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About

Based in Europe · Working internationally

About

Ponomarenko Volodymyr is an architect and interior designer working across hospitality, wellness and workplace interiors. His practice focuses on creating distinctive spaces through a careful reading of context, existing conditions, materials and construction constraints. At the centre of his approach is the idea of responsible beauty — finding architectural value in what already exists, working intelligently with limitations, and using resources with intention.

International recognition includes ArchDaily Building of the Year nominations, ArtSpace awards, and publications in ArchDaily, Dezeen, Architectural Digest, and The Village. Teaching at the Kharkiv School of Architecture and DASH! design school offered an opportunity to share practical experience with students and children.

Experience

Company

role

Year

Balbek Bureau

Creative Architect

2023-2025

Balbek Bureau

Creative Architect

2023-2025

Kacper Gronkiewicz Studio

Architect

2023

Kacper Gronkiewicz Studio

Architect

2023

Canape Agency

Architect

2016-2020

Canape Agency

Architect

2016-2020

DASH! design-school

Tutor

2017-2020

DASH! design-school

Tutor

2017-2020

Chernyi
Bar, Cafe

Services

Interior design for hospitality, wellness and workplace projects — from the first spatial idea to implementation.

Phone mockup

CONCEPT DESIGN

A focused design stage that defines the spatial logic, atmosphere and visual direction of the project before detailed development begins.

Spatial concept

ZONING & LAYOUT

KEY DESIGN ELEMENTS

CONCEPT & STORY

MATERIAL DIRECTION

CONCEPT VISUALS

CONCEPT DESIGN

A focused design stage that defines the spatial logic, atmosphere and visual direction of the project before detailed development begins.

Spatial concept

ZONING & LAYOUT

KEY DESIGN ELEMENTS

CONCEPT & STORY

MATERIAL DIRECTION

CONCEPT VISUALS

FULL INTERIOR DESIGN

Complete development of the approved concept into a coordinated interior design package ready for construction and procurement.

Concept development

Detailed design

CUSTOM ELEMENTS

Space planning

Drawings & specifications

MATERIAL & FF&E SPECS

FULL INTERIOR DESIGN

Complete development of the approved concept into a coordinated interior design package ready for construction and procurement.

Concept development

Detailed design

CUSTOM ELEMENTS

Space planning

Drawings & specifications

MATERIAL & FF&E SPECS

Design Supervision

Ongoing design support during implementation to protect the original concept, resolve questions and keep key decisions aligned.

DESIGN REVIEW

SHOP DRAWING REVIEW

DESIGN ADJUSTMENTS

MATERIAL APPROVALS

CONTRACTOR QUERIES

REMOTE / SITE SUPERVISION

Design Supervision

Ongoing design support during implementation to protect the original concept, resolve questions and keep key decisions aligned.

DESIGN REVIEW

SHOP DRAWING REVIEW

DESIGN ADJUSTMENTS

MATERIAL APPROVALS

CONTRACTOR QUERIES

REMOTE / SITE SUPERVISION

23a
Coffee Shop

What Clients say

Real feedback from clients who trusted the process and experienced meaningful results.

Noah miles

Abdulla Al Kuwari

Hospitality Entrepreneur & Founder · VELO, Run of the Mill & Neighbourhood

Volodymyr has a rare ability to turn ambitious ideas into clear, distinctive spaces. He combines strong creative thinking with a practical approach and always keeps the character of the brand at the centre of the project.

Noah miles

Abdulla Al Kuwari

Hospitality Entrepreneur & Founder · VELO, Run of the Mill & Neighbourhood

Volodymyr has a rare ability to turn ambitious ideas into clear, distinctive spaces. He combines strong creative thinking with a practical approach and always keeps the character of the brand at the centre of the project.

Noah miles

Abdulla Al Kuwari

Hospitality Entrepreneur & Founder · VELO, Run of the Mill & Neighbourhood

Volodymyr has a rare ability to turn ambitious ideas into clear, distinctive spaces. He combines strong creative thinking with a practical approach and always keeps the character of the brand at the centre of the project.

Whitney Wolfe

Michael Chernomorets

Restaurateur & Hospitality Entrepreneur · Founder of Heyday & Family & Friends

Brings a strong point of view to every project. The work feels original, thoughtful and precise, with an excellent understanding of how design can shape both the atmosphere of a place and the guest experience.

Whitney Wolfe

Michael Chernomorets

Restaurateur & Hospitality Entrepreneur · Founder of Heyday & Family & Friends

Brings a strong point of view to every project. The work feels original, thoughtful and precise, with an excellent understanding of how design can shape both the atmosphere of a place and the guest experience.

