Fans of recycling: beauty services shop in Singapore

Unwanted water tubes and plastic crates are part of the decor of a beauty services shop
tay suan chiang, Straits Times 19 Sep 09;

About the only thing that is new at the Spa Esprit Group's newest outlet at Wheelock Place may be how you look as you walk out of the beauty services establishment.

Little else about the nearly 3,000 sq ft place which houses its three brands - Brazilian waxing service Strip, brow-grooming service Browhaus and facial service Mask - is new.

Old furniture and assorted industrial objects such as a sink and plastic pipes have been recycled for the beauty spa's interior decor.

A 1950s cake chiller has been turned into a cash register. Discarded kitchen cabinets have had their doors reupholstered with vintage fabric and now store beauty products.

Even old copies of The Straits Times were used. Mr Jerry De Souza, the group's creative director and store designer, had initially wanted a display shelf made entirely of papier mache.

'We created three prototypes, which were tricky to build. But they couldn't stand and fell flat,' he says. In the end, the shelf was created using a recycled wooden frame covered with newspaper.

Elsewhere, recycled items are purely decorative. The main reception counter is spruced up with repainted old compressor fans that appear like mini windmills. Wooden crates were taken apart then reassembled to create a feature wall. Plastic water tubes make another reception area inside look vaguely like a prop from a science-fiction movie.

Mr De Souza has designed more than 30 outlets under the group, including Strip at Suntec City and Raffles Place and restaurants Barracks and Tippling Club at Dempsey. He had all along seen treasure in so-called junk, using recycled material such as reupholstered old chairs in the stores and eateries.

This is the first time he is doing it on such a large scale. He says: 'Rather than spend money on new items, I decided to be creative and transform old, disused items.'

Going green, however, does not mean going cheap.

He says recycling 'definitely costs more as it requires more manpower, such as consultants and contractors to use unfamiliar materials, and more time and effort to get it right'.

'It is challenging to recycle material for commercial uses as the new furniture must be functional and durable for daily use. There are regulations set by the Singapore Civil Defence Force, such as those concerning fire safety, that we had to abide by,' he adds.

About $300,000 was spent on renovation, interior decoration and customising old furniture for the store. The sum includes the cost of making prototypes such as the papier mache shelf and buying recycled materials.

Mr De Souza says most of the recycled materials were bought from a scrap heap factory in Paya Lebar, where metal objects are usually melted and sold.

Items such as the compressor fans cost about $80 each.

Ms Janet Lim, Spa Esprit's public relations manager, says the company is taking small steps towards green conservation. She adds that more of the group's stores will be 'going green' in the future.

Its second Skinny Pizza restaurant, also at Wheelock Place, will have seats made from restructured bicycle seats and tables made from bicycle wheels. It will open in November.

The Wheelock beauty services store opened on Sept 1 and has already attracted the attention of shoppers passing by.

Undergraduate Kelly Lee, 20, says: 'It's quirky and makes me think about how I can get creative with what may be junk.'