MARCHING ORDERS

From trailblazing retail spaces to award-winning grand gestures in hotels, March. Studio steps up to transcend the ordinary.

- KAREN MCCARTNEY

APPROACHING MARCH.STUDIO'S North Melbourne office building sets up a quandary. Is the boxy off-form concrete structure with Prouvé-style portholes puncturing the facade a new building or not? One of their specialities as a practice is experimentation with materials - diving deep into their properties and performance - and I wonder whether this is it in action? But it turns out, inspired by Japanese brutalism, the co-founder of March.Studio - Rodney Eggleston's great-grandfather Alec designed and built it as an office and warehouse for Wes Lofts and Ron Barassi in 1972. Only the portholes are a recent addition.

Rodney launched March.Studio in the 2008 GFC with partner Anne-Laure Cavigneaux. They met in Rotterdam as housemates when Rodney was working for Rem Koolhaas's OMA architecture firm and Anne-Laure, originally from Paris, for graphic agency Animaux. Fast forward to Melbourne where, with all the bravado of innocence, they set about a series of projects for skincare brand Aesop, which was commissioning highly inventive retail spaces. "Each store is individually curated and conceived and distinct to its geographical context. We would ask ourselves what we could do with a material, testing and pushing the limits of a concept while always allowing the product to be the hero," says Rodney. The studio has completed 18 projects for Aesop across the globe.