Aesop Nolita

Photo: Gianluca Fellini for Aesop

Photo: Gianluca Fellini for Aesop

Photo: Gianluca Fellini for Aesop

Photo: Gianluca Fellini for Aesop

Photo: TACKLEBOX Architecture

Photo: TACKLEBOX Architecture

Photo: TACKLEBOX Architecture

Photo: TACKLEBOX Architecture

Time for a little holiday break.  2011 has been a fantastic year and we feel very lucky to have met and worked with so many great clients, collaborators and builders.  The following two posts include images from the final two projects (of the three) that we designed for Aesop.  If you haven't been by yet, please stop in and say hi.  Their products make incredible holiday gifts.

Beginning with an idea initiated in the Aesop Kiosk – which uses text in the form of a newspaper to mark a place of information and orientation – the design for Elizabeth Street turns the text of the newspaper inward and focuses on its materiality, creating newsprint walls that will age over time.

Here 2,800 New York Times newspapers have been torn into 400,000 strips which were then stacked to create a soft, felt-like surface held within a continuous oak wrapper.  Just as oak is commonly used to store and age wine and spirits, so too will the newspaper age, turning a light tan, thus marking the passing of time.  In this way, the history of Aesop North America will be recorded within the very walls of this first store.