Pilotka - Пельменная Пилотка | YUDIN Design

location: Chervonoarmіyska st., 74, Kiev, Ukraine
function: cafe, fast food
area: 100m2
status: realization 2015
designers: Aleksandr Yudin, Vladimir Yudin
graphic designer: Vladimir Yudin
photo: Sergey Savchenko

Brothers Aleskandr and Vladimir Yudin, founders of the company «Kozyrnyi design», are famous for their restaurants interior design projects. This time they have presented the project of a more democratic format – snack-bar “Pilotka”, opened in the center of Kyiv.

 The place, covering an area of 100 sq. m. and with capacity of 50 guests, is aimed at all kind of visitors – ranging from office employees and couples to parents with children. Therefore, the designers were challenged with the task of creating a multifunctional design, which would appeal to the most diverse visitors. «Initially we had the idea of taking “pin-up” style as a basis, but it could have been rejected by visitors with families, - Yudin brothers say. – For this reason we have chosen pop-art style, adding some familiar details from aviation-related topics».

 «Pilotka» is filled with light, and despite its small size seems quite spacious. Here you can find two rooms  – the main room with large windows and open kitchen, and a small parlour at the back of the bar, aimed at 12 guests. Interior palette is based on opaline, turquoise and lightwood colours. It is mainly owning to this colour composition, that the rooms look light and more spacious. Lightwood, used in interior design, symbolizes simplicity and naturalness. Designers have applied a special method to wooden textures – there are cross patterns cut in the wall panels, evoking associations with airscrew outlines. The same aviation topic is present in lamps, which resemble airscrews. “We took the name as a basis, -  the designers say – we remembered that aircraft cap was part of uniform worn by a stewardess. Therefore, aviation stylistics was used in creating uniform for the staff.

 The furniture in the bar is custom-made. Small but comfortable chairs, space-saving sofas, decorated with multicolored pillows…and the base frames of tables resembling landing gear.

 On entering the bar, one immediately pays attention at the portraits of two girls, painted in pop-art style, - they decorate one of the walls. «What?! Haven’t you tasted manti?» - a character of this pin-up comic strip asks her friend. The walls of the bar are ornamented with the names of the key dishes: meat dumplings, manti, ravioli, khinkali, vareniki….The windows of the bar are decorated with funny slogans, coined by the designers. According to the authors, the slogans illustrate the desires of guests sitting at the counter by the window: “Eat meat dumplings, don’t listen to anybody!”, and other related ideas.

 Yudin managed to create a democratic and laconic interior, but not cheap or boring, it is filled with details, but not overloaded with them. Here one is comfortable and clearly feels the format: a reasonably-priced place, designed for city folk, who value their time and enjoy natural taste.