Project: Shelest Retreat
Architects: YoDezeen Studio
Location: Khotyanivka, Ukraine
Area: 13,282 sf
Photographs by: Andrii Shurpenkov
Shelest Retreat by YoDezeen Studio
YoDezeen Studio has designed the Shelest Retreat in Khotyanivka, Ukraine. This project is placed at the edge of a dense pine forest on the shores of the Kyiv Sea and as such it has access to stunning natural sights. Of course, one of the main aspects of the design is the focus on the views to the outdoors.
Shelest project is located in the dense pine forest on the shores of the Kyiv Sea. The first task for the team was to slow down, walk around the surrounding countryside, get some fresh air and feel the atmosphere that the client, the local developer, was trying to create. He talked a lot about the environmental friendliness of everything that concerns and is associated with the country club. And he sought to complement the purity of nature with architecture that would organically flow into it.
The main task of the YODEZEEN studio team was to convey the idea of the recreational complex with the help of architectural solutions and bring any person closer to nature. The team developed the exterior design of two buildings, a restaurant and a reception, on both sides of the pool, the main assembly points for holidaymakers, and integrated them into the overall landscape. Conceptually, this solution strives for authenticity and fusion with nature, not only due to natural materials but also by the massiveness of the construction. Thus, the architects designed a lightweight, almost weightless structure that complemented the existing Zen, but without an extra-urban load on the space.
Both buildings made of pine beams look like huge open birdhouses. The main emphasis of environmental friendliness is demonstrated not only in the atmosphere but also in the used materials. Thus, pine of the same species that grows in the forest, that surrounds the recreational complex, was chosen as the main construction material. The architects enchased the outer cladding of the facades with wooden battens and made the interior spaces as open as possible with visible structural trusses to make the buildings look weightless.
The architects placed the restaurant and the reception at the assembly point. It allows a customer to have dinner by the pool during the day and watch how flaring fires slightly break the silence against the background of the night forest.
