乌克兰 Kimera 沙龙 | 冲突中的快乐避风港

Location: Pankivska St, 8, Kyiv, Ukraine, 02000

Design: AKZ Architectura

Floor Area: 112 sq-m

Designed by AKZ Architectura, the Kimera salon in Kyiv, Ukraine, is a harmony of varied design references that may prompt a moment of joy and distraction.

Key features

Ukrainian design firm AKZ Architectura transformed a historical building in Kyiv into a beauty and salon space. The client specified the integration of gothic references into the 112-sq-m space to create continuity between the building's antique façade and the modern salon's interior. Different shades of pink are used throughout for walls, cabinets, moveable furniture pieces, recessed lighting, and shelving, which are accented by tangerine orange coloured furniture like the modular sofa, poofs, lighting and other accessories.

The bright colour palette is balanced by grey-hued terrazzo flooring and, besides gothic features, is harmonized with eclectic design references to anime cartoons with character depictions found in the space. A box-light system on the ceiling lights up the space of the treatment area to ensure a bright atmosphere. The salon is divided into zones like workstations for hairdressers and make-up artists, a waiting area and reception, hair colour bar and retail space. A glass partition separates reception area from the rest of the salon while maintaining visual continuity, and also holds a coat rack. A modular sofa in waiting area can be used as a whole or split into single seats.

Frame's take

Kimera salon was completed in 2021, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February this year. 'Fortunately, Kyiv has survived the siege to date, but it has paid a high price: thousands of civilian lives and destroyed homes,' Aleksey Nilov, editor in chief of L'Officiel Hommes Ukraine and the editorial director of Vavilon publishing house, wrote in Frame 147. 'According to a report from Kyiv's mayor Vitali Klitschko, 546 buildings were destroyed in the Kyiv region – including 28 multi-storey residential buildings and 441 estates, as well as educational institutions and hospitals – while 1,329 were partially damaged.'

The salon space has persisted despite the immense destruction and despair in its home city and country since the onset of the war. With the war ongoing and the threat of violence looming in the background, venturing even for the universal necessity of a haircut is radical action. Kimera's harmoniously eclectic interior adorned in cheerful colours and design references can – maybe just maybe ­– provide guests with a moment of respite from the unimaginable, horrifying conflict happening around them.