Ateliers Takahito Sekiguchi has renovated the Hair Room Toaru in Saitama, Japan.

This project is a hair salon located on the roadside in a rural area of Saitama – famous for wood resources – which needed to be rebuilt due to land readjustment.

"Against the standardisation of the city landscape, we created walls and roofs consisting of small active elements (mirrors, wooden counters) in the cutting space of [the] hair salon," said Ateliers Takahito Sekiguchi. "We created the natural architecture regardless of design or use that visualises the charm of [the] city and hair salon."

The architects dismantled and architecturally recombined the wood, before layering the scenery of past and present cities to impact overall environmental performance and a sustainable architecture project.

This project has been longlisted in the health and wellbeing project category of Dezeen Awards 2023.

Studio: Ateliers Takahito Sekiguchi
Project: Hair Room Toaru
Credits: Shinmei Kosan