The store’s façade – composed of rhythmic, highly textured, vertical grooves, bush-hammered into granite – is imposing and restrained in equal measure. Set amongst the glass-clad, mannequin-dotted frontages of Australia’s busiest retail street, Pitt Street Mall, Aēsop’s latest branch stands out through grey-covered subtlety and a permanence that is refreshing in its context.
“Coming to Pitt Street for the first time… understanding its demographic, and constant motion and rush of people, led us to counteract that,” says Peter Girgis, senior interior architect at Snøhetta, the Norwegian firm tasked with the design of this 250m2 store. “How do you suggest something physically and conceptually to stop somebody?” he asks, referring to techniques aimed at grabbing the attention of the more than 30,000 pedestrians who are said to walk through Pitt Street on a yearly basis.