Balthazar is a bottle-green bar beneath a market in Kiev

Rina Lovko Studio has mixed bottle-green surfaces with low lighting to create the moody inside of this drinks bar on the coronary heart of Kiev’s metropolis centre.

Balthazar is about beneath the bustling aisles of Besarabsky Market – a historic indoor market in central Kiev that sells a wide range of recent produce to locals.

Regionally based mostly Rina Lovko Studio was requested to develop the interiors of the basement-level bar, however was given a largely open temporary.

“The challenge was completed largely intuitively,” the studio’s eponymous founder instructed Dezeen. “I actually wished to create a spot that might not resemble every other and thus make it distinctive.”

“We simply discovered a mutual language with the artwork director of Balthazar and reached an understanding of the viewers,” she continued.

“This made it potential to shortly define the idea and to know what sort of establishment it could be.”

Earlier than making any aesthetic modifications, the studio first needed to deal with a variety of structural points.

The bar takes over a winding cellar that is interrupted by a sequence of brick archways, a few of which solely measured 1.6 metres in peak.

Over a number of months the studio dug under floor degree to decrease the ground of the bar – the arches at the moment are 1.eight metres excessive, permitting visitors to wander all through the venue with out threat of bumping their heads.

The slim nature of the cellar additionally meant it could be troublesome for visitors within the again rooms to obtain a provide of recent air.

A community of pipes has thus been put in instantly beneath the ceiling, working from the rear of the bar to its entrance the place a air flow system is ready to launch air and take extra in from the outside.

The studio has left all the bar’s brick partitions uncovered. Remaining surfaces have been painted a deep shade of inexperienced, in a visible nod to the assorted wine bottles that will probably be on supply.

Glazed tiles in the identical inexperienced hue have then been used to clad the bottom of the principle drinks counter, whereas its surfacetop is crafted from outdated wine barrels.

Ought to visitors need to seize a light-weight snack, they will sit alongside an olive-coloured seating banquette that runs the size of the cellar wall.

Right here there’s a sequence of eating tables made out of a veiny model of veneer wooden.

Rina Lovko Studio creates austere interiors for Kiev’s Dicentra flower store

There are additionally a number of excessive counters paired with brown-leather stools, and a comfy lounge-style space dressed with a settee, brown armchairs and heavy wall tapestry.

Lighting is offered by a mix of candles and hooded, yellow-tone pendant lamps, lending the bar with what the studio describes as a “dungeon-like” atmosphere.

“The dim lighting creates a mysterious environment that pulls guests,” defined Lovko.

“Folks can take refuge in it – while you get there, time appears to cease.”

This is not the primary challenge that Rina Lovko Studio has accomplished on dwelling turf – on the finish of final yr, the studio remodeled a Soviet-era workshop on Kiev’s Dneiper river right into a florist.

Designed to look “untouched”, the store options crumbling stone partitions and easy grey-terrazzo fixtures.

Images is by Yevhenii Avramenko.