ФОРМА
ФОРМА is independent office driven by research and experiments in architecture. Our approach is to work at the intersection of the disciplines. In a constant dialogue with specialists in theoretical and practical fields, we use different representation forms for the projects. From spatial development strategies, master plans, renovation programs and buildings to books, interfaces, installations and exhibitions. Dealing with constant changes in ecology, economy, political and social systems allows us to think broadly and initiate cooperation for interdisciplinary growth.

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Location: Malopidvalna st. 12/10, office 10b
01034 Kyiv, Ukraine
Tel/Fax.: +38 (044) 279-04-39
For your suggestions or contact,
drop us a line: info@formaarchitects.com

“Our Years, Our Words, Our Losses, Our Searches, Our Us”


Program: Exhibition design
Curators: Kateryna Iakovlenko, Natalia Matsenko, Borys Filonenko
Status: Completed
Year: 2023

The exhibition “Our Years, Our Words, Our Losses, Our Searches, Our Us” is accompany the opening of the Jam Factory Art Cente on November 18, 2023 and will be the first large-scale exhibition in the history of the art center. The exhibition present the works of Ukrainian artists from 2022-2023 and a longer chronology – from the 19th century to the present.

Cxema+PAN


Program: Scenography
Area: 3000 sq.m.
Status: Completed
Collaborators: BlckBox
Year: 2019

“It seems like the most genuinely and painfully cool party left on earth.”
Electronic Beats, INT

YES Brainstorming

YES Brainstorming


Program: Culture, Scenography, Furniture
Area: 660 sq.m
Collaborators: Oleksandr Burlaka
Status: Completed
Year: 2021

Yalta European Strategy (YES) is a leading forum for discussing Ukraine’s European future and global context. YES fosters new ideas. It connects Ukraine to international partners, supports forces for change in the country, and builds networks of supporters for a new Ukraine worldwide.
Together with an architect Oleksander Burlaka, ФОРМА developed the project for the main pavilion.

Paskal SS 25

Paskal SS 25

Program: Scenography
Status: Completed
Artist: Ivan Grabko
Music: Nastya Vogan
Area: -
Year: 2024

Essential Goods

Essential Goods


Program: Exhibition
Status: Completed
Curators: Isabella van Marle and Sonya Kvasha
Partners: pavilion of culture, BlckBox, Patriot
Graphic design: Faye and Gina
Digital design & consulting: Bureau Antoine Roux & David Broner
Web development: Tristan Bagot
Supported by un/fund, hup.foundation and Sarah van Rij
Year: 2024

Reflecting the landscape of Ukrainian photography today, Essential Goods is a group
exhibition featuring works by more than 20 young artists. Produced from 2014 to 2024,
their varied projects are held together by a common thread: of what it means to make
art in and of a time of war. When the future is uncertain, they ask: ‘what constitutes an
essential good?’
Opening in Kyiv on the 23rd May, Essential Goods is set across the Pavilion of Culture:
a 1967 modernist landmark, now a curatorial institution at the intersection of contemporary
visual art, music and architecture. With the outbreak of full-scale war, its programme was
suspended, and its buildings became a depot for humanitarian aid.
The question "Is culture the first necessity during the ongoing war?" formed the basis of the architecture of the exhibition Essential Goods with which the Pavilion of Culture begins a new season of activity after a two-year pause.
The uncanned building with the remained items of aid form the body of the exhibition, creating the possibility of coexistence between wartime needs and art.

P13: Pavilion of Culture

P13: Pavilion of Culture


Program: Culture, Museum, Event hall, Gallery
Area: 2 500 sq.m
Status: Ongoing
Year: 2020

The most significant cultural projects of modern Ukraine are initiated by independent researchers, curators, and artists. The potential of these independent creators, intellectual and artistic level of their work is much more ahead of the existing institutional capacity. There is a lack of institutions in Ukraine, that could provide a decent level of support and development of cultural initiatives. This absence of institutional sustainability led to the idea of creating the Pavilion of Culture – an institution that will provide the audience, space, and opportunities for the realization of the leading cultural creators.

Program: Retail, Furniture
Site area: 50 sq.m.
Status: Completed
Year: 2020

044 House


Program: Residential, Retail, Leisure
Collaborators: KDD Engineering
Area: 2130 sq.m.
Year: 2017 – Ongoing

044 House is a new residential complex in Podil district in Kyiv, designed by ФОРМА. The project was created on the principles of ecological urban development on the basis of in-depth study of “industrial Podil” and its historical architecture. The conducted research of residential buildings from 1980th, their rhythm, proportions and color scheme, gave an opportunity to develop a balanced design solution.

