Aesop's Harrods Shop Gets a Terracotta Centrepiece

Aesop, the skincare and fragrance brand, has a revamped shop inside Harrods, the London department store. The new look is built around a counter wrapped in terracotta, a baked clay material, and it comes from the design studio Al-Jawad Pike. Dezeen reported the project on Friday, 30 October.

Aesop has run a counter in Harrods for more than ten years. Al-Jawad Pike is a long-term collaborator of the brand, so this redesign builds on an existing working relationship.

The central counter is clad in glazed terracotta tiles from Italy. The designers chose the tiles for their ability to hold scents. The counter also echoes the red-brick facade of Harrods outside, and its carved alcoves are designed to recall the architecture of ancient Persia.

The counter was meant to feel like a small building. Its shape suggests openings and different floor levels, according to Dezeen.

Visitors can also try the fragrances through an "olfactory sculpture", a piece built around the sense of smell. Glass fragrance vessels hang from a copper stand. Air carrying the scent is pushed through copper piping and blown glass, then released through copper cones, or funnels, where shoppers can smell it.

Photographs of the project are by Ollie Tomlinson.