Q-01
Reforma para una peluquería en el barrio de Malasaña
A project by gon architects
Beauty and care, applied to hair, define the principles of Q-01, a hairdressing salon located in the center of Malasaña in the city of Madrid. The minimalistic interior of Q-01 designed with a system of pine wood volumes creates an abstract experience inside this 60m2 space where the innovative technics and the creativity of professional hairstylists emerges.
Blocks of different sizes scattered throughout the space or stacked on top of each other, create the spaces for each particular need of use such as the reception, the waiting room, the washbasin and the toilets. Arranged on a continuous ceramic floor placed between two bigger volumes that separate the most private rooms of the salon (the kitchen-laboratory-toilet and the washroom).
These pieces function individually and all together at the same time, arranged in a sequence that narrates the inner workings of the salon through the different movements of both workers and customers, so that the flow is maintained from the entrance through the exit of the salon.
The design of these wooden follies tries to cover very complex needs related to human proximity, ergonomics, material consumption as well as the technical and professional space necessary to decide the treatment and execution of each case.
The design is completed with the addition of two more “elements”. The fabric that narrates the flow throughout the space and the use of color blue as reference from one of Godard’s movies – Pierrot le Fou, where the face of the protagonist draws the attention of the viewer. This liquid atmosphere sets the salon as an oasis in the midst of Madrid’s hustle and bustle daily life, to a place of disconnection where well-being, silence and care come together.
Credits:
Architecture: gon architects. Gonzalo Pardo
Collaborators: Carol Linares, Kostís Toulgaridis, María Cecilia Cordero, Cristina Ramírez, Celia Urbano
Construction: REDO Construcción
Carpentry: Muebles D’vinci s.l.
Lighting: Oliva Iluminación s.a.
Curtains: Rabadán s.a.
Client: Espacio Q
Date: 2022
Location: Madrid, España
Photography: Imagen Subliminal (Rocío Romero + Miguel de Guzman)
Architects: gon architects
gon is a Madrid-based architecture and design office headed by Gonzalo Pardo since 2014. His practice focuses on research and development of singular architectural projects of different scales ranging from urban planning to buildings to interior construction.
The common denominator of his works is a playful, experimental, critical and optimistic view of the contemporary. In a constant dialogue based on observation and details, his interest focuses on the creative processes of architectural design and construction, as well as the role of mediation and communication of architecture as fundamental vehicles for transforming the world into a place more sustainable, worthy and free.
Gonzalo Pardo is an architect from ETSAM (School of Architecture of Madrid) since 2007, and has a PhD in Architecture since 2016. His thesis “Body and House: Towards the contemporary domestic space from the transformations of the kitchen and bathroom in the West” obtained the outstanding Cum Laude rating, and received for it the 2016-2017 Extraordinary Doctoral Thesis Award and an honorable mention in the XI call for the Arquia Foundation Thesis Contest.
Since 2007 he teaches as a visiting professor at different universities and institutions, in subjects with the common denominator of being linked to the project, as in the European Institute of Design (IED), in Madrid; the Illiois Institute of Technology (IIT), in Chicago, United States; Lund University, in Sweden, and the Master in Collective Housing (MCH), in Madrid. He has been a professor in the Master in Architectural Communication (MaCA) and in the Master in Advanced Projects (MPAA) of the Department of Architectural Projects at ETSAM.
He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Architectural Projects at ETSAM, where he teaches undergraduate projects. Member of the Hypermedia research group: Communication Workshop and Architectural Configuration, he directs doctoral theses as a teacher and researcher, as well as numerous End of Master’s Projects (TFM) and Final Degree Projects (TFG).
He has been deputy curator of the Spanish pavilion at the 16th Venice Biennale, and since 2000 he has obtained 41 national and international awards, including the first prize for the remodeling of the AZCA block in Madrid in 2007; the second prizes in the international Skyscraper contests, in New York, and Velux, in Denmark, in 2007; COAM award in 2014 for the Paréntesis curator cycle, and honorable mention in the Europan 14 competition at the Barcelona location. His projects and built work have been widely disseminated in national and international, physical and virtual media.
