Jan 21, 2011 By Lydia Parafianowicz In designing Paris’ Aesop Merci store, Australia’s March Studio suspended an astonishing 4500 boxes for an in-house installation, giving an artic experience to all shoppers. 'March Studio has completed nine Aesop stores to date, from Singapore to Paris, Zurich to Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide,’ says Rodney Eggleston, a co-founder of March Studio. ‘Often we seek to contextualise each store through a material selection or construction technique local to that area.’ The latest Aesop is in Merci, a luxe department store in the heart of Paris. Eggleston says since Merci carries items from around the world, he wanted the design to reflect and celebrate the journey the products have taken to arrive. ‘We decided to use the Aesop shipping boxes for the installation, the very same boxes used to ship the product worldwide,’ Eggleston says. ‘We’ve built many cardboard buildings before, including one store for Aesop in Flinders Lane, but we’ve never suspended 4500 boxes! For the installation at Merci we wanted to create an organic installation which would be chaotic and unpredictable.’ The boxes are held in a 40 sq m fishing net. ‘The result gives the sense that we’ve hollowed out the space rather than added anything to it,’ Eggleston says. ‘You enter deep into the installation rather than walking around it.’ Shop March Studio Photos courtesy of Louis Baquiast