After securing the keys to a spot in one of London’s most elusive of postcodes, Aesop has just opened its new Knightsbridge store. Renowned for its architect-designed spaces, Aesop are continuously pioneering in the retail space – always looking for new and exciting ways for consumers to engage with its product line.
The new Knightsbridge store is no different, and arguably raises the game by integrating the product into the fabric of the build with innovative soap bricks.
Originally designed for Aesop’s Piazza Cordusio store in Milan as part of Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2024, the soap installation now lines the walls of its new outpost on Brompton road.
In a design-led twist of fate, it was just as Salone was wrapping up when Aesop was granted its Knightsbridge store. And as the design team were dismounting the (over four thousand) soap bricks, it was clear to see where their next deployment would be.
Stepping inside the Knightsbridge store, the plan is long and narrow. This allows the installation to take the form of a “soap corridor”, offering a pragmatic and intriguing journey through Aesop’s fragrant offerings for your skin, hair, body and home.
The soap installation is the brainchild of architect Nicolas Schuybroek who took inspiration from the Arte Povera movement of the late 60s and 70s, with echoes of Superstudio’s monochromatic grid structures. “Schuybroek had taken one of the most fundamental, functional household items – a bar of soap – to create an unconventional sculpture” Aesop reveals.
Additional furniture pieces found in Aesop’s Knightsbridge store have been saved and repurposed from previous retail spaces, including the basins and display shelves.
Aesop Knightsbridge Address:
43 Brompton Road, SW3 1DE, London
Photos: Alixe Lay
Discover more about the world of Aesop and their aromatic formulations here.
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