Tampa recently welcomed its first Aesop signature store, in Oxford Exchange – a vibrant mixed-use venue housed in a sensitively refurbished 125-year-old stable. Comprising retail, dining and communal work spaces, the company felt at ease joining a collective at once distinctive in their individuality, and yet woven with a common thread.
Given this spirit, Mexican Architect Frida Escobedo’s design for the 43-square meter space began by engaging with the existing Neoclassical architecture, before adding a discrete layer of new materiality in the form of a porous-textured Terracotta trough sink, crafted by Florida-based ceramic artist John Byrd. Nodding to the area’s Cuban and Spanish influence, this appealingly robust feature is inspired by traditional jars used to collect rain water, tinajón – large earthenware receptacles of ancestral significance and utilitarian function.
As a whole, the space assumes a warm and inviting palette in consonance with surrounds; achieved, in part, through the extensive use of Walnut joinery and Brass paneling. Defined by their iterative angular forms, this furniture mirrors a diagonal plane of glazing, fashioning a contained space within the open floor of the center.
all images courtesy of Aesop