Location: Sydney, Australia.

Architect: mlkk studio.

The Aesop Bondi Junction Signature Store is a unique retail space that celebrates the beauty of incompleteness. The store design retains the construction framework as incomplete and exposes the raw pine structure surface. This resonates with the most abundant and standard housing framing construction method in the post-war era, especially in suburban Australia. The design also applies many generic domestic items from typical housing in the 60s and 70s to the key retail components such as sinks and taps to echo the exposed framing structure and the concept.

The store is located in the Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney and is only 30 minutes away from Bondi Beach. Space is divided into different zones including the reception foyer, the Front of the House, the primary Back of the House and the secondary Back of the House for stocking. The generous reception foyer, featuring a carefully-selected vintage sofa and lighting design, is unusual for retail store design yet helps to prepare the visitors to engage in a different experience. The entire shop front is formed purely by the exposed Pine stud framing and glazing to create the desired domestic image. Some mindfully-selected everyday items from the 60s are placed in the store, such as ceramic coffee mugs, stainless steel kitchen basins and plastic door handles to whimsically contrast the typical retail store selections and align with the overall image. The contrasting domestic design intention requires a different approach for detailing and tectonic articulation to fulfil the retail requirements. The key materials of the store are pine panels and studs. Mockups are made to test the constructability, stability, durability and efficiency of the design.

The design reminds us of the comedy movie “Mon Oncle” by the French filmmaker Jacques Tati, in which each element of Villa Arpel is stylistic – rather than functionally- designed, creating an environment completely indifferent to the comfort, or the lack of comfort, of its occupants. The design would like to take a similarly humorous, witty and contrasting approach to trigger questions and deeper thoughts by reiterating the common image of everyday domestic lives of the 60s in the modern high-end shopping mall context. The intention of stimulating the memory which is shared among the audiences can bring about a sense of belonging and deeper connections to space.

Photo credit: Aesop Courtesy.