Located in Krakow, the Moss salon – complete with a gallery space for painting and photography exhibitions – can host a range of activities for hair, nail and beauty care, thanks to Faab’s thoughtful use of all of its 163 square metres. Two spaces that were previously disjointed across two floors are now unified. The ground floor, which is accessible to the street, houses the main entrance and reception area, hair salon and mani-pedi zone. Meanwhile, the beauty salon and a relaxation zone have been inserted into a mezzanine that stretches over the entrance area, connected to the ground floor by an open custom-designed staircase.

To energize the space without creating clutter, Faab confined itself to a small but dynamic palette of only four finishes: flat white, brilliant green moss, concrete grey and warm wood paneling. The dried and dyed reindeer moss, also known as Cladonia rangiferina, is the most attention-grabbing of these, filling an entire feature wall at the entrance and peeking through openings in walls throughout the interior. Moss also lends the salon its name, rendered in a neon sign on the feature entrance wall.

The first storey’s flooring of large grey ceramic tiles visually mimics the rough concrete panels used on walls strategically throughout the space. A full wall of concrete panels rises the two storeys alongside the staircase, while a patchwork of panels with green moss poking through lines the back wall, behind the hair salon’s mirrors. Foscarini’s concrete Aplomb pendants complete the rugged look (the tornado-like swirls of different models in Foscarini’s Tress collection are found elsewhere in the salon).

Faab also designed the custom furnishings and storage found on the ground floor; these are finished in white with accents in curving panels of warm wood. The same wood paneling was used to clad the custom staircase that sweeps from the ground floor to the mezzanine, as well as the anterior wall of the relaxation space, with hardwood flooring in a matching hue.

The staircase’s lines are simultaneously geometric and rounded, matching the custom furniture; the architects compare it to a tree trunk spreading its roots into the forest floor and to “the softness of a lock of hair.” Axo Light’s flower-like Plumage chandelier grounds the foot of the staircase, capping off the freshly clean-lined yet textured look of the salon, and providing the interior its centre of gravity.