I AM U ARE. Ukrainian creators fair NY

I AM U ARE. Ukrainian creators fair NY


Program: Exhibition, Retail, Scenography, Furniture
Area: 1800 sq.m.
Status: Construction
Year: 2023–Ongoing

i am u are is a platform for empowering the creative industry of Ukraine. Fair & exhibition will take place in New York on March 24-26th at the heart of NYC, Skylight at Essex Crossing.

Program: Education
Building area: 500 sq.m.
Year: 2014

Ukraine pavilion at the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2022

Ukraine pavilion at the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2022


Program: Pavilion, Exhibition
Partners: Gres Todorchuk PR
Status: Completed
Year: 2022

The United Nations' Climate Change Conference (COP27) will be held at Sharm EL Sheikh International Convention Center in Egypt from 6 to 18 November 2022. Ukraine, which had previously participated in the event for many years, will be represented by its own pavilion for the first time. The Ukraine pavilion consists of 3 sense blocks. In its center is an installation in the form of a shell funnel. Fertile Ukrainian lands are now dotted with them. Inside the funnel visitors will find more than 500 cubes with 16 types of Ukrainian soil — a reminder of Ukraine's enormous potential and its importance for global food stability. Thematically, the pavilion is divided into 2 blocks - the consequences of the war for the climate and the vision of the future of Ukraine, as one of the guarantors and participants of the climate goals of the UN.

Babyn Yar


Program: Research
Status: Completed
Year: 2020

Today, the space of Babyn Yar is filled with multiple scenarios. They are played out daily in the area, which rather disorients and makes it impossible to spend time consciously within the memorial and preserved areas. This study is an attempt of a comprehensive look at further work with the territory based on the landscape analysis of Kyiv ravines.

Stage 13

Stage 13


Program: Scenography
Status: Completed
Partners: Cultural Platform, pavilion of culture
Area: 500 sq.m
Year: 2024

We adapted the 60s glass modernist pavilion into a space for electroacoustic performances. Scene 13 is series of music concerts that features academic multichannel electronic music and held on the 17-18th of August by the Pavilion of Culture in collaboration with the Cultural Platform.

"Skystone" Immersive pavilion


Program: Cinema, Conference
Site area: 0,65 ha
Building area: 950 sq.m.
Collaborators: Front Pictures
Year: 2011

"Skystone" is a new type of prefabricated building with a 360º screen projection system presented at the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Beijing."Skystone" is a self-sufficient prefabricated building in a hall with 250 seats with interactive technology. The building is closed from outside and looks monolithic. It will let people get an immersive experience in understanding the universe

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“Putivnyk”. The guide book to the cultural landscape of Yaremche


Program: Research
Status: Completed
Year: 2021

The land in places that are surrounded by protected areas - such as Yaremche - is of exceptional value. The way construction and further management are carried out directly affect the local ecosystem. The boundaries where human activity encounters in the natural heritage are the most vulnerable. Our research investigates both scenarios of such interactions—the centres of destruction and the environment where new valuable connections between human and nature are formed.

Before the Future. Spazio Esedra at the Giardini. The pavilion of Ukraine at 18th International Architecture Exhibition–La Biennale di Venezia

Before the Future. Spazio Esedra at the Giardini. The pavilion of Ukraine at 18th International Architecture Exhibition–La Biennale di Venezia

Ukraine is participating in the 18th International Architecture Exhibition curated by Lesley Lokko (20 May – 26 November 2023), with a Pavilion at the Arsenale (Sale d’Armi) and an installation in the Spazio Esedra at the Giardini. Before the Future is the title of the participation, organized by the commissioner Mariana Oleskiv, and curated by Iryna Miroshnykova, Oleksii Petrov and Borys Filonenko. Ukraine had not participated in the Biennale Architettura since 2014.

Renovation of Gamma Factory


Program: Research, Mixed use
Site area: 9 180 sq.m.
Building area: 46 600 sq.m
Year: 2018

Gamma factory (Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine) was built at the beginning of 1960th, specialized on the production of high-tech electronic products for the space, aviation and nuclear industries. After 1991 the company declared bankruptcy and declined. ФОРМА’s proposal for the mix-used development was based on the idea of creating a cultural, business and retail core of the city.

Promprylad.Renovation: Study Models


Program: Exhibition
Area: 500 sq.m
Year: 2019

In recent years, the rethinking of the purpose of industrial architecture has become a representative practice in which possibilities are determined by research. Architects are facing the situation, where the proposal must justify a certain set of functions and goals of the object. The architectural design of Promprylad. Renovation can be considered as a proper example to explore.

Rodebjer + Masha Reva


Program: Scenography
Area: 950 sq.m.
Year: 2020

Masha Reva collaborated with ФОРМА to create set-design and scenography for the Rodebjer at Fall Winter 2020 show during the Copenhagen Fashion Week

House of Hungarian Music


Program: Museum, Concert Hall
Building area: 3 496 sq.m.
Year: 2014

The idea of the building as architectural incarnation of synthesis of vision and hearing, metaphor of music as a complicated system of simple primitives, as a shell for sound experiments, multifunctional stage for learning Hungary Music in all it’s manifestations.

