Aesop Mitsukoshi Tainan XiaoBeiMen

Monumental domesticity

Long known as the ‘Phoenix City’, Tainan has been shaped by cycles of renewal. As Taiwan’s oldest urban settlement, it is steeped in a layered history of comebacks and reinvention. Once a trading base, it later became the island’s capital under the Ming and Qing dynasties. Courtyard compounds built by prominent families—later known as Xie houses—offered shelter across generations, their semi-open corridors and ornamented interiors blending familial warmth with ceremonial precision.

This duality of scale and sentiment is quietly reinterpreted at Aesop Tainan Xiaobeimen, located within the Hayashi Department Store. The space takes cues from the modest grandeur of the Xie house, combining Japanese design influences with local craftsmanship. Rounded volumes arc across the ceiling and walls like a bamboo shade unfurling at dusk. The rhythmic repetition of slatted lines—echoing verandas and eaves—introduces a subtle sense of enclosure, softening the transition from the mall outside.

Lacquered wood and hand-crafted tiles offer tactile continuity between the open shelves and monolithic counters. A trio of basins allows for hands-on exploration of our efficacious and sensorial formulations—and invites the type of leisurely conversation with in-store consultants that might normally take place at home around the kitchen sink. The result is a space that honours Tainan’s architectural past—rooted in domestic ritual, yet monumental in presence.