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      Victorian balusters pattern surfaces at Aesop Yorkville store by Odami

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      The history of Toronto’s Yorkville neighbourhood informed this store for skincare brand Aesop, which local studio Odami has given ruby-toned walls and smooth beige counters.

      Odami, a design studio based several blocks west of the Aesop Yorkville shop, used features typical of the area as a starting point for elements of the design.
      Aesop’s third store in Toronto includes a “fragrance library” for testing the brand’s new aromas”The interior takes inspiration from the downtown area’s architectural and societal history – starting with the Victorian houses that populate the district, and the lanes and squares where communities have gathered over the decades,” said a statement from the brand.
      The profile of balusters found across nearby buildings and porches is translated as a closely repeated pattern that forms maple wainscoting around the interior.
      The profile of a Victorian baluster forms wainscoting around the storeWalls and ceiling are painted oxblood red, creating a dusky and intimate atmosphere inside the compact space.

      “The design is anchored by a sense of warmth, and sees traditional materials imagined anew,” said Aesop. “The geometry is akin to that of a bustling town square: a large and open space with smaller enclaves around its perimeter.”
      Walls, ceilings and furniture are coloured ruby red, while counters and sinks are beigeSeating and counters that are coloured to match the walls blend into the background, while units that have sinks for testing skin and hair products stand out in pale beige.
      The largest basin is positioned in the centre of the store, incorporating three faucets and doubling as a tea station.
      The wall colour creates an intimate atmosphere, while allowing the signature Aesop bottles to stand outA slender, metal light fixture is suspended horizontally above, directing light from a trio of tubes down onto the central counter.
      Three pale-toned cylinders set into the back wall form a “fragrance library” for the brand’s growing collection of aromas.

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      Two tubes display the signature Aesop bottles, while the third has a clear front and acts as an infusion chamber for items of clothing.
      Odami was founded in 2017 by Spanish architect Aránzazu González Bernardo and Canadian designer Michael Fohring, and has completed several interiors in its base city.
      The central countertop includes a long sink and also doubles as a tea stationThey include the Sara restaurant, where a roughly plastered wall curves over the dining area, and a renovated 1980s apartment with a green-painted sunroom.
      This is the third Aesop location in Toronto, following a store designed by MSDS on Queen Street West, and another in the Downtown district.
      The history of the store’s Yorkville location provided references for its designThe brand regularly collaborates with local architects and designers on its store interiors around the world.
      Among the most recent are an outpost in Tokyo by Case-Real that features coarse plaster walls, and another in London by Al-Jawad Pike that’s filled with red sandstone from Scotland.
      The photography is by John Alunan

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      Case-Real contrasts plaster and steel inside Aesop store in Shinjuku

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      Coarse plaster walls offset glinting stainless-steel display fixtures in this restrained store that architecture studio Case-Real has designed for Aesop in Shinjuku, Tokyo.The Aesop store occupies a glass-fronted retail unit in Shinjuku, a buzzing, tourist-heavy ward of Tokyo populated with bars, eateries and neon-lit billboards.

      Case-Real used just two materials to create the store’s simple interior
      When it came to designing the store’s interiors, Case-Real wanted to capture both what it describes as a sense of “artificial chaos” that permeates Shinjuku and the natural quality of Aesop’s skincare products.

      The locally based studio decided to use two contrasting materials that it felt reflected the dichotomy of natural and artificial – plaster and steel.

      Plaster covers the store’s walls, while steel has been used for display fixtures
      All of the store’s gently curving walls are coated with coarse beige plaster, which leaves behind a textured surface finish.
      The same plaster has been applied to a section of the store’s facade, creating a simple backdrop for Aesop’s logo.

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      Paint in the same beige hue has been washed across the ceiling and floor.

      A counter where customers can test products is also made from steel
      Shiny stainless steel has then been used to craft a series of lengthy display shelves that bend in line with the walls and several low-lying cabinets where extra stock can be hidden away, complete with steel handles.
      The metal has additionally been used to make the store’s service desk, as well as a long counter inbuilt with round washbasins where customers are invited to test out products or observe demonstrations from staff.
      A border of steel has also been created around the entrance doorway.

