Designed by local architectural studio Anarchitect in collaboration with Tarik Zaharna {Tzed Architects}, AKIN’s takes a contemporary, clean-cut approach to men’s grooming combining an urban, industrial vibe with hand-crafted, tactile architecture. The design retains the existing cell of the space with its rough concrete surfaces, wire trays and service pipes, while inserting a second, permeable layer in the form of a solid ash frame inside. Alluding to lightweight beach structures, this wooden framework demarcates the functional space and supports display shelving for grooming products. The result of this space-within-a-space concept is to maximise the shop’s volume, all the while creating a sense of lightness and spaciousness - also enhanced by the diffused daylight filtering through the translucent glazing elevation behind the barber zone.

As the architects only had a limited 35-square-metre space to work with, every aspect of the shop has been carefully thought out. One such example is how the shop’s entrance has been set back from the building’s lobby which allows for more optimised circulation on the one hand while providing a “buffer zone” allowing for discreet views of the barbers at work from the lobby.

The interior’s elements which have been custom designed and handmade in the UAE further convey the interplay between the industrial, the urban and the hand-crafted through the use and detailing of primary materials such as powder-coated aluminium panels that fill the open grain wooden joinery, Corian sinks that sit atop blond wooden shelves and black & white hexagonal mosaic tiles, defining the barbering zone, abut the parquet floor of the waiting and merchandize areas. Meanwhile, the use of mosaic, the custom-designed leather barber stations and the inset brushed-brass AKIN logo in the building’s lobby are a nod to the barbering tradition in an otherwise quite modern and minimal aesthetic.