Cheungvogl Architects
www.cheungvogl.com
Aesop Installation, I.T Hysan One, Hong Kong
Year: 2011
Main Use: Installation, Retail
Site Area: 100 sqm
Bldg. Area: 100 sqm
GFA: 100 sqm
Storeys: 1
Cheungvogl created a cycle of concept case studies for the renowned Australian brand Aesop, in which eleven installations, signature stores and concept stores across Asia and Europe have evolved. Although each design is unique in its approach, materiality and character, the design rationale is consistently grounded in rigorous analysis of the brand’s philosophy and customer engagements with the brand’s sophisticated product range.
The case studies explicitly focus on the integration, interaction and communication aspects between humans and objects. The spatial organizations, operational characters and material palettes within the spaces are all directly responding to the holistic design thinking and adaptation of specific requirements within each given contextual environment. Across the eleven case studies, the projects are inter-linked with the intention to strengthen the synergies between the architecture, the brand and the site context.
The outcome of rationalization and simplification of the design thinking results in a series of timeless, functional and commercially successful spaces.
Cheungvogl created an installation for Aesop in the I.T Hysan One flagship store in Hong Kong that builds on the reputation for architecturally remarkable spaces.
Cheungvogl Architects have imbued the exhibition space with a similar delicate luminosity. Breaking down the elements of ‘shelves’, eight hundred resin boxes are arranged atop steel rods of varying lengths, creating the sense that each box is ascending at its own pace, as if being drawn upward by an invisible thread. Some boxes hold Aesop formulations while others are designed to reward visitors' curiosity through unexpected sound, scent and touch.
At the end of its two-week tenure the Aesop installation will be deconstructed and re-formed as a permanent retail space.
The permanent installation of Cheungvogl’s former temporary installation at I.T, Hysan One settles in the probably most minimalistic way as the products are categorized in resin boxes, which lose their materiality in the surrounding light, leaving the products almost invisibly grouped and sorted.