Aesop Islington by Ciguë
French designers Ciguë modelled this north London store for skin and haircare brand Aesop on a 1930s medical laboratory.
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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.
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Ciguë used a palette of traditional materials, including reclaimed wood sourced from a 200-year-old French monastery for the floors and cabinets.
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A single surface of polished white marble provides worktops and washbasins, with glass taps and pipes that show liquid flowing through them.
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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.
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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.