A beauty salon designed for a friend who has started her own business as a hair stylist. However, with a wide range of her friends, from models to musicians to artists, she wanted this place to be not only a beauty salon, but also a place that could be used as a platform and a place of expression for a variety of artists. Therefore, the space had to be flexible enough to accommodate a variety of activities.
The property is located in an alley off 246, which is a busy street with a lot of traffic in Tokyo. The area has a very urban landscape with the Metropolitan Expressway running through it and many tall buildings, but the area where the apartments with the property is located is a corner with a mysterious charm where old and new contexts coexist in the process of urban development.
Therefore, we aimed to respect the seclusion of the corner and the apartment, and to create a flexible space that can be used in flexible ways.
First of all, the spatial composition is very simple, with only a work counter and an open space, respecting the existing apartment structure. In order to create an empty space that can accommodate a variety of activities as much as possible, all infrastructural facilities are placed inside of the built-in walls, and storage space is also secured.
In order to preserve the existing atmosphere, the Japanese traditional architectural details, such as the crown molding and the bottom joints, were treated in an extended manner, and used in a functional and decorative way. The existing decorative glass is considered as a component of the new project to express the multiplicity of the old and the new. In addition, the existing bathtub was redefined as a planter for the plant-loving owner, while little was done to the unit bathtub.
