Gewürzhaus Herb & Spice Merchants in Sydney & Melbourne by Doherty Design Studio.

Experiential shopping, 21st-century intelligence and 19th-century service meld in Gewurzhaus Herb & Spice Merchants’ first Sydney store and fourth Melbourne store – both launched in November last year. Doherty Design Studio has harnessed the hands-on tradition of the traditional spice market, the old-world sensibility of the European retail experience and the contemporary thinking of today to entice and intoxicate food-lovers in two new Gewurzhaus Herb & Spice Merchants stores.

The Sydney store (Strand Arcade) was required to introduce the ethics and provenance of the spice brand through a unique ‘destination’ experience, while the fourth Melbourne store (Queen Victoria Market) is all about the tradition of self-serve spice shopping.

“It was important to maintain that tradition of refined German shopkeeping in both service and aesthetic, and to let the spices and their history speak for themselves. Doherty Design Studio draws attention to the age and history of the spices through a timeless design, which could be current now or 100 years ago. That is what references our spices’ histories, not the exoticism of their backgrounds”.

[Sydney Store photography by Michael Wee. Melbourne Store photography by Tom Blachford.]