Reshaped, Reborn

Info

Founded nearly 30 years ago, the beauty chain ELLEHUIS has always grown out of Lingnan, southern China, and its philosophy and pursuit of beauty are strongly rooted in place. Designed by E Studio, its new salon combines everyday beauty care with medical aesthetics, setting out to change how people think about the beauty experience.

Influences: Kintsugi

The design language springs from the restoring and reshaping at the heart of medical aesthetics: scientific beauty care resists the passing of time and repairs its traces. This led us to kintsugi, the traditional craft of mending vessels with gold, which lets beautiful things be reborn and bloom again.

Taking repair as a metaphor, continuous flowing curves shape the new ELLEHUIS salon on site.

Explore More

Every exploration begins with a reflection of oneself. Mirrored stainless steel frees the space from the limits of its fixed floor area and opens up the view. For the exploration itself, stepping inside means walking on the floor and, at the same time, through the mirror: a reflection, and another side of yourself.

A pure place, like an empty home, can hold many kinds of beauty. Step by step, continuous curves drawn from the form of kintsugi unfold. Where they finally interweave, the winding plan feels endless; here every turn, every look back, opens a new view.

The flowing language of kintsugi shares its spirit with the idea of repair. Brought into the medical aesthetics floor upstairs, it becomes a continuous, flowing spatial curve that leads visitors to discover the ELLEHUIS code of beauty.

Touches of a quiet, deep forest green appear like the surprises that punctuate a journey of discovery. Here a reception room is more than a reception room: it holds the bright new thoughts that come while exploring, and helps you reach a deeper self. Stories told, remembered and shared find a deeper meaning here.

Epidermis

Design should look beyond the site itself and respond to the building and its surroundings, so the facade could not be ignored. Its flowing pattern comes from xiangyunsha, the signature silk of the Lingnan region. Hung outside the building like a huge curtain slowly drawn open, its shimmering grace drifts with the light and draws explorers in. This local touch gives the journey an extra layer of delight.

Design that returns to its place is bound to run deep.

Client
ELLEHUIS

Location
Zengcheng, Guangzhou

Area
500 m²

Completion Date
2024.01

Design Firm
E Studio

Lead Designer
Fan, Junjian
Zhou, Xuanzhuo

Design Team
Zhang, Jieying
Xu, Meng

FF&E
Zhou, Jing

Photographer
Meatmountain