Architect：No.555 Architectural Design Office

Location：Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan; | ;

Project Year：2014

Category：Shops

Hair salon renovation

Yokohama in Kanagawa, Japan

This is a renovation project of a hair salon. Hair salon business is often quite sensitive to "trend movements" of the industry - as a consequence, streets are filled with bunch of similar hair salons going after such movements.

Our client, however, strongly insisted on establishing originality of the shop by going against such attitude. Then, the aim of this project was to produce an easy to use, highly original space by focusing on "how each element in the shop is made".

Firstly, the configuration of the interior space is open and free for reconfiguration to deal with the increasing number of working staffs; flexible furniture can be easily moved by the staff; the space is in a single space without fixed wall or partition; because of the easily movable furniture except the head showers, it is possible to reconfigure the layout of the space in less than an hour. The design cue has the taste of handicraft work in order to express originality.

The stand mirrors and hand mirrors were produced in inexpensive plywood; the hair cutting chairs were reproduced from the used ones, modified from the originals by dismantling them first and applying new pieces made from the same plywood used for the mirrors; tables and counters utilized recycled wooden carry pallets, while their FRP top boards were originally produced in a workshop; all sash pieces of the facade were designed for on-site production by carpenters.

Instead of introducing expensive products in the market to this shop and falling into the crowd of similar hair salons, traces of the handicraft work were left as much as possible in order to produce a shop filled with originality. The originality I rediscovered in this project was not something novel and unconventional, but something very simple and basic made piece by piece by the hands of craftsmen.

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