Space: Beauty salon MO

City: La Marsa, Tunisia

Date: September 2019

Designer: Fares Dhifi

How to consider Tunisian small spaces in an aesthetic and functional approach of retail design.

Located between a bar and a mosque, in a commercial artery of the city center of LA MARSA in the north coast of TUNISIA,  the beauty salon MO marks its 54 year of existence.

Commissioned to design the space we received in a completely deteriorated state,  we tried to make from the location,  an advantage to modernize the local as an extension of its activity, while taking account of the history behind and at the same time its evolution.

The surface constraint, objectively allowed us to define and synthesize the distribution into two spaces and an  intermediate zone : a central space of activity, a sanitary bloc, and a space for storage and payment.

The 3 meter high door structure designed in our studio and made of metal and tempered glass marks the entrance and create an overview of the space and the activity inside from the main facade.

Directly visible from the entry, Elements and furnitures of the main space are all custom designed, . Side benches and wall fixed tables for quick care. 5mm Aluminium sheet with frosted black painted for worktable in addition to a 4meter light mirror with  indirect lighting.

Besides its location, the space had the advantage of a high ceiling of 420cm.  We considered refreshing the state and installing a new ceiling rose like the one that existed before, dominated by a suspended light structure designed especially for the project.

The main piece of the space is obviously the 4m high textile arabic-calligraphy fresco which represent technically a kind of separation curtain between the two spaces.

The flooring was made by authentic 13mm cement tiles produced in the Tunisian city of Nabeul, known for its ceramics and its typical Tunisian coating

In an eclectic Tunisia where everything is lost between an infinity of styles, we try by simple, cheap, abundant and manageable local materials to create an identity to the spaces and harmonize the contents with the environment through a hybrid style testifying to a country on two shores between its Arab-Muslim identity and its western influence.