Granite covers almost every surface inside this Sydney Aesop store, which architecture firm Snøhetta has designed to look like a rocky coastline. Situated amongst the busy, shop-lined streets of Sydney’s central business district, Aesop Pitt Street has been designed by Snøhetta to “slow down the pace of passersby”.
“We sought to create a space that, though large in scale, still embodies the spirit and ambience of what Aesop is recognized for – a space of calm and reflection that allows one to focus for a moment on oneself,” Peter Girgis, senior interior architect at Snøhetta, told Dezeen.
Granite has therefore been used to line almost every surface of the 250-square-metre store – Aesop’s largest retail space to date – nodding to the appearance of coastal cliffs and the tranquil ambience associated with beachside settings. The practice was also hoping that the extensive use of a single material would lend the store a sense of monumentality.
Images of stone quarries became a point of reference, along with Wrapped Coast – a 1969 installation that saw art duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude drape over 92,000 square metres of fabric over towering cliffs in Syndey’s Little Bay suburb.
Source: dezeen.com
