I’m not sure if these have the same poetic capacity to arouse and to captivate, but it’s work that will certainly do its job and fulfil the brief. Personally it’s that little extra manic commitment and diligence that motivates and drives me so I enjoy this with people I work with.
Above: Aesop Le Marais, Paris, by Ciguë
Marcus Fairs: Is your approach to hiring architects changing as the company grows?
Dennis Paphitis: What I’ve proposed is that we standardised the relationship that we have with some architects and make it a ‘marriage’ in specific regions. I’ve always worked on a “What if I get hit by a truck?” theory, so I am no longer involved in the commercial aspects of the company. My role is now more an arm’s length creative provocateur, just to kind of stir the pot a bit where I sense the design decisions being made are perhaps too safe and less energised than they might be. The truth is that many of my colleagues are far more visionary and driven than I am and have the capacity to develop and further explore the company’s next chapters.
Above: Aesop store in Singapore by March Studio
Marcus Fairs: Which store is your favourite?
Dennis Paphitis: I think the current personal favourite is always the most recent store because it’s like a new lover or something similarly engrossing. You become immersed in the moment but then they become like children and you could never admit to favouring one over the other.
We’ve just opened a fourth store in Paris in Rue Tiquetonne [above] and a sixth in London in Islington [below]. I think both of these are particularly interesting, they feel like a logical evolution of what we’ve explored with Ciguë to date. Earlier in the year we opened a little gem of a store in Collins Street, Melbourne designed by our creative team with Kerstin Thompson. The thinking behind that store was very much around speaking with men, because the location is in the banking end of town, there are lots of institutional clubs for men, bankers and the rest of it. The material references for this space are all quite sturdy, traditional yet at the same time a little subversive to an educated eye.
Then we opened Geneva [see slideshow] three months ago. This one was intended to evoke more a decadent living room of maybe a central European or Middle Eastern undercover agent with an apartment in Geneva. There is extraordinary copper detailing and stuccoed plaster, quite beautiful matt, saturated skin toned walls, so that was also an interesting one.
And we also opened a second store in Zurich [see slideshow]. That was constructed largely out of cork. I’ve always been interested in cork because of the tactility and the acoustic qualities that it has. It’s a very small store though it has high visual impact and it’s been well received. Then Islington, which opened about four months or so ago. The reference point here was nurseries and seedling trays that you could slide open and close. Ciguë used a lot of plants, and since opening, the plants have quadrupled in size and grown all over the walls and products so this idea of a store never being quite finished or static is very much our thing.
We’re working with an interesting lighting firm in Beirut called .PSLAB. They’ve resolved a long-standing Aesop lighting dilemma, because our stores are generally quite under-lit by standard retail measures and they’ve managed to gently increase the lighting levels a little yet still keep it all soft and human and more living room like.
Above: Épatant, Melbourne by Dennis Paphitis and Lock Smeeton
Marcus Fairs: You’ve set up a new retail concept for men. Tell me about that.
Dennis Paphitis: Épatant [above] is a separate non-Aesop project that I’m working on for a day a week. It’s intended as a kind of mental palette cleanser for me; a distraction that I can amuse myself with. I have a business partner on this project and we’ve been speaking-thinking for the last couple of years about the way men behave in a retail context, what switches them on, what engages them and what just closes them down.
It’s really just an edit of product that we like and already use and felt deserved a base to be presented from. Épatant means “dapper gent” in French and the idea was that we would have product that address all categories of a man’s life from birth until death, without necessarily touching fashion. Fashion is not something we know, and with sizes and seasons it just becomes too complicated and kind of tedious.
So there’s a website and a physical store and the idea is you can shop by brand and you can shop by category: fitness, wellbeing, personal grooming, car, office, outdoors, and so forth. Or you can shop by milestone, if you’re buying a gift for someone; birth, graduation, divorce, retirement, whatever it may be.
We share the space with some Japanese friends who have developed a food offer, thinking what does a guy want to eat for lunch? The options are quite limited in terms of food. It’s an interesting project. We also represent Aesop there because in the grooming category it was the only logical option. I generally spend four days a week working on Aesop and one day on Épatant, and I think it’s been constructive. One project fuels the other and keeps it interesting for me. It’s the first non-Aesop workplace thought I’ve had in twenty five years and I’m still trying to figure out what it all means.
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