MESART GWR – Hair Salon

It took our client many years to find the right location for their new salon. The site needed to be large enough to become a super salon; a space big enough to offer many services under one roof.

As hair professionals, our client is accustomed to making others feel beautiful. However, with rising environmental concerns, they also believe it is their social responsibility to turn our joint attention to preserving the beauty of the world we live in. Therefore our strategy toward materials choice was to accept and use any part of our building envelope that we could. On occasion where we did use plasterboard, it was to ensure we met building regulations. Our timber materials were all FSC certified, paints & sealants were all water based.

We replaced the previously failing roof to the rear of the salon which allowed us to incorporate roof lights to allow the salon to be naturally lit which is ultimately the best lighting for technical colouring. This move cost more at the outset of the project, however, it allows the team to switch off 50% of the lighting for 80% of the year and therefore offsetting the power usage. Dimming control which allows the lighting to work at 60% of capacity. This creates a warmer ambiance, as well as a small cost saving in the long run.

We believe that local businesses are stronger together. Mesart’s goal is to help small business owners make the connections that lead to long-term relationships, generate more word-of-mouth referrals, and access to the collective wisdom of the local business community. Partnerships include make-up, brows and nails, various food offers and a coffee roaster. In the future, our client will create a wellbeing experience in the lower ground floor.

We wanted to provide an immersive sensory experience and hope we have achieved this by recognising and designing each touchpoint of the clientele experience. Some of the little design details we introduced: the external sign (an over-sized working hair dryer), door handles (giant scissors), coat and bag hooks in the washrooms (scissors), rise and fall mirrors to allow the salon team to run product launches or full team gatherings around one large table station.

Design Team:

Experiential / Interior Design: supertonic

Architect: Organic Architects

Main Contractor: JR Group

Fit Out Contractor: Scenegeneering

Graffiti: KingListy