SALT Salon transformed by Unknown Works into cultural space in London
SALT Salon has opened a new cultural and hairdressing space in London’s Borough Market, transforming a listed Victorian storehouse into a multi-sensory environment where architecture, acoustics and craft intersect.
Designed by architecture studio Unknown Works, the project expands on the salon’s reputation for progressive spaces and positions sound at the centre of its design narrative.
The three-level interior develops a sequence of rooms that each carry their own spatial character, acoustic performance and salon function. At the heart of the first floor, the so-called Listening Room doubles as both a working salon and an adaptable venue.
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Cutting stations and reception areas are arranged around a central gathering zone framed by two large-scale galvanised steel loudspeakers.
These were incrementally formed using roboforming, a low-energy digital fabrication method, and finished with salvaged material sourced from the Blythe House collection store.
The approach reflects the studio’s ongoing interest in reuse, which was previously seen in its Science Museum Energy Revolution Gallery.
The speakers were developed in collaboration with Friendly Pressure, a sound technology collective led by Shivas Howard Brown, whose work draws from UK sound system culture.
The collaboration brings a social and communal quality to the soundscape, elevating the everyday routines of the salon into an acoustic ritual.
The entire interior of SALT Salon is supported by a programmable system that shifts the sonic character of the environment throughout the day, moving from subtle atmospheres to immersive evening sessions.
The second floor accommodates the Cutting Floor, an open-plan workspace defined by a continuous stainless steel mirror that transitions from mottled to polished finishes, balancing privacy and clarity.
Above, custom Pickney loudspeakers suspend from the ceiling, adding an architectural presence while reinforcing the auditory experience.
Private facilities for staff are carefully screened with silicone partitions that soften reverberation and enhance clarity, ensuring the soundscape remains tuned for precision.
At the top of the building, the Colour Floor presents a suspended sculptural workstation crafted from ultra-bright stainless steel. Weighing half a tonne and hung from the original rafters, the mirror doubles as a diffuser, shaping both light and sound.
Designed to gradually stain with use, it introduces a performative element to the architecture, recording the processes of colour work as material history.
Throughout the project, material innovation underpins the interior. Seating has been designed using recycled foam, engineered to absorb low-frequency sound.
Silicone panels stretch floor to ceiling, refining acoustics, while bespoke bio-resin lighting fixtures carry imprints of the formed metal panels, extending the architectural language into illumination.
Each detail positions the space as both salon and cultural venue, balancing care with creativity.
The project extends the ethos of founder John Paul Scott, a hair stylist and former music producer, who has envisioned salons as open and inclusive spaces that carry social energy as much as technical expertise.
By situating the new premises within Borough Market, the project links the contemporary identity of SALT with one of London’s most historic trading grounds, grounding the future of salon culture in a site layered with history.
Unknown Works has described the project as a rethinking of the salon typology, where every detail operates as an instrument. For Scott, it is a way of elevating the rituals of hairdressing while reinforcing SALT Salon as a London institution with a distinctive and creative voice.
Photography by Henry Woide, with courtesy of unknown Works, shared with permission
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