First Biennale of Ukrainian Contemporary Artists


Program: Exhibition
Area: 8 000 sq.m
Year: 2017

“Today that never happened” curators Lizaveta German, Maria Lanko, and Kateryna Filiuk applied to the categories of changes and fluidity, reflected through the aspects of blurring of topographic boundaries, the fragility of nation-states, the variability of identities, and the disappearance of the boundaries between the private and the public. ФОРМА was responsible for the exhibition design of the festival.

Cxema X Boiler Room


Program: Scenography
Site Area: 3000 sq.m.
Status: Completed
Collaborators: BlckBox
Year: 2019

Cxema is the life-changing party forging the new sound of the Ukrainian underground. Mixmag

Program: Cinema, Conference
Area: 1 575 sq.m.
Year: 2018

KMF

KMF

Program: Renovation, Mixed-use
Building area: 40000 sq.m.
Year: 2020

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Before the Future. Book


Program: Book
Status: Completed
Partners: pavilion of culture, ist publishing
528 p. ISBN 978-617-7948-32-1

Year: 2024

Before the Future marks the return of the Pavilion of Ukraine to the Biennale Architettura 2023 after a nine-year absence. The catalog contains texts and images by the curators and collectives, as well as additional articles and essays that expand on the discussions initiated within the project.
In the exhibition and its accompanying program, the grass-covered defensive earthworks in the Giardini and the dark, enclosed shelter in the Arsenale are spaces for Ukrainian architects and practitioners from various fields to raise questions—questions about telling stories during wartime, about the value of collective action in the face of threat, about the multitude of topics that unite architects in Ukraine today, about questions that must be asked today, before the future.
Over a period of four months, five temporary collectives create a program of changing exhibitions in both locations of the Pavilion—about reconstruction, ecology, care, commemoration, and the future. These exhibitions originate from within the Ukrainian context and involve a wide range of participants, with the aim of creating spaces and dialogues fostering mutual understanding.

Second Biennale of Contemporary Ukrainian Artists


Program: Exhibition
Area: 2 500 sq.m
Year: 2019

The Second Biennale of Young Art was held in 2019 in Kharkiv and became the second edition of the biennial project, initiated by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine in the aim to support and represent contemporary Ukrainian art.

Pavlo Makov. “Fountain of Exhaustion. Acqua Alta”


Program: Exhibition
Area: 88 sq.m.
Status: Completed
Year: 2022

"The display symbolizes exhaustion on many levels. Besides the obvious – depletion of humanity’s resources and credit with the environment – it’s about psychological exhaustion due to social media abuse, the pandemic and economic recession." Pavlo Makov

Checkpoint 'Protected Lands'


Program: Pavilion, Exhibition
Collaborators: Pavilion of Culture, Tbilisi Architecture Biennial
Area: 21 sq.m.
Status: Completed
Year: 2022

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, essential routes were equipped with defensive fortificationsーcheckpoints. All of them were built hastily from locally available materialsーconcrete, metal, wood, earth, or sand.
A checkpoint provides movement control and defense and can be part of a more extensive fortification system with surveillance, cover, and fire functions. The most effective protection of defensive structures is provided when combined with natural obstacles, such as mountains and ravines, rivers and lakes, swamps, and impenetrable forests.

Kosatka Pop-up Bar

Kosatka Pop-up Bar

Program: Bar, Furniture
Area: 100 sq.m.
Status: Completed
Year: 2017

VOGUE pop-up gift shop

VOGUE pop-up gift shop

Program: Pop-up
Status: Completed
Area: 6 sq.m
Year: 2024

Corridor Park. Strategy for Dnieper Islands


Program: Research, Strategy, Masterplan
Collaborators: Bassinet Turquin Paysage
Site area: 2000 ha
Year: 2011

The main reason why Kyiv islands have become a wasteland is that they almost have no access from both sides of the river. For a 12-kilometer piece of land of Trukhaniv and Muromets islands there are only three points from which one can get into the area (from the Northern bridge, from the pedestrian bridge and from Hydropark). Hardly anybody can cover the distance on foot and get pleasure from walking and contemplation.

