Ecodesign is more than working with natural materials
The Ukrainian Association of Furniture Manufacturers includes two design companies, more precisely, studios, architectural bureaus. Writing about their export stories was not easy. Not because there is nothing to say. On the contrary, they are powerful, so rich and substantial that it was very difficult to meet a small impromptu essay. I had to do it fragmentarily.
юрий рынтовт, founder and current head of the Kharkov company Ryntovt Design – is not enough to say that he is a supporter of ecodesign because this is not only the basis of his architectural, interior and furniture projects, but his life and creative mission, the core essence of his “I” However, he himself said better about this: “Ecodesign for us is not only the use of natural materials, but ecosmis, ecolyubs, Eco life as a whole. Polyphonic thinking and a holistic vision of the world. Our philosophy is based on the principles of a moral approach to arch “architecture and interior, taking into account the existing context: society, traditions, economics, ecology, etc.”
Yuri admitted: if there are cases when you have to refuse an order, the offered work, it’s not because of its complexity, but when the client with Ryntovt Design is not on the same wavelength, does not understand or fundamentally does not share its core values.
Of course, a client whose reconstruction of a private house in Spain is currently occupied by a Kharkov design company is not one of them. The story of receiving this order can be said to be banal, because there is a case that is quite typical and common for Ukrainian masters of interior and furniture. The client had previously been familiar with the company, which he had done something there – time and insignificant, single, he was satisfied and wants to realize something much larger with it.
The essence of the project is to reconstruct the house, to carry out, so to speak, interior rebranding, actually “nullifying” it. But only in the middle. Externally – and this is important for Yuri – the structure should remain architecturally authentic, that is, to maintain its original facade “face”. “So for some reason it happened that to a greater extent we have to implement reconstruction projects,” the source said, “and it’s always difficult. Almost every centimeter of area, structures, utilities requires close attention so that they fit in the new interior in the best way. ”
In Ukraine, there are not so many design companies that are both fully furniture companies, that is, they have sufficient technical and technological capacities and human assets to independently produce what is born in the head of architects and designers and looms on paper or a monitor screen . Ryntovt Design is like that. Moreover, it’s very experienced when you consider that, so to speak, a quarter-century furniture practice is behind you. But “Ryntovt Design” is still original and that works exclusively with the array. Not only in the interior, but also in object furniture, having already created more than one furniture collection. In general, in order to fully understand that the tree as part of the nature that surrounds us is more than furniture-like material for Yuri Ryntovt, you need to visit his studio, where the real natural owner is His Majesty the Tree. It is easy to assume that, having visited him, perhaps you can’t leave his studio without becoming a like-minded founder.
Already from the first phrases of our conversation with Yuri, I felt that it was correct, but not enough to associate eco-design with the use of natural materials, in particular wood, in general, otherwise it would be a very superficial understanding of it, we nevertheless wondered in what kind of wood, if so say, the Spanish reconstruction of the mansion is being implemented, which the client preferred wood or Yuri advised him. “Ash is at the heart,” was the answer, “although my favorite breed is our Ukrainian nut.” In general, we are able to work with different breeds: acacia, beech, oak, maple. Not only hard, but also with cherries and other fruit species, pine, and also exotic. ”
When Yuri talks about wood and eco-furniture based on it or demonstrates it visually (“speak well, but show it” – a colleague once told him), he does not so much agitate for eco as he would meditate on this topic. “Mother furniture made of solid wood is not only prestigious, but also responsible and troublesome: they need to be more carefully looked after, create“ comfortable ”conditions for them – use them carefully and with love. Not everyone understands this, not everyone wants, having acquired furniture, to have additional efforts to care for them. Not everyone is able to realize that natural furniture is the litmus of our health. ”

Yuriy does not agree with the opinion that foreign customers are more connoisseurs of ecodesign than Ukrainian ones. “Deep-thinking people are everywhere, however, our current realities, our constant troubles are such, which complicate the global understanding of the correctness and values ​​of EcoLife. As well as the understanding that we are creating a natural, laconic, natural product with intelligence and feeling, with respect for nature, realizable thereby is very important not only for us ”.

The section “Success Stories” was founded in the framework of a grant project with the support of the Swiss Cooperation Bureau in Ukraine, the name of the project: “Improving the level of cooperation and trust with joint participation in international and national public procurement” – TENDER TOGETHER.