The floating hairdressing salon is a project (conceptual proposal) which has come out of a recognition of a described condition and an existing phenomenon of a very particular demand.
We seem to have forgotten that architecture is the practice called to provide solutions in order to satisfy existing needs and demands.
During national holidays, and weekends especially through the warmer months of the year, the country’s weak infrastructure is sufficiently counterbalanced by one very simple factor. The sea becomes the field of mobility for wealthy Greeks, accommodating brief and ephemeral escapes from the city. The vast water surface becomes a major release for traffic movement to and from the mainland.
The conditions:
Certain islands, the most accessible ones due to their geographical location/distance in relation to Athens or due to other more subjective factors, have become attractive weekend resorts for the so-called social climbing nouveaux riches* and their friends. Indispensable accessory and inseparable part of their status -if not a villa at those prominent locations- a speed-boat or cruiser which takes them, and their ‘social friends’ to the desired destination. The faster the better! The appearance of the exterior as aerodynamic and aggressive as possible, and inside, opulence in the comfort of their own home. A compact version of their living room, only this time supported by a powerful engine, and a white plastic chassis, which secures mobility.
Few of many popular destinations: the islands of Hydra, Spetses, Tzia, Mykonos.
*(neo-Greek stereotype that has evolved particularly in the 80’s and 90’s)
The event:
Their arrival, automatically concentrates activity at the edge (sea/marina), and a new type of overpopulated territory immediately and temporally emerges. Its population flashy, rich, their occupation brief and decisively “imperialistic”.
Their arrival and entry to the marina, is usually signalled by a wave caused by the displacement of water (the larger the volume the stronger the wave, the bigger the impact and attention). The ones already there and the passers-by, accidentally become spectators of a spectacle which lasts until the cruiser moves into the anchored (static) condition. It takes its position at the marina, as in a line of exhibition. Like it happens in a fashion show, but the spatial allocation is reversed: the platform (marina) is the space for the passing-by spectators which are transient, and the exhibits owners/boats sit in the cosy interiors or on the deck area of their property in a static condition, arranged in line on the sea edge. No in-between condition occurs; the boundaries are safely secured, this is only a phenomenon of juxtaposition, where each one present could theoretically assume, at ones will, a different position. But practically this never happens.
All is well, their needs covered by the advanced facilities of their cruisers and their personnel/crew (according to scale), complemented by the local facilities on offer (night life, restaurants, shops).
The demand:
The paradox side of exhibitionism creates its own architectural hybrids, with their idiosyncratic attributes and consequential needs.
While the personnel is doing their best to maintain the sleek appearance of the vessel, the styling and maintenance of its owners/occupants remains somewhat neglected. Lets face it, seawater, sun and wind are not best friends with demanding hairdos.
The concept proposal: A floating hairdressing salon, which would be fully equipped to accomodate this demand and travel if needed from island to island, or be anchored at each marina, to make it convenient and easy for the owners of the cruisers and yaghts to be looked after before they go out or after they come back from their swim.
1999 – Expedient vacationing/ weekend cruiser shows / and how to satisfy common nouveaux riches demands.
Original concept: Eleni Kostika