Aesop Busan

Located in the Haeundae-gu district of South Korea’s ‘summer capital’, also known for its proliferation of art and design, Aesop Busan pays tribute to elements of the urban landscape that often go unnoticed. Our in-house design team approached the space with temperance: independent joinery was installed while the raw interior shell was preserved. The store is neighbour to a book shop—this connection is honoured with a translucent resin partition that provides an ethereal dual vista and shared access. Giwa tiling, omnipresent on the roofs of traditional Korean houses, is recycled in multiple ways throughout the store. Along the back wall, reclaimed tiles have been cleaned, re-glazed and presented as exhibits. After firing, the blue-green glaze is reminiscent of the nearby coast and the colour palette of a walk through the alleys of Busan’s Gamcheon Culture Village. In another instance of reuse, Giwa tile waste has been crushed and used as the aggregate in a custom-made terrazzo which forms the massive counters and basin.