Brick Space

· PUBLIC SPACE

· 240 M²

· KYIV, UKRAINE

· 2022

Architects team: Volodymyr Mints, Anastasiia Shynkarenko, Oleksandra Vdovichenko

Photographer: Anastasiia Shynkarenko

The project is located in the basement of a historical building in Kyiv. The original brickwork of the building dates back to 1886.

Before the restoration, the basement was used only for technical purposes; numerous communications passed through the space. In some areas, instead of a floor, there was just soil.

The task of the studio was to transform an unused basement into a multifunctional space in which a gallery or an office can be placed in the future.

D E T A I L S

All design solutions were aimed at preserving and emphasizing the historical value of the building. Therefore, the decision to clean and show the original brickwork of the building was obvious.

The main effort was to separate the entire "new" design from the already existing old architecture. In order to draw a clear line between "new" and "old", it was decided to organize a gap along the perimeter of all the walls of the room. The formed niche between the old walls and the new floor also allows to avoid a technically difficult solution: direct connection of ceramic tiles to an uneven brick surface.

All new structures in the room form straight geometric lines, which also sharpens the contrast with the old architecture, the walls of which do not have a clear geometry. The contours of the floor in the main rooms are organized as separate rectangular shapes, which seem to be inserted into the shell of the old building. In order to emphasize this impression, transparent glass inserts are arranged in transits between rooms.

One of the features of the room is that it has no windows. In order to compensate for the lack of natural lighting, illumination was organized around the perimeter of all walls. The rather intense warm light from the led strip illuminates almost the entire plane of the walls.

R E C O N S T R U C T I O N

During the work on the project, the main difficulty was that the basement had never been used for commercial purposes before. Centralized water supply and sufficient electricity were not even provided for in the space. A ducted ventilation and air conditioning system, water, sewerage and electricity were installed in the basement. Old communications were removed whenever possible, and those that had to be left were hidden in new channels on the ceiling.

Work with the walls and ceiling began with sandblasting. After the layer of old plaster and dirt was removed, waterproofing of all external walls was carried out. This stage was necessary because the room is below ground level and a large amount of moisture regularly entered it.

After cleaning the space, numerous places were found that needed careful restoration. The metal elements of the ceiling were partially destroyed by corrosion, therefore, during the implementation of the project, a constructor was involved who developed a special project for reinforcement.

In some places, the brickwork was also significantly damaged. In order for the restoration of the walls to look as organic as possible, old bricks of the required period were specially found.