Aesop World Trade Center

Rustic accents and textural contrasts

This Manhattan signature store in the heart of New York’s financial district is situated in one of the concourses within the Oculus at the World Trade Center transportation hub. The space was designed in collaboration with architecture and design office Architensions, which operates globally from New York, and is marked by a dynamic material palette.

In a nod to rustic tactility, the shelving’s rear walls are covered in burlap, while the surface is of weathered steel—a juxtaposition redolent of railway tracks, and of the new transit hub in which the store is located. The fabric works in tandem with leather flooring to absorb sound, insulating the interior from exterior noise.