Kovalska office as a space of dignity and consistency in a turbulent reality
Kovalska is the leading building materials manufacturer and property developer in Ukraine, with facilities across the country and over 65 years of experience. The company was named in honour of Svitlana Kovalska, a prominent director of the Reinforced Concrete Constructions Plant, from which the industrial group emerged in 1956.
The reputation of the Kovalska Industrial and Construction Group (ICG) is communicated to society not only through its real actions, but also through its visual language. When you open the Group's website, its logo and its overall graphic design, you get the feeling that you are dealing with something truly remarkable, powerful and sophisticated.
The same emotion of consistency and exclusivity provides the interior of the headquarters of the Kovalska Industrial and Construction Group.
The head office is located in the centre of Kyiv, opposite St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church on Velyka Vasylkivska Street.
The Kovalska head office is located in one of the 9-storey towers of the Toronto business centre.
Architect Emil Dervish, in collaboration with Kovalska's Executive Director Olga Pylypenko, designed the premises as a comfortable workplace, not overloaded with design. The design concept was to make it clear from the outside that the office spaces inside are communal and cozy. The office serves as an intelligent, warm space where a person feels comfortable. It reflects a semi-home atmosphere even though it is an office. Gardening is a crucial milestone in the design concept along with the natural materials (wood, textile, marble etc). All this shows a biophilia design approach.
The 1st and 2nd floors of the Kovalska office tower are semi-public. Guests and friends of the company are invited to public lectures and meetings, which Kovalska often initiates. Kovalska's offices are located on the 3rd to 8th floors.
The built environment has a direct impact on people's health, wellbeing and performance. Appreciation of human fragility is a new design policy. The return to work after the pandemic era, multiplied by the generation of millennials who were used to hybrid work, underlines the trend to be closer to nature and to work in a sustainable comfortable space. Employees today are selective. They do take care of the place where they work. More and more people around the world are struggling with mental health issues. Loneliness is spreading across all age groups and all levels of society. Political and economic fluctuations make the situation far from stable. These are fundamental issues that we all need to address. Workplace design is about creating places where people thrive and are influenced by the space they enter.
All of the above approaches are applied in the design of the Kovalska office. It provides efficient accommodation for employees, improves the quality of work and provides better services. Interior materials and objects were carefully selected to create a feeling of comfort and warmth. In other words, the so-called "boutique" approach was used to achieve this goal.
1st and 2nd floors
The use of natural, durable materials such as wood and marble promotes holistic biophilia in the working environment. At the same time, concrete, for which Kovalska is particularly famous, is lightly incorporated into the design. As a symbolic reminder of the company's profile.
The soft curves of the interior furniture, lush greenery and natural materials on the first and second floors are increasingly finding their way into the office, providing a sense of well-being for employees. The design style of these two floors is more modern classic. The
Diffused warm light with different scenes throughout the floors.
The furniture is by Pierre Paulin, Chandigarh Pierre Jeanneret, and HAY.
3d to 8th floors
The shape of the floor plan is an elongated rectangle. To make it liveable and comfortable, it has been divided into the sequence of public and private work areas. The design space concept is structured as a zoned open space. The company offices, with full-height glass facades on all sides, are bathed in natural light.
Wall panels in wood veneer, partitions in reinforced glass, which is durable, safe and does not transmit light. Various warm lighting scenarios: general, spot, local. The office furniture is Scandinavian and French. The iconic objects can be found in the interiors. The height of the cupboards is more to guarantee privacy and to actually divide the space.
Greenery is used extensively throughout the Kovalska Tower. The point is that Olga Pylypenko is a great admirer of gardening. That is why all employees enjoy working in this biophilic, trendy office.
