Matla Al Fajer Headquarters – Salmon Real-Estate Development

The headquarters of Matla Al Fajer, a cosmetics and perfume company in Tripoli. Three floors and 1,200 m², each designed for a different way of working: showing, creating and deciding. The existing building’s facade was renewed to give the brand a clear presence on the street.

Ground floor: the brand

The showroom, reception and waiting area. This is where customers meet the products and the company presents itself.

First floor: colour

A workspace for the company's young generation, where new ideas for the business are developed. It is colourful because this generation has many choices to play with. The whole floor was reorganised for collaboration: lounges, a brainstorming wall, co-working zones and a café, so that working together is the default and the space is enjoyable to be in.

Second floor: black and white

The owners' floor, for cooperation and decision-making. Black and white follows two ideas. At this level there is no grey area: a decision is either black or white. It is also the language of the houses the company imports, Chanel and Dior.

The facade

The existing building was a stack of hard-edged boxes on an exposed concrete base: heavy, closed, and anonymous on the street. It did not say that a beauty brand lived inside. Salmon kept the structure and covered it with continuous, softly rounded white bands that wrap the corner in a single gesture. The weight of the concrete became lightness, and a building that could have housed any business now reads as the home of a cosmetics and perfume company.

The principle

Each floor's palette is set by the choices of the people who work on it: many colours where ideas are open, two where decisions are made.