Creative stuff
07.

Keune

Keune is a longstanding family-owned business, founded in Amsterdam in 1922. Specialising in professional haircare and cosmetics, the brand is steadfast in supplying only ethical and socially responsible product. This philosophy forms the basis for the new development, intent on a minimal architecture, imbued with honest materials and people-focused spaces. As the project architect, I worked closely with Keune to devise a potent embodiment of their brand and tone of voice.

Resolved around the logistics of product arrivals, storage, and dispatch, the architecture is a demonstration of the beauty of repetition — in operational process and built form alike — a streamlined kit of parts, assembled with the utmost consideration for mass and proportion. This project displays an architectural resolve that is borne from the constraints of a compact site and the systemisation of person and machine.







Located atop an area of reclaimed industrial land, the new construction presents a logical arrangement, comprising a warehouse to the rear, and an office and studio nearer the front. A carpark and loading zone straddle the threshold between roadside and building, accommodating a gentle topographical incline as to minimise the impact of earthworks and retaining. Comprising a traditional system of precast concrete walls, steel portal frames, and a longrun roof, the warehouse achieves a basic utilitarian efficiency. Of a familiar language, the front annex is planned around a central double-height circulation void, interspersed by brick-clad blade walls. Full height glazing allows indirect sun to reach deep into each zone, dissolving the edge between inside and out. Instilling further visual clarity, an aluminium screen wraps the simple volume, providing solar shade and visual privacy to the programmes housed above.

In keeping with the utmost environmental objectives, in-ground retention tanks enable rainwater to be captured and reused on site. Similarly, natural planting provides for additional permeability, employing swales for the catchment of excess runoff.




The architecture is a demonstration of the beauty of repetition — in operational process and built form alike — a streamlined kit of parts, assembled with the utmost consideration for mass and proportion.






An extension of the primary shell, the interior strikes a considered balance between restraint and warmth. A central communal stair signals the point of arrival, comprising a ribbon balustrade of aluminium sheet, consistent with the facade. A neatly compact café of stainless steel and smoky timber resides to the glazed ground floor corner, flanked by a generous salon training space to the opposing side. Upstairs, one is greeted by an open space of a layered resolve — informal gathering to the fore, and a boardroom to the rear. Earthen clay and terracotta manifest in thick wool curtains, textural upholstery, and artisan render, harkening the orange hues of a Dutch lineage. Folded geometries affirm an industrial agenda — strongly geometric yet orderly and calm.

Unapologetically industrial, Keune Cosmetics deploys thoughtful restraint in the pursuit of a fitting architecture. This is a humble construction devised to assimilate to its surrounds, balancing material and embellishment in celebration of a functionalist agenda.

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