      Plaster gives the walls a rough surface finish
      The only other feature that Case-Real has incorporated in the store is a chunky plaster bench seat supported by cylindrical steel legs.
      It has been placed directly in front of a window that looks onto the busy streets of Shinjuku, allowing customers to quietly sit and people-watch.

      Plaster also appears on the store’s facade
      Case-Real was established in the year 2000 and is led by designer Koichi Futatsumata. Four years ago, the studio designed the interiors of another Aesop store in the Japanese city of Sapporo, covering its walls with locally-sourced volcanic stone.
      The studio’s Aesop Shinjuku store is shortlisted in the small retail interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards. It will compete against projects such as the Pinocchio, a tiny 4.5-metre-wide bakery in Yokohama, and the Glossier pop-up in Seattle, where products are displayed amongst grassy mounds covered in wildflowers.
      Photography is by Daisuke Shima.
      Project credits:
      Design: Koichi Futatusmata, Yuki Onita (Case-Real)Construction: &SLighting plan: BRANCH lighting design (Tatsuki Nakamura)

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      Aesop's London store takes its colour from the red sandstone of Glamis Castle

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      Precast stone blocks coloured with red sandstone from Glamis Castle in Scotland form the walls of this refuge-style Aesop store that architecture studio Al-Jawad Pike has created in a west London shopping centre.The studio designed the small store for skincare brand Aesop to be a retreat from the bustling aisles of Westfield shopping centre in Sheperd’s Bush.
      “We wanted the store to be a refuge from the busy mall environment, it is a sort of building within a building – using genuine masonry construction rather than applied finishes or surfaces,” Al-Jawad Pike co-founder Jessam Al-Jawad told Dezeen.

      Al-Jawad Pike chose to build the walls of the store from precast stone blocks, which enclose the space and create a feeling akin to a walled garden. The curved form of the walls is also meant to reference the undulating brickwork of Uruguayan engineer Eladio Dieste.

      “The concept was to create a kind of walled garden within the mall,” said Al-Jawad.
      “It was inspired by the ‘crinkle crankle’ wall of the English countryside as well as the structures of Eladio Dieste, which both use an undulating waveform to give rigidity to a single skin of masonry.”

      Earthy tones have been applied throughout the store. Powder from the same red sandstone that was used to make the 17th-century Glamis Castle in Scotland has been used to colour the precast stone blocks.
      The resulting red blockwork walls, which were built using two standard shapes of precast blocks, have been paired with red concrete-tile flooring and a clay plaster ceiling.

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      “We wanted to use a warm colour to provide a sense of natural earthiness that reflected the red bricks of typical masonry walled gardens, said Al-Jawad.
      “The colour is called Glamis red named after the red sandstone of Glamis Castle in Scotland.”

      Set against the earthy red backdrop, Aesop’s products are displayed on stainless steel shelves. While the main space is broken up by three cast resin sinks that were produced by Sabine Marcelis.
      “We hope we created a calm ambience that enables customers to engage with the Aesop products,” Al-Jawad explained.
      “The hand-washing sinks which are a big part of the customers’ interaction with the product and the sales people are also given centre stage – being made out of honey-coloured resin they also look a bit like big bars of sculpted soap.”

      Aesop often allows its designers to create monotonal stores. For its Sydney store, architecture studio Snøhetta used granite to covers almost every surface, while Frida Escobedo used rammed-earth brickwork throughout its store in Brooklyn. Bernard Dubois also clad the walls of the brand’s Brussels store in distinctive yellow Belgian bricks.
      London-based Al-Jawad Pike was established by Al-Jawad and Dean Pike in 2014. The studio has previously used pigmented concrete blockwork for the exterior and interior of a south London home extension and combined brick, concrete and timber for an extension to a home in Stoke Newington.
      Photography is by Ståle Eriksen.

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