“The clients wanted a cosy space that felt more like a large, bright apartment than an office,” explains Yuliya Tkachenko, architect and co-founder of ater.architects. High ceilings, generous daylight, and the building’s original masonry provided a compelling starting point, prompting the architects to preserve the structure’s character while introducing a series of carefully calibrated contemporary insertions.

A muted palette of whites and creams runs throughout the office, softening exposed masonry walls and steel beam-and-deck ceilings, all painted white to diffuse light and reduce visual noise. Natural wood surfaces introduce warmth, while stainless steel and brushed aluminium elements appear as sculptural accents rather than industrial gestures. Acting like a type of connective tissue, mid-century vintage furniture serves to bridge the building’s century-old shell with contemporary interventions. As Tkachenko notes, “Vintage furniture helped us create the atmosphere of an apartment with history which the client wanted.”

Upon entering through a deliberately understated wooden door, sourced to echo the building’s past,  the entrance hall is lined with oak panelling, lending the space a quietly formal air that recalls more traditional offices. This sense of restraint however is immediately offset by a stainless-steel reception desk with an asymmetrical profile, set against restored ceiling mouldings and decorative friezes uncovered during the demolition phase.

The first and largest room functions as the office’s social and creative heart. Devoid of desks or screens, it feels closer to a living room than a workplace, with a series of seating arrangements, ranging from lounge corners to round tables, supporting informal meetings and collaborative discussions. A long, custom-made communal table paired with bent plywood chairs from the late 1980s anchors the space, while low storage units discreetly delineate smaller zones. At one end, a raised podium that can be closed off with heavy fabric curtains, doubles as a stage allowing the room to shift effortlessly between workspace, presentations, and events.

A handpicked selection of mid-century pieces sourced from across Europe, including a leather sofa and armchairs by Eugen Schmidt for Soloform from the 1970s, lends the room a sense of timeless elegance, while contemporary artworks introduce a note of irony and visual punctuation, reinforcing the agency’s playful yet thoughtful approach.

The third room is organised around a large worktable and functions as the office’s workshop. “One of the team’s special requests was to have a place for practical work and creative exploration,” says Oleksandr Ivasiv, co-founder of ater.architects. A wall lined with brushed aluminium pegboards provides a flexible system for storing tools, materials, and prototypes, while a bespoke light pendant assembled from three IKEA lamps further underscores the scheme’s hands-on, experimental character

Within the same space, a second wood-clad volume contains meeting rooms and Zoom booths, their rounded glass panels recalling the doors of Kyiv’s historic trams. Above, a mezzanine hosts the aptly named Cloud Lounge: accessed via a pool-style ladder, the space is devoid of furnishings, its floors and low walls fully upholstered in sky-patterned surfaces offering employees a place to recline, reset, and momentarily change perspective.

More than a workplace, Banda Agency’s office operates as an extension of the agency’s creative ethos. By treating space as a framework for ideas rather than a container for desks, ater.architects have crafted an interior that feels both deeply rooted and quietly forward-looking in a setting where history, creativity and contemporary work culture harmoniously coexist.