Global Future Design Awards 2019
Third Award
Category: Commercial Interior
Firm: Synecdoche Design Studio
Architect: Lisa Sauve
Team: Adam Smith, Max Neiswander, Matt Rosner
Country: United States
Website: www.synecdochedesign.com
Another great opportunity. APR’s next award Urban Design & Architecture Design Awards 2019 is open for Registration. Don’t miss the chance, its a huge platform for architects.
The space began with several raw ingredients worth highlighting, not hiding. Exposed board-formed concrete ceilings give texture in balance to the soft textures to turn brutalism into beauty. The lasting corner trim impressions of previous framing on the window edging give scale and highlight the openings to the streetscape, while the grit of the weathered floors and block walls all enhance an enormous volume filled with daylight. The challenge then became how to situate salon stations within the space while maintaining window exposure and flow between areas.
A studio with 14’ tall ceilings and fifty linear feet of north facing windows: it’s a dream for any artist unless that artist also requires mirrors and mounting surfaces for tools of the trade – a hair stylist. The light touch of the perimeter walls meant stations independent of walls. A pair of branching station platforms sit in the middle of an open floor plan to provide 10 individual stations. An incorporated bench allows for hair processing and drying stations that face a separate waiting bench where guests can mingle. It provides a social hub for those getting service, providing styling, greeting guests, and browsing retail to intermingle.
All of the free-standing furniture components were made by the architecture design team to ensure precision of tools and maneuvers of stylists in a fully customized series of stations. A combination of analog and digital fabrication techniques blended into metal, wood, and textile hybrid components. To minimize the implied impact of built interiors, the space was left in as open concept as possible with only furniture division between reception, blow-dry bar, retail, shampoo lounge, and stylist stations with many furniture components working dual roles to blend uses between spaces.
To implement the solutions a partnership was created between the architect and stylist. In a new business model working towards new modes in the future business of architecture, equity as design investment situated the design as an investment and catalyst for economic performance of the space. As business partners on the project, the work was not only about implementing the best design visually but also the best design for the business proforma – while this should always be an objective of projects this format created a clear initiative between client and architect about the goals of both an exceptional interior designed space and enhanced experience for clients for the business to perform. A direct effort to redefine more typical modes of architecture service and delivery methods.
