This project consists of retrofitting an industrial WorldWar II era warehouse into a flagship boutique hair salon.  The client desired a space that was open andcollaborative, but also requested an environment where employees could maintain privacy and intimacy with their clients.

The program for the project consists of a welcoming andwaiting area, a formal salon area, with eight styling stations and four washingstations, and a break room for employees. A design strategy of “separation without enclosure” was adopted topromote visual connection, while simultaneously, a condition of curvingoverhead forms and visually light thresholds introduce a concept of “impliedspace”.  With the exception of theexterior and parti walls, there are no traditionally framed walls in theproject.  Instead, a series ofpartitions, constructed of steel tube and welded wire mesh divide thespace.  In areas of higher sensitivity toprivacy, a layer of frosted glass was incorporated to conceal activity, whilemaintaining light transference.

The design team researched the brands’ ethos, unearthingvalues of commitment to craft, appreciation of tradition and a dedication toauthenticity.  The proposal attempts torepresent those values by developing an architectural language rooted innostalgia, but repositions itself in a unique application of objects andmatter.  Curvilinear lines, inspired bywindblown hair, conjured ideas of art nouveau railings and soft organicforms.  This led to the introduction ofthe steel dividers as architectural device. Curved motifs can also be found in other elements within the space, suchas the drawer pulls, the waiting bench and reception desk.  A material palette of warm white oak andterrazzo counters sit juxtaposed to the tactile brick interior, which waspainted white to institute a backdrop for all other elements in the design.

Due to limited width, styling stations were organized alongthe perimeter and faced the walls, leaving all interstitial space to become anactive catwalk of activity, conversation and collaboration.  Each styling station retains its openness tothe main floor, while the steel awnings create halos of demarcation.  Under the halos, conversations are private, whereasoutside of those boundaries, the collective community exists.  At the entry, an arched opening suggests aportal between the welcoming area to the open salon plan, which is thenmirrored on the other end.  A symmetricalcomposition along the corridor axis and light-filled volume invokes classicalarrangements of space, not too dissimilar to familiar spiritual architecturalarchetypes.

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