Dytiachyi Svit 2.0 by Aranchii Architects

Dytiachyi Svit 2.0

Aranchii Architects won a competition to design the facades of the new building of the Children’s World department store in Kyiv on Malyshka Street. The task was to create facades that would coexist with the historical modernist facades of the original building of the Children’s World.

The proposed spatial solution of the new building’s envelope is based on an efficient compromise between the developer and the community. The basis of this compromise is preserving the modernist facade of the Dytiachyi Svit. Our idea is based on the existing volume, particularly its most prominent recognizable element – a three-dimensional module made of anodized aluminium.

The proposal aims to merge modern and historic buildings due to the gradient technique’s transition of the module mentioned above of the existing facade to a new building. According to the plan, the original lookalike module appears on the corner of the facades closest to the existing shopping centre and gradually dissolves into minimalist flat planes.

The idea is branched/bifurcated into three types of facade elements:
The first type is a module similar to the original out of anodized aluminium or composite with anodized aluminium;
The second type is a flat module, but with seams that make it similar to the recognizable original three-dimensional module;
The third type is a flat module, the outline of which refers to the existing module and its mutual placement in the form of a shifted pattern on the planes of the facades.

The elements are distributed in the following percentage to the total number of elements of the new building facades as 5%, 25%, and 70%, respectively. As a result, a proposed facade clearly traces the transition from the original building to the new one that is minimalistic in its decoration through a recognizable unit and its stylization and simplification up to a planar tiling.

It is proposed to perform the space between the two volumes by installing multiple-glazed windows without an external profile to achieve maximum minimalism. The scheme of multiple-glazed windows placement, according to the proposal, should follow the scheme of units’ arrangement on the facade of the Dytiachyi Svit, on an enlarged scale.

The inclusive ramp leads to a small cosy patio surrounded on three sides by existing and designed buildings and a weightless transition between them, in the centre of which is an art installation that reincarnates the modernist module of the Dytiachyi Svit in complex geometric metamorphoses. The ground floor is proposed to be made in total glazing.

First, like the existing building, the detachment of the first floor from the rest of the facade. Secondly, to achieve showcase and maximum interest of passers-by and diversify the street space, tributing the modern approach to designing and planning cities, based on pedestrians and their needs, inviting people by making open, transparent, attractive, engaging, illuminated facades with the ability to look inside. Source by Aranchii Architects.

  • Location: 3 Malyshka st., Kyiv, Ukraine
  • Architect: Aranchii Architects
  • Design: Dmytro Aranchii
  • Project Team: Vladlena Volhushyna, Anna Sotnyk, Mykyta Soldatkyn, Vladyslav Tsykal
  • Programme: Concept of Dytiachyi Svit [Kids World] 2nd building’s facades that coexists with preserved existing modernist facades
  • Status: 1st prize Competition
  • Area: Total building area appx. 50 000 m2
  • Year: 2021
  • Images: Courtesy of Aranchii Architects