A Place of Inner Strength

Oksana Dolgopiatova transforms an 88m² Kyiv office into a gallery-like space of earthy textures, Ukrainian art, and hemp-fibre render for notary Anna Bakay.

Notary Anna Bakay's brief to designer Oksana Dolgopiatova was explicit: she wanted a hybrid space, a place of creation, a place of power, a place to work from the heart. The eighty-eight-square-metre office she received, on the first floor of a historic building on Tereshchenkivska Street in Kyiv — looking out onto Shevchenko Park on one side and a quiet courtyard on the other — has considerably more in common with a private art gallery than a conventional legal workspace.

Dolgopiatova, who is based in Milan and carried out the entire project remotely via video call, grounded the scheme in a material philosophy as precise as it is unhurried. Walls and ceilings throughout feature a tactile render containing hemp fibres, forming the basis for a palette built entirely from natural materials. Doors, window frames, and sills were crafted from stained oak. Branch-shaped bronze handles by Philip Watts Design add a quietly natural detail to key doors, including the entrance to Bakay's own office. The dual-aspect windows fill the space with daylight that moves across textural and patinated surfaces across the day, never landing the same way twice.

This interior is about connection with the earth, about silence and inner strength — without ostentatious solutions.

The central hallway — lined with load-bearing walls clad in shingle panels crafted by sculptor Andriy Voznytskyi from wood reclaimed from wine and beer barrels — functions as the project's gallery spine. Illuminated Flos mirrors reflect both daylight and glimpses of the artworks that punctuate the space: a sculpture by Alexander Sukholit, a coat rack by Mogg shaped like burnt matches. The office design was informed throughout by a large textile panel created specifically for the project by Oksana Levchenya, combining weaving, ceramics, vine elements, and appliqué.

The reception area presents collectible seating from Tetiana Krasutska's Tyn series, coffee tables with textural ceramic bases, and totem-like sculptures by ceramicist Yuriy Sulikovsky. The bathroom, at the hallway's end, contains a floor-mounted Cielo washbasin and a hand-moulded chamotte ceramic wall panel by Serhii Horban — and no mirror. Dolgopiatova's reasoning: a person should exhale, pause, and focus on how the water flows over their hands, without distraction.

Connection with the earth, she said. Silence. Inner strength. Without ostentatious solutions. The office, in every detail, agrees.

Key takeaways

• Dolgopiatova grounded the entire eighty-eight-square-metre scheme in natural materials — hemp-fibre tactile render on walls and ceilings, stained oak joinery, branch-shaped bronze handles, and reclaimed wine-barrel wood shingle panels lining the central hallway — creating a pared-back palette that prioritises earth, texture, and silence over conventional office signalling.
• The project functions as a curated gallery of contemporary Ukrainian art and craft, with works commissioned or selected specifically for the space: a textile panel by Oksana Levchenya combining weaving, ceramics, and vine elements; totem sculptures by Yuriy Sulikovsky; a hand-moulded chamotte bathroom panel by Serhii Horban; and sculptural seating from Tetiana Krasutska's Tyn series.
• The bathroom's deliberate absence of a mirror — allowing the user to pause, exhale, and focus on the sensation of water on their hands without distraction — encapsulates the project's central philosophy: a deeply personal working environment designed for inner strength rather than outward impression.