Whitney Wolfe

Michael Chernomorets

Restaurateur & Hospitality Entrepreneur · Founder of Heyday & Family & Friends

Brings a strong point of view to every project. The work feels original, thoughtful and precise, with an excellent understanding of how design can shape both the atmosphere of a place and the guest experience.

Whitney Wolfe

Viacheslav Drobot

Restaurateur & Hospitality Entrepreneur · Co-founder of 7Y Sklad, Black & Milk & HOOD

Working with Volodymyr is easy and straightforward. He quickly understands the idea behind a project and develops it into a confident, memorable interior with thoughtful details and a strong visual identity.

Whitney Wolfe

Viacheslav Drobot

Restaurateur & Hospitality Entrepreneur · Co-founder of 7Y Sklad, Black & Milk & HOOD

Working with Volodymyr is easy and straightforward. He quickly understands the idea behind a project and develops it into a confident, memorable interior with thoughtful details and a strong visual identity.

Whitney Wolfe

Viacheslav Drobot

Restaurateur & Hospitality Entrepreneur · Co-founder of 7Y Sklad, Black & Milk & HOOD

Working with Volodymyr is easy and straightforward. He quickly understands the idea behind a project and develops it into a confident, memorable interior with thoughtful details and a strong visual identity.

Clients & partners

HeyDay
Eatery

Awards &
Recognitions

ArtSpace

( Best Ukrainian Export Design Award )

Hood

2025

ArchDaily

( Nominated for Building of the Year )

23a

2022

ArchDaily

( Nominated for Building of the Year )

BLACK&MILK

2022

ArtSpace

( HoReCa Award )

23a

2022

ArchDaily

( Nominated for Building of the Year )

CHERNYI

2021

Interior of the Year

( Shortlist HoReCa )

Chernyi

2021

UDTBO

( Grand Prix Interior Design )

BLACK&MILK

2021

UDTBO

( Retail Design )

CHERNYI

2021

UDTBO

( Interior Design )

CHERNYI

2021

UDTBO

( Interior Design )

Black&Milk

2021

Velo

( Beyond the brief )

