Total area: 150 sq.m.
Location: Kyiv region, Ukraine
Architect: Sergey Makhno, Tovstonog Illia
Project status: completed in 2013
Photo: Andrey Avdeenko
*Ist prize in the Ukrainian Interior Award 'INTERIUM 2014'
2nd prize in the Annual Ukrainian Architectural Design Competition 'Interior Design’s Best of Year 2013'
A country house doesn’t really call for any sophisticated solutions if it is meant to become a perfect place for rest. But if its owners are into traveling and collecting stuff, there is no way the house will turn out boring. The owners of this house also happen to be Sergiy Makhno’s old friends and obviously know a thing or two about art and design. Two storeys with the total area of 150 sq. m are quite enough to accommodate the essential: a combined kitchen/living/dining room area, three bedrooms (one on the first floor, two on the second floor), two bathrooms and some closets. Even a room for meditation and tea ceremonies, which is, strictly speaking, more of a whim, has found a perfect place here.
Everything is as simple and organic as it gets: painted walls, a concrete staircase, wooden paneling of the ceiling, wooden (the second floor) and ceramic tile (the first floor) flooring. The atmosphere of the place is born out of recognizable design objects and art: the iconic sofa and armchair by B&B Italia, Vitra chairs and the 20th century’s legend — Arco floor lamp by Achille Castiglioni. The interior concept is completed with Book Table (a glass table with the legs made of highvoltage insulators), Up console and a wooden chestofdrawers with a concrete top (all by Makhno Workshop). The kitchen set was made by the local artisans based on Sergey Makhno’s designs.
Through huge panoramic windows facing the courtyard and a barbeque area, you can see bronze sculptures by Dmytro Grek that “burst inside”, becoming an integral part of the interior. Some of his works have found their place in the house, living in a perfect harmony with ceramic sculptures by Sergiy Radko and Yuri Musatov, and art pieces by Vlada Ralko, Petro Bevza and Viktoria Melnychuk. Oneofakind objects and unique art pieces lend each room its very own unforgettable charm, where the tea room stuns as most unexpected. All objects found here — a long low ceremonial table, a screen with stained glass floral patterns, burlap pouffes, rusty iron cubic shelves designed by Sergiy Makhno — create that special, unmistakable mood, which is suddenly seen as the workshop’s key creative method — Ukrainian Zen.
