Kizuki + LIM

200 square metres.  Completed 2009.
With Isolation Unit.

‘Kizuki’ is the result of a collaboration between FARM and Japanese design studio Isolation Unit who is responsible for most of hair group LessisMore’s (LIM) ultra minimalist and chic salons in Japan.  The salon is a dialogue between two fictive spaces and narratives originating from Isolation Unit’s and FARM’s design directions.

Isolation Unit’s subtle intervention is manifested in the form of an oversized white rectilinear volume inserted into the exisiting shophouse fabric.  This juxtaposition of three volumes immediately creates spaces (new and existing) of various sizes, heights and angles, prompting encounters of pleasant surprises and discoveries, which in fact, is a titular response to the word ‘kizuki’.

FARM imagined this white cube as a token from Japan, nesting itself within the local typology of the shophouse.  We then seek to recreate a previous reincarnation of this unit (akin to the mise-en-scène of an old shophouse) – through various antique furniture & lighting that appeared to have shifted themselves and melted into the walls, generously welcoming the addition of our new Japanese cubes.  In this confluence of imagined dialogues and new quirky spaces, we hoped we have brought out the essence of Kizuki – both the word and the spirit of the salon.