Pavlo Makov. MAPPA MUNDI

Pavlo Makov. MAPPA MUNDI

Program: Exhibition
Collaborators: Custom objects
Area: 2000
Status: Completed
Year: 2021

Play Factory

Play Factory

Program: Offices
Building area: 28000 sq.m.
Year: 2020

NPAK Armenian Centre for Contemporary Art


Program: Museum, Performance centre
Building area: 5 100 sq.m.
Year: 2019

The Armenian sailing vessel “Kilikia” being a true copy of a merchant ship of the Middle Ages, from 2004 to 2006 was able to overcome the route from Yerevan around Europe, having passed through seven seas. In the Middle Ages the ship was a symbol of the unification of nations, and travellers and merchants played an important role in the intercultural dialogue and exchange. In the 21st century the participants of world discourse are artists. The story of the journey of “Kilikia” was the inspiration for our decision. Squeezed in the city structure The NPAK building today is the part of the architectural ensemble that had lost its original function.

ZigZag Kyiv


Program: Restaurant
Status: Completed
Area: 70 sq.m
Year: 2016

Zigzag is a city cafe located on one of Kyiv’s most fashionable streets, which became popular among the local creative community. Zigzag is a symbol, which is widely represented in Ukrainian avant-garde poetry and art.

Program: Pavilion, Retail
Site area: 2 400 sq.m
Building area: 635 sq.m
Year: 2020

Program: Offices
Building area: 2900 sq.m.
Year: 2020

M82: Sabotage Wine

M82: Sabotage Wine


Program: Food production, Retail, Restaurant
Collaborators: Interstore Schweizer, A3, Outline
Area: 667 sq.m
Status: Completed
Year: 2021

GARAGE is a new gastronomic venue by @goodwine located on the territory of the former Tetra Pak plant in the Podil industrial zone. The building is divided into two independent parts. In the general planning approach, the function of the garage is retained – technological and service blocks are disposed not along the perimeter of the venue, but deliberately moved to the center. This provides the adaptability of the space to temporal scenarios, ensures democracy between volumes and free movement around the area. The blank industrial building becomes public and open, emphasized by the glazed line of the facade.

Foodoteka

Foodoteka

Program: Market, Retail, Food production, Education
Building area: 3050 sq.m.
Status: Construction
Year: 2022–Ongoing

Сxema. July 2018


Program: Research, Scenography
Site area: 2 000 sq.m.
Status: Completed
Collaborators: BlckBox
Year: 2018

ФОРМА was involved in the organization of Cxema parties from 2015 to 2019, rethinking from the perspective of architectural practice the typology of rave and creating a holistic visual image of the space. Every season had a specific concept that directly influenced spatial and lighting solutions.

M82: The development strategy of the former "Tetrapak" factory


Program: Research, Strategy, Retail, Leisure
Site area: 13 200 sq.m.
Building area: 17 000 sq.m.
Year: 2018

ФОРМА was invited by 'goodwine' to develop a strategy for the renovation of buildings and the territory of the former Tetrapak factory.

Bassianni. ICKPA

Bassianni. ICKPA

Program: Scenography
Status: Completed
Year: 2021

KMA

KMA

Program: Masterplan, Education
Status: Ongoing
Area: 22 700
Building: 4500 sq.m.
Year: 2024

Program: Food production, Retail, Offices, Leisure
Collaborators: Interstore Schweizer, MW
Area: 22 000 sq.m
Year: 2020

Program: Offices
Building area: 49000 sq.m.
Year: 2020

Guilty Wine Bar


Program: Bar
Area: 25 sq.m
Year: 2018

Guilty wine bar was conceived as a place to start the evening, and the exhibition program, curated by Maria Lanko and Liza German, extended this conception into the context of art. Drafts and sketches by local artists, such as Lucia Ivanova and Ksenia Hnylytska, gave an alternative view on the idea of the origin and preparation.

Program: School
Site area: 1,5 ha
Building area: 12 562 sq.m.
Status: Ongoing
Year: 2020

Rybalsky Residential Block


Program: Residential, Cultural
Building area: 6 185 sq.m.
Year: 2018

The project provides a unique solution for the planning structure, which adds new qualities to the area. The residential area with the cultural centre is located in the centre of the regular lattice of the Rybalsky peninsula general plan. Its unique role for the district is expressed by the transformation of the shape of the plan: an oval volume is inscribed in the quadrangular perimeter.

Program: Research
Status: Completed
Year: 2021

Before the Future. Arsenale. The pavilion of Ukraine at 18th International Architecture Exhibition–La Biennale di Venezia

Before the Future. Arsenale. The pavilion of Ukraine at 18th International Architecture Exhibition–La Biennale di Venezia

Ukraine is participating in the 18th International Architecture Exhibition curated by Lesley Lokko (20 May – 26 November 2023), with a Pavilion at the Arsenale (Sale d’Armi) and an installation in the Spazio Esedra at the Giardini. Before the Future is the title of the participation, organized by the commissioner Mariana Oleskiv, and curated by Iryna Miroshnykova, Oleksii Petrov and Borys Filonenko. Ukraine had not participated in the Biennale Architettura since 2014.