This project takes the idea of a “mullet strategy,” where a design conforms to normative forms and proportions at its public face and reverts to a more dynamic spatial logic on its private face and reverses it to draw in visitors. A dramatically lit, eye-catching retail space for Dermalogica, an award-winning skincare line, leads to a series of private therapy rooms in back. The retail space is a tall, faceted enclosure of triangular panels surfaced in troweled concrete, visible to passers-by through storefront windows.

In the gaps between them, LED tape lights illuminate the panels indirectly. Floors are polished concrete. Along the sidewalls, products line the floating acrylic shelving units; the shelves themselves are edge-lit by hidden LEDs. Overhead, a custom triangular LED light fixture frames the edge of the paneled surface where it stops to expose the ceiling. The reception desk was custom designed and fabricated out of white Caesarstone in a faceted pattern to complement the walls. The paneled surface splits to create an entrance to a cove-lit corridor with treatment rooms on either side. Direct lighting in the rooms comes from large round lenses set in the lowered ceiling, while indirect lighting emerges from perimeter coves, which also conceal air supply vents. The walls — where not concealed by full-height counter and storage units — are covered in wallpaper with a linear, textured pattern.

Access to a mezzanine through an office provides additional storage and space for technicians. One treatment room features a shower lined in white and gray penny tiles. The bathroom at the end of the hall is surface covered completely in black penny tile with a backlit mirror providing illumination.

Awards
  • Architects Newspaper Best of Design 2017
Press

The Architect’s Newspaper

Lighting in Architecture