Aēsop Canberra

Established in 1987, Aēsop is one of the world’s leading brands in revolutionising everyday products. For over three decades, Aésop has amassed cult-like status through its extensive offering of skin, hair and body care formulations and a cool, calming and refined visual identity to match. When Dennis Paphitis founded the company, the ex-hairdresser was deeply committed to creating high-quality products, which combined innovative sustainable techniques, extensive research into each formulation, and natural ingredients.

Known for its sophisticated Helvetica typeface, muted tones and ethereal aromas that whisk you away the moment you step into one of its stores, the brand takes a profound approach to the modern retail experience. Today, Aēsop boasts over 250 signature stores in major cities across the globe, continuously delivering spaces that educate and inspire customers. And like its comprehensive range of celebrated products, Aēsop’s stores are immersive, crafted with efficacy and sensory pleasure in mind.

Throughout the years, the global brand has cultivated strong relationships with creatives whose practices align with the brand’s vision of sustainability and intelligent, well-considered design. With this, no two stores are alike, as each space is a functional and respectful response to its landscape and the stories of the context’s past, present and future.

Located on Ngunnawal Country, Aēsop’s Canberra outpost is a homage to the splendour of the capital’s rich landscape and historic urban fabric. In the 1900s, architects Marion Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin envisioned a city that would coexist with its natural environment while meeting the civic requirements of an ever-evolving modern metropolis. Drawing on this, Aēsop’s in-house design department explored the impact of Canberra’s cultural and architectural heritage and how these stories translate into a unique retail experience.

Nestled within Canberra Centre, the store features an opulent material palette of marble, jarrah and brass – a combination evocative of the bountiful nature reserves and vivid hues of the mountains overlooking the city centre. The storefront presents an expansive crimson-hued brass façade – a stark yet intriguing contrast to the light tones of the centre's interiors. The customer is instantly transported to another realm as they step through the threshold.

Visitors are welcomed by fully-stocked shelves crafted in warm jarrah timber, ambient indirect lighting and the distinct scents of Aēsop’s most popular formulas and two monolithic cylinders – a basin and a counter – for people to gather. The basin, embellished with gold brass tapware and Urbanstone Pilbarra Red Australian marble, draws you in with its remarkable tactility and veining. Sitting in dialogue with the timber counter, the design team meticulously placed them parallel to each other – a decision that recalls the roundabouts of Canberra’s streets and the city’s arrangement of circular landmarks found in Griffins’ architectural documentation.

With every store in every location, Aēsop considers the site’s existing landscape. In line with the company’s meticulous approach to research and development, the design for Aēsop Canberra dives deep into the city’s history to understand how one of their signature stores can seamlessly weave itself into the site’s fabric. By implementing a familiar design vocabulary, Aēsop Canberra impresses with its novel architectural ambition – one that speaks both to the Australian locale and the long-standing ethos of the Aēsop brand.

“And like its comprehensive range of celebrated products, Aēsop’s stores are immersive, crafted with efficacy and sensory pleasure in mind.”

“And like its comprehensive range of celebrated products, Aēsop’s stores are immersive, crafted with efficacy and sensory pleasure in mind.”