Observe what others overlook

Experiment beyond the brief

Turn discoveries into design

  • A cast iron tile found at the Shevchenko Factory during work on the Lubou project at 7 Sklad. The fragment belongs to the material archive of the place.
  • "Black & Milk, coffee shop interior, Kharkiv, Ukraine, cafe interior design, concept development, 3D model, screen recording fragment, ampersand concept, milk pipette, custom table, playful geometry, early presentation, design process"
  • A small stone was scanned with LiDAR and rebuilt as a 1:1 digital model. The model was placed next to the real object on a wooden table through AR.
  • "A working moment from my office, with new projects open on laptops and the main monitor. The table mixes digital work with paper, tools, and small physical details of the design process."
  • "A SketchUp axonometry from the design process for Paper Stand, a pavilion made for ArtSpace. The walls were planned as a light structure of strings, A4 sheets, and simple office binder clips."
  • Stained plywood and broken white tile meet during the construction stage of an interior project. A sunbeam on the countertop makes the material contrast more direct.
  • "Etat, techno bar, Kharkiv, Ukraine, bar interior design, concept development, 3D simulation, 3D explosion, screen recording, crack pattern, graphic logic, interior design process, unrealized project"
  • A quick smartphone sketch from the moment when the main idea for Heyday finally appeared. The sunflower became one of the visual elements that later entered the interior in Chicago.
  • "A finished parachute canopy with a custom graphic layout and my logo placed among the printed marks. This was a small personal project made for a friend, and the canopy is still in use."
  • "Blackhouse chair, Scottish blackhouse, chair prototype, furniture design, woodworking, plywood, router tool, rope detail, stone tension, design process, object design, material research, workshop process"
  • "A DJI drone survey was turned into a quick 3D map of a new project site. The top view keeps the site boundary, landscape texture, and surrounding built fragments as a graphic diagram."
  • "Plastic-19, material test, face masks, melted plastic, post-covid material, recycling, upcycling, material research, construction heat gun, plastic sample, design process, process archive"
  • "A Blender setup with the Ukrainian trident was prepared as a shared base for the UkrArt NFT project. Designers used the same 3D model, camera, and light to create their own artworks."
  • "A construction-stage photo from Twinkle coffee shop on Sumska Street in Kharkiv. The circular fisheye effect came from shooting through a door peephole, not from a camera lens."
  • "Sideria, cider bar, bar interior design, Kharkiv, Ukraine, 7 Sklad, upcycling, recycling, reused glass, green glass, fused glass, material test, floor artifact, design process"
  • "A printed spread from the German magazine AIT with the Chernyi project. The page keeps the interior in its original publication context, with the black surfaces, stainless steel, and mesh wall visible together."
  • "Scotland, landscape study, 3D printing, Prusa printer, iPhone 3D scan, terrain scan, physical model, site analysis, design process, process archive, topographic model, digital fabrication, architectural model"
  • An oversized 3D explosion test from the early work on Etat. The cracks and broken parts spread stronger than needed for the interior idea.
  • A Rhino screenshot from the work on Four Zeros in Warsaw. The model tests a custom script for a paper-like ribbon passing through the interior.
  • "Paper Stand, paper pavilion, pavilion design, drone recording, filming process, paper installation, project documentation, process archive, design archive, architectural fragment, Ivan Avdiienko, material behavior"
  • "A quick physical model for Four Zeros, made in Scotland from foam, pens, pencils, and masking tape. The tape tests the idea of one continuous strip passing through posts and then through the whole interior."
  • "A production photo of the 23a lightbox sign in Kharkiv. The rectangular metal-clad box uses circles, cut-outs, numbers and letters from the coffee shop’s graphic identity."
  • A Revit wireframe view with complex arched geometry and a simple rectangular volume in one model. What once felt like a technical challenge in Revit has become part of the everyday workflow.
  • Small leftover details from the Sideriya installation were arranged into the word ВІРА(HOPE). The fragment came from the construction process on the warehouse site in Kharkiv.
  • A rough iPhone 3D scan was converted into a flat bird-view plan. The result works as a graphic way to read the space from above.
  • A MacBook Pro with the Rabbit Coffee Roasters SketchUp model is placed directly on site during installation. The fragment connects the digital project file with the unfinished construction space around it.
  • "A shared moment inside a metaverse environment developed together with Simon Barazin from SB Studio. The space combines avatar fragments, simple 3D geometry, a gridded ground, and a cosmic background."
  • "Etat, techno bar, Kharkiv, Ukraine, bar interior design, concept development, 3D simulation, explosion simulation, digital test, graphic logic, interior architecture, process archive, visual study"
  • "A visual study for Chernyi, where people gather around bright light inside a dark space. The idea was not about black as a color, but about the contrast between light and shadow."
  • "A logo test for the Liubou project was made directly on a blue plastic panel. The combination of concrete floor, aluminum tape, active blue, and pink Martine Rose sneakers turned into a separate visual fragment."
  • A spontaneous material test made from baked protective masks became the first step toward Plastic-19. The blue disc was made in the rough kitchen of Gaga in Kharkiv together with Boris Lamako.
  • "3D printer, 3D printing, office workflow, design process, process archive, surveillance camera recording, digital fabrication, 3D model, prototype, physical model, architectural interior design, client workflow, Ukraine"
  • A red crack pattern from the Etat digital explosion simulation moves across a white field. The fragment stayed in Playground because of its clear graphic quality and direct link to the interior idea.
  • "Mriinyky, cafe-bistro, Lviv, Ukraine, cafe interior design, bistro interior, concept development, color study, interior render, Zoom presentation, client meeting, pastel beige, design process"
  • "A graphic visual study for Etat, built around the idea of new energy breaking through a residential panel building. The project was developed for Kharkiv and remained unrealized because of Russia’s war against Ukraine."
  • An archive frame from the 2021 Artspace Award ceremony at Palace Ukraine in Kyiv. The 23A project received the Best HoReCa Project award.
  • "Metal panels for 23A are temporarily fixed with clamps during the realization stage. The corner creates a soft mirrored effect, where two parts of the surface almost meet like two frames."
  • The digital 3D explosion starts at the DJ area and spreads through the whole space. The cracks became one of the main graphic ideas for Etat, an unrealized techno bar project in Kharkiv.

Start a project

FAQ

What types of projects do you take on?

What’s the difference between Concept Design and Full Interior Design?

How is the project fee calculated?

Can you work within our construction budget?

How long does the process take?

Can you work with our local team?

Do you stay involved during construction?

Who will I be working with?

What do you need from me to get started?

What types of projects do you take on?

What’s the difference between Concept Design and Full Interior Design?

How is the project fee calculated?

Can you work within our construction budget?

How long does the process take?

Can you work with our local team?

Do you stay involved during construction?

Who will I be working with?

What do you need from me to get started?

Interior design practice

Hospitality · Wellness · Workspaces

Worldwide

Planning a space?

Tell me what you're working on.

I’ll tell you how I can help.

hi@ponomarenko-volodymyr.com

Interior design practice

Hospitality · Wellness · Workspaces

Worldwide

Planning a space?

Tell me what you're working on.

I’ll tell you how I can help.

hi@ponomarenko-volodymyr.com

Interior design practice

Hospitality · Wellness · Workspaces

Worldwide

Planning a space?

Tell me what you're working on.

I’ll tell you how I can help.

hi@ponomarenko-volodymyr.com