“Poetization of space” – that is how briefly one can describe the style the designer works in
Text: Kristina TulchinskayaPhoto: Vitaliy Melnikov, Andrey Avdeenko
In her profession our heroine loves the moment an environment is transformed — when something whole and useful can be made almost out of nothing, when reality can be changed by turning a concrete shell into an entirely different space that gives new sensations. Clean lines, brevity of the design statement, symbolism, honesty of materials and naturalness — these are the key vectors in Olena Yudina’s work.
Where is the line between design and art?
It begins when society no longer faces the question of survival and a time of prosperity arrives. The further design is from a person’s primary needs, the closer it is to art. In other words, when a designer stops creating truly vital objects, he becomes an artist, and art enters our homes through tables, chairs, armchairs, vases and pots.
Then who is your favourite designer?
It is a whole list of names; I will name only some. I like how ideas are reborn in the objects of Jasper Morrison and the “sound” of Naoto Fukasawa. I love the conservatism and restraint in the pieces of the best Danish designer, Børge Mogensen, and I adore the exclusive character of Tom Dixon’s furniture. The Dutchman Jurgen Bey is a great master of unconventional solutions: he will breathe spirit into literally anything, from a log to a carriage, and raise it to the height of fashion. I consider Ron Arad an artist in design — he never repeats himself and very rarely creates vital things. His works are held by the best museums in the world: the Centre Pompidou in Paris, MoMA in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. That is exactly how the masters of chairs tread on artists’ heels. Ingo Maurer works on the edge of art and design; he dislikes the limits of mass production and thinks freely. His complete opposite is the constructor Arik Levy, whose objects are defined by specific circumstances and tasks, technologies and materials, possibilities, people and their wishes.
What matters more — defending your design vision or fully pleasing the client?
My profession is work done to order. This union of the designer’s and the client’s individualities has never raised any objections in me.
It is precisely this that makes a project truly special and needed. As the Japanese designer Oki Sato said about himself and his studio’s work: “We are clay, flexible and pliable with the client, able to take any shape, yet we feel free.” That is why his studio is called Nendo, which means “clay” in Japanese. A very good studio, by the way, known all over the world. It is important to be confident in beauty, to be sensitive and receptive to the client, but not to force anyone into anything. It is important to have your own handwriting and apply it wherever you take part as a designer. Then the client will say of your interior: “This place is just like my dreams, and even better.”
What is coziness, in your view?
It is a very comfortable environment that you don’t want to leave.
Which brands do you like working with?
I love Fredericia, Tacchini, Flos, Inno, Zanotta, Moroso, Moooi, Vitra, Knoll, Cassina, Magis — and that is only some of them. Pieces by these factories never lose their function or quality, look striking and fit into any interior, even though they can have a bold aesthetic. They were, of course, designed by the world’s best architects.
Such furniture does not shout: “Look at me, I am a sculpture, I am art!” It stays comfortable, as it should be. Creating interiors with such furniture is happiness, and living in them is sheer pleasure.
How hard is it to convince a client that buying legendary design pieces makes sense?
It seems to me this is not so much the designer’s task as that of the showroom or salon where design objects are sold and where their final price is set.
And do you work with Ukrainian manufacturers?
Yes. My interiors are 30–40% filled with pieces made in Ukraine. I turn both to craftsmen and to product designers.
What is in fashion now?
I don’t believe in “it” things. Only the person who uses or creates an object can fill it with a legend and particular qualities. After all, the most wonderful thing at our disposal is our own imagination. A person with good taste and a special sensitivity to the world around can see beauty in ordinary things and fill a potentially unattractive idea with another meaning, transforming it to the point where you can’t believe your eyes. If only there is enough imagination.
What inspires you?
I am constantly inspired by new people, impressions, countries and eras. At the moment it is the 70s and the 40s, for example. And also the Art Nouveau era, the legendary Eileen Gray, the artist Paul Iribe. My main freedom is in being able to be inspired and to inspire. #DPG
www.alenayudina.com
Questions that matter:
1. Why did you want to become an architect?
Because of the combination of how I perceive the world and what I personally wanted to create. And of course, I can’t help being glad that my work has become needed by other people.
2. What else would you like to try in life?
Film photography. I am interested in composition; I love noticing how colour is rendered, how some details come together or how light falls on an object. I would photograph different situations, people, cities. And I am truly charmed by how talentedly others can do it.
3. What should an architect be like?
It is a mix of qualities — a sense of taste, so as not to slide into vulgarity; one’s own handwriting, so as not to be mediocre; a feeling for volume and space. And also patience and persistence in achieving a result. I have always tried to get to the essence of the profession my own way.
4. What is your boldest dream?
I can’t say it out loud — for now it stays inside me. I need to make up my mind and start, but I hope I can still surprise myself.
5. Name three things that make you happy.
Awareness of my own path and of the possibility to turn off it at any moment; the ability to feel, invent and make things happen, to surprise and be surprised; having simple but important things I can talk about for hours and listen to for hours: thoughts, feelings, ideas.
And also films, books, travel, sport.
