Hooroo is a studio for personal styling and salon services, located in Melbourne’s Southern Cross lane-way. The salon is characterised by a darkened and immersive architectural interior that is designed to amplify focus upon the individual client and their reflection within the space. The interior scheme explores the interplay of privacy and the voyeuristic impulse, combining monolithic architectural gestures with interior interventions that conceal, reflect, and reveal. The combination of structural glass blocks, granite plinths, charred oak wall panelling and raw plate steel joinery create a dramatic gradation of densities, amplified by carefully designed illumination and controlled shadowing.

The salon occupies a 12 meter high volume that is carved up vertically via a new mezzanine and the activation of an unused sub-floor below street level. The design facilitated an additional 60-square-metres of area from the original 90-square-metres tenancy through utilising these untapped volumes. This intervention created three distinct destinations: a ground-level cutting floor, lower level styling suite and upper level salon. The space is anchored by a glass brick blade that signifies the arrival point for each level, obscuring views into the space and activating the darkened interior to the lane-way outside.

Furniture: Salon Chairs: Takara Belmont Nami, Takara. Waiting Armchairs: Puffy Lounge Chair by Hem, District. Waiting Table; Turn Table by Norman Copenhagen, District. Coat Rack: Jeeves by La Chance, Living Edge: Side Table: Knockout Table by Friends & Founders, Fred International. Waiting Bench: Bruno Bench, Globe West. Lighting: Functional track lighting, Bright Green. Downlighting: Mondo Trimmless Pro, Masson for Light. Wall Light: Dimple by Rich, Brilliant & Willing, Koda. Pendant: Flos Parentesi, Living Edge. Concierge Pendant, Inlite. Product Display drop pendant: Inlite. Recessed continuous LED’s, Superlight, Table Lamp: Flos Taccia, Euroluce. Finishes: Ceramic Mosaic Tile, Artedomus. Leather Curtain, Contemporary Leathers. Glass Bricks: Glass Brick Company. Grey Mirror: Viridian. Black Granex: Rimex. Venetian Plaster, RenderitOz. Terrazzo flooring and slabs: Fibonacci. Benchtop stone: Artedomus. Timber wall cladding Urban Langford tongue & groove cladding, Havwoods. Fittings & Fixtures: Tapware: Astra Walker, Kado Lux, Geberit, Reece. Accessories: Icon + Lever range, Astra Walker. Coat hooks: Savage Design, Designer Doorware, Blum.

Photography: Shannon McGrath