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  • Sivak & Partners imagines contemporary beachside guest suite in Odessa

    Craggy rock walls and a hot-spring style bathtub would feature in this imaginary Odessa hotel room that interior design studio Sivak & Partners has envisioned in a series of renderings.The guest suite would come as part of a boutique beach hotel in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa that Sivak & Partners’ chief designer, Alexey Gulesha, was challenged to create just over a year ago.
    He decided to share the studio’s renderings when the global coronavirus crisis began and put a pause on the design process.
    “This project started from the idea to make something different from other hotels in Odessa – the client had bought a plot and asked us to design something which we wanted to see there, so this is our proposal,” Gulesha told Dezeen.

    Influenced by the dazzling settings seen in James Bond films from the 1980s, Gulesha has envisioned the guest suite as being fronted by a curved, full-height window that offers sweeping vistas of the sandy shoreline and rolling ocean waves.

    In almost every room he has tried to foster a sense of “tactile contrast” – for example, in the bedroom, the hard stone floor is topped with a fluffy cream-coloured rug. A plump bed frame has also been placed beside a couple of Italian architect Cini Boeri’s glass Ghost chairs.

    “I like to draw people’s attention to the fact that the materials to the touch may not be what they seem visually,” Gulesha explained.
    “The Cini Boeri’s armchairs look like a cold piece of glass, but they are surprisingly convenient and comfortable when you sit in them.”

    A wall that resembles a craggy cliff face would feature in the study. Other than a simple steel desk and wooden chair, Gulesha has largely omitted standard office paraphernalia so that guests would be more inclined to spend relaxing time down on the beach instead of doing work.
    “The idea of the materials is that in this digital era, when work means sitting on the PC and answering email for two to three hours, I want to see and feel something natural,” added Gulesha.

    A focal point of the suite is the circular tub in the bathroom, which would slope up from the stone floors to make guests feel like they’re “bathing in a hot spring”.
    Bathroom facilities would be housed inside a see-through volume that, using smart-glass technology, would turn opaque whenever in use.

    Architectural visualisers imagine rainbow-coloured Sonora Art Village during pandemic

    The suite would also include a small kitchenette, should future guests not want to dine at the hotel’s restaurant. At its centre would be a timber prep counter that balances across a pair of chunky stone blocks.
    A couple of rounded boucle sofas would then be used to dress the lounge area, along with a blush-pink abstract artwork that is meant to mirror the texture of the surrounding mottled plaster walls.

    The pandemic has encouraged several architects and designers to turn to the medium of renderings and imagine getaway destinations.
    Siblings Mary and David Javit imagined Sonora Art Village, a community of rainbow-coloured houses in Mexico where people could head to escape “grey reality”. Inspired by the vivid architecture of figures like Luis Barragán and Ricardo Boffil, the houses would be surrounded by cacti and swimming pools.
    Child Studio also imagined Casa Plenaire, a blissful seaside villa where those in lockdown could picture enjoying the “perfect holiday”.

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  • Say No Mo is a gender-neutral beauty salon and cocktail bar in Kyiv

    Concrete surfaces and gold accents define Say No Mo, a salon-cum-cocktail bar in Kyiv that Balbek Bureau has designed to avoid gender stereotypes. Say No Mo salon takes over two floors of an early 20th-century building and includes its own bar where visitors can grab a drink before or after beauty treatments. When locally based
    The post Say No Mo is a gender-neutral beauty salon and cocktail bar in Kyiv appeared first on Dezeen. More

  • Underground House Plan B is a hideout concept for the next global crisis

    Sergey Makhno Architects has envisioned a subterranean concrete home built for enduring the “unpleasant surprises” that may await in the post-pandemic world. Kyiv-based studio Sergey Makhno Architects told Dezeen that the global coronavirus crisis was the “trigger” for visualising Underground House Plan B, a piece of conceptual architecture. “We realised that the world has many […] More

  • Kovalska office in Kyiv is decked out with humble building materials

    Creative duo Artem Trigubchak and Lera Brumina used concrete slabs, sand and paving stones to fashion the furnishings and partition walls inside this office in Kyiv. Designed for a Ukrainian developer and building materials company called Kovalska, the 1,120-square-metre office is spread across two floors of a Soviet-era factory in the industrial district of Obolon. […] More

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    Ater Architects uses blue curtains as walls in Kyiv apartment

    Cobalt-blue curtains hang in place of walls in a small apartment in Kyiv renovated by Ukrainian architecture and interiors studio Ater Architects. Called EGR Apartment, the 65-square-metre space was cramped, featuring a compartmentalised layout with separate rooms connected by corridors. The owners, a  young couple, asked Ater Architects to transform it into a light and […] More

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    Sivak & Partners creates greyscale interiors for Kult barbershop in Odessa

    Grey plaster coats the walls, floor and ceiling of this pared-back barbershop in Odessa, Ukraine, which also incorporates a tattoo parlour and beauty treatment rooms. Located in Odessa’s old town, Kult features a desaturated colour palette made up of industrial materials such as stone, glass, steel and plaster. Due to tight time restrictions, locally-based Sivak […] More

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    Balthazar is a bottle-green bar beneath a market in Kiev

    Rina Lovko Studio has combined bottle-green surfaces with low lighting to create the moody interior of this drinks bar at the heart of Kiev’s city centre. Balthazar is set beneath the bustling aisles of Besarabsky Market – a historic indoor marketplace in central Kiev that sells a variety of fresh produce to locals. Locally based […] More