Norwegian practice Snøhetta has created a new retail store for Australian cosmetics brand Aesop in Berlin, inspired by neighbouring performing arts institutions.
The 93-square-metre store takes its design cues from the theatrical stages of Berlin’s Theater Bes Westens and the Berliner Schaubühne – a theme carried out from the shopfront window to the interior and even the floor.
Nine joinery cabinets stand sentinel “on stage” like the chorus of the show. While the curtain is up, the cabinets are open displaying Aesop’s range of products. At night, the cabinets are closed and appear like columns (or stage props), lit from above.
The joinery cabinets in the Aesop Berlin store by Snøhetta appear as columns when closed.
Image: Snøhetta
Storage cabinets are also concealed in the floor like a stage trap door. The facade is also designed to frame the set, and reinforces the design philosophy of retail spaces as a theatrical stage.
The Berlin store is Snøhetta’s second European project for Aesop. In December 2014, the practice designed Aesop’s 100th store in Oslo, Norway. The store’s most distinctive feature is its ceiling, shaped form gypsum plaster to form ten intersecting domes in a contemporary interpretation of orthodox churches and monasteries.
