Mành Mành salon | H&P Architects

Mành Mành salon is renovated from a deteriorated hair dressing salon in a populous community in Van Quan urban area. The project develops an approach to reuse available materials such as door, glass, table and chair, brick, low-quality wood,.. to create a fresh and distinctive but friendlier space to the nature.

The ordinary and simple charm at street hairdresser’s in Hanoi, which is closely associated with Trees giving wide shade and Old brick walls, inspires designers to create an unusual but familiar space- a space suggesting the idea of A long hair as well as Mành Mành climbing plant garden or Cissus sicyoides pergola (a quite popular climbing plant in Vietnam, also known as Princess vine, Millionaire vine and Curtain Ivy) with its long roots covering the space underneath.

Highlights of the project are some 200 thousand wooden beads (diameter d=2.7cm) recycled from low-quality wood (of 2 types: colorless and color of vine fruits at their ripeness). These wooden beads are chained into strings of various lengths (11 beads/ string in average) to produce effects on human senses of zigzag–styled ceiling and beaded curtain separating the space underneath.

Five human senses will be awoken in Mành Mành climbing plant garden by gentle light (sight), soft rustle among the beads (hearing), blend of light fragrance of leaves and beads (smell) while one is there, sipping at his tea (taste), and hairdresser’s skill fulness that brings about comfort (touch) and relaxation to customers upon their experiencing the hair service. 

Like Architecture, Human will become more Beautiful and Healthier once he lives in a harmony with the Nature.