Hi atelier - Olly Apartment

Olly Apartment

Podil District, Kyiv, Ukraine, 2021
57.43 sq.m.

Olly Apartment is a laconic project located in Podil – a historic neighborhood in Kyiv. It retains the architecture of the 17-19 centuries. Here co-exist ensembles of different styles – Ukrainian Baroque, Russian classicism, eclecticism, and modernism.

The main goal of this project is to create an excellent apartment for rent. The client has good design taste, but blurred wishes regarding the future concept of the apartment. That`s why we decided to make research about the location and context of this apartment. This helped us create our strong vision about how this small but cozy space can be rethought.

For this concept, we have chosen an old-fashion style mood combined with ascetic minimalism. This approach helped us create a quite minimalistic and multi-faceted home where anybody can leave their thoughts and create their own story. It is full of modern materials and techniques combined with vintage stuff and recycled elements.

The original plan has a small bedroom. Actually, the bedroom was so small that the bed barely fit. We destroyed that space and build a new one. Larger. The bedroom consists of three different areas: rest, working, and storage with an extra small but pretty wardrobe room. The rest area is designed in a symmetrical technique that creates the feeling of a hotel room. You cannot see the other part of the room when you are lying on the bed. To make this space more minimalistic, we have created a large wardrobe with a secret door leading to the small dressing room. This technique helps us blur the lines between the main area and the small room. You can see the difference by comparing the original and new plans.

This main space is filled with empty walls and gorgeous furnishings that set the right mood for rest, dining, kitchen, and hallway areas. In fact, all three of these areas combined into one large space, but the kitchen and hallway are visually separated by walls. Sources of light are all set in the ceiling. We deliberately hid them. That makes the composition cleaner and visually expands the space. We love the way this small space talks to people — not too loudly. This room gives a space for your thoughts.

A new bathroom has more space than the original. The design of this space is pretty simple — the main idea is to give this small room an opportunity to get natural light. Therefore, we made a window built into the wall between the bathroom and kitchen. Bright stone texture creates a feeling of a cozy cave.

Architect Ihor Havrylenko
Digital photography by Ihor Havrylenko

Publications:
Imagicasa, January 2022
New Norm Magazine, February 2022

In the working area, we created a composition with a custom table covered by old fashioned parquet, Thonet`s S 533 N vintage chair designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1927, Simos James`s Buster table lamp designed by Chris Martin.

The rest area includes Juniper`s Thin floor lamp designed by Peter Bristol and a mix of Propro`s modular Node sofa and two Node armchairs designed by Nata Kurilenko. By the way, Propro is a great local brand that creates beautiful and simple products. Fogia`s Pastille table designed with TAF Studio is the last but not least part of this ensemble.

The dining area is a gorgeous flower of this apartment: a wooden dining table that we found on a flea market, took the center of the composition, there are also a few Nikari`s Linea RMT6 chairs designed by Rudi Merz made in light wood that creates a playful contrast between two different colors of wood and adds a jolt of color in an otherwise minimal space. &Tradition`s Formakami JH3 pendant lamp designed by Jaime Hayon is hung over table. We love how all of these materials work. The composition looks heavy but it is not.

There is a built-in bathtub and vintage stone-topped console with a round washbasin standing on combined with elegant faucet from Venti20 collection by Gessi. Gram Sconce Hardwired wall lamp by Human Home is nearby.