Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, is vivid metropolis that displays in its streets a great mixture of traditional and contemporary architecture along with vast and beautiful green areas. The Italian restaurant Vino e Cucina designed by YØ Dezeen is located right in the heart of this city and is a clever representative of its multiplicity.
At first this Italian restaurant, with its wood canopies and rattan furniture, evokes an immediate country feeling, giving us the sense of being in a pleasant gathering in a garden. But as an interesting plot twist, the designers at YØ Dezeen introduced a lot of contrast by bringing more urban elements to it.
Some unexpected (but, in my opinion, very good) decisions were made here to bring a sense of the city to this project: like the use of concrete and iron elements as well as the choice to use colder shades of grey in the all the seats. That generated a well balanced contrast with the super present (naturally warm toned) wooden elements, resulting in an interesting dynamic to the overall appearance of the space. All the light fixtures with the use of the glass jars, the jute lampshades and the simple lined light bulbs ranging from the ceiling, alongside with some other creative solutions like the vines growing around the mesh structures ended up breaking the austerity of the concrete, iron and grey pieces, creating a nice homey and charming feel to this Italian restaurant.
When I think about Italy what comes to mind are warm summer nights spend on the backyard having a nice dinner with friends, that is why, to me, the YØ Dezeen were very happy in designing Vino e Cucina as a good spin on that feeling while bring it to a sophisticated urban site.
