Intermixing-individuality Share Salon JAM is a beauty salon located in Osaka. In recent years, the demand for shared salon spaces is gradually increasing in Japan as well. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment are one of the reasons for this. Due to factors such as shortened operating hours, increasing numbers of workers see the appeal of working freelance, rather than as employees complying with the decisions of an owner. Although some of these workers start their own businesses, opening a salon is difficult for young hair stylists to do. The high cost of the initial investment is one reason for this. Therefore, more and more of these workers are becoming freelancers by renting a portion of salon space to do business in. In response to these background factors, Share Salon JAM was completed in 2020 as a space enabling salon workers to work whenever and for as long as they want. The design concept is “jam.” This name expresses the meaning of different people working alongside each other. Instead of borrowing a salon name and working as employees, this facility allows each worker to express their own unique individuality, enabling everyone to shine freely in this place. We express this concept as “intermixing individuality.” First of all, the unique character of each person is like a material (box). In addition to tile and paint materials in these individual rooms, the MDF (medium-density fiberboard), wood wool boards, and lumber materials (wood groundwork) typically used for foundations are left uncovered. By giving a flat value to these materials that are usually covered over immediately, the design achieves an expression of individuality free from any hierarchy of superiority and inferiority, which is a beautiful thing. Also, the rooms are reduced to the foundational elements, leaving the framework exposed to draw out its character. The shape of these boxes is not perfectly aligned, but instead allowed to overlap with other neighboring rooms. This gives the space a sense of varied movement. Although this expresses the forms of free individuality (materials) in lively motion and helping each other, the shape is not created by chance. This design was essential for allocating functional lines of movement to maximize utilization of the space. (The amount of room needed for salon work, a circular spaces two meters in diameter, is secured for each workstation.) There are three types of rooms to choose from. There are private rooms, semi-private rooms, and open space available. The private rooms are fitted with two chairs, and there are also dedicated shampooing stations set up inside. The semi-private rooms each has one chair, and there is a simple desk space set up for stylists to use. For these rooms, the shampoo stations are shared with the open space, so ensuring that the usage timing for these stations didn’t overlap was an issue. As a means of reducing customer contact and achieving smooth movement, customers’ shoes alone are visible form the hall during shampooing. Just by looking down the hall to the shampoo area, stylists can immediately tell whether each station is in use or not. From the perspective of social distancing as well, this approach provides maximum function with minimum space. Although the pricing differs by room ranking, we hope workers will step up in the system as they use our facility. “I want to rent a private room someday.” “I want to own my own salon someday.” This facility provides an easily-accessible experience that can motivate stylists to improve themselves. We hope they will use our space as a place for them to freely express their individuality and step up to achieve their goals.