French architect Ciguë has completed London’s sixth store for skin and haircare brand Aesop in Covent Garden. I went down at the weekend to have a look and fell in love with the hexagonal green floor tiles that feature engraved white patterns and mimic a lush forest floor.
Ciguë, who has designed five other Aesop stores in Paris and London, was inspired by four key references: a Virginia Woolf quote, a Francis Bacon painting, a Henry Moore sculpture, and an excerpt from Beauty and the Beast, “We are very curious about history, and very attentive to transformations. We look out for old know-how and poetry in functionality.”
The store is extremely light and features whitewashed walls and in-built shelves which blend into the sides of the store. Nothing but the exposed copper plumbing touches the ground, giving the allusion of an endless shop floor. The green colour is replicated in lush vegetation which climbs the walls from an interior window box, complementing the neighbouring gardens of Saint Paul’s Church.
Aesop also has a great little A-Z guide of London, which you can see here.
