The new salon of the Japanese cosmetics brand Pola is in Tokyo’s Ginza neighborhood. Designed by the architect Kazuyo Sejima, co-founder of SANAA, it redefines the beauty flagship as a space of perception, where architecture, sound, light, and scent all come together in a holistic sensory experience.

A garden-like environment establishes its own sense of time. On the ground floor, Sejima created what she describes as a ‘forest of flora’: an interior landscape composed of imperfectly symmetrical heptagonal pieces that evoke plant forms. Under a soft diffused light, moving shadows are projected that slowly shift across the surfaces, generating a vibrant and constantly transforming atmosphere. The light seems almost tangible, closer to mist than conventional illumination, as designer Shozo Toyohisa envisioned.

The space thus incorporates sculptural shadows that engage in dialogue with the generative sound installation Abstract Music, by composer Keiichiro Shibuya. This work is continuously recomposed in real time, appearing and disappearing through algorithmic processes. Two complementary fragrances created by olfactory artist Kan Izumi further enhance the sensory dimension of the whole. Instead of synchronizing, light, sound, and scent generate subtle dissonances that sharpen perception.

The ground floor opens toward the street and includes two consultation areas. The experience continues in the basement, a more intimate and quiet level where treatment is given in private rooms. Here the atmosphere becomes more earthy and contemplative.

Overall, Pola Ginza offers an immersive spatial narrative that invites visitors to step away from their everyday rhythms and experience beauty through introspection and a different temporal register.