Follower

Located at one of the oldest and longest streets of Kyiv, Velyka Vasylkivska street, the Follower restaurant takes over the two floors of the brick historical building with the panoramic windows on the central façade.

As designers, we were faced with two essential tasks: maximum preservation of the historical past of the building, and the creation of a restaurant space where the offline and online presence of visitors is strongly intertwined, a space that leaves no opportunity not to post it on social media.

«In the current Internet era business owners are increasingly recognizing the impact of social media on their business. So, the design-for-Insta strategy is becoming essential in such commercial projects as Follower, where we were trying to meet the needs of local businesses and to create the space that perfectly suits generation Y. End goal obviously was to create a more enticing environment for consumers», - says Lead Architect Artem Zverev.

Arranged over two levels, the entire space of the Follower restaurant with American and Italian eatery includes the first floor with a cocktail bar and a communal table and the second floor with more intimate seating. The dining areas for 84 seating spots are furnished with wood and metal armchairs and wood and concrete tables – one part of which is custom-made and the other is furniture delivered from Denmark.

Spacious restaurant space with a high ceiling of 5 meters, terracotta bricks on the walls, and honey-toned wood complete the authentic atmosphere with 5 millimeters hot rolled steel cladding over the first level.

The prime focus of the ground floor completely belongs to the cocktail bar with 3 immense mirrors of 4 meters in height with the imposing list of signature cocktails. The cast-wood bartender's counter is framed by a stylized ceramic bookshelf with 300 books on it.

Directly opposite the cocktail bar is located a custom artwork featured by YODEZEEN designers: the big picture of the imagined Follower, personifying the generation Y. The artwork is 3 meters high and composed of 200 kg of books laid out in such a way as to create patterns and individual elements of the imaginary face.

Another non-standard work of YODEZEEN designers in this project is a set of metal letters of the word «follower», placed in bulk on the columns of the restaurant.

The main accent of the second floor is the custom design of the bookcase with glass books illuminated in dark blue.

Much attention is paid to wood as the main material in the implementation of the interior idea. This is a large communal table, wooden countertops, a European bench, natural parquet with a pronounced texture, as well as large wooden frames with aged mirrors on the bar, which add even more air and space to the room.

The restrooms of the restaurant continue the Instsgrammable theme. Large room with blue partitions, washbasins made of basalt in the form of an uncouth piece of stone are compositionally complemented by a mirror with a gradient.

YODEZEEN architects