YOD group suspends sycamore tree in hotel atrium in ukraine

grand emily hotel by yod group

Part of the Emily Resort in Lviv, Ukraine, YOD Group has completed the Grand Emily Hotel with a striking atrium interior that reflects the surrounding landscape in what the architects call ‘terroir design’. Rejecting the traditional concept of a luxury, centerpiece chandelier in hotel design, YOD Group opts for a large-scale light installation of a sycamore tree which suspends from the multi-level ceiling above visitors in the lobby and exudes a warm glow. Evoking the textures and tones of the hotel’s local nature, the atrium is finished with a warm and natural color palette, expressed in the raw textures of the wood, wool and leather surfaces and furnishings.

all images by Yevhenii Avramenko

an atrium rooted in nature

In a natural expression of simplicity and appreciation for nature, Grand Emily Hotel’s interior avoids excessive adornment. Instead, the Ukraine-based architects incorporate various unique elements in the form of surfaces and furnishings, that naturally appear as defining focal points of the design and space. In place of a grand, luxurious chandelier typically found in hotels, YOD Group favors a meaningful large-scale installation for an atrium rooted in nature. Uniting earth and space, the sycamore tree light installation symbolizes not only nature, but also the connection with roots and family values, growth, and development.

The tree has been carefully cleaned, dried, and stabilized before being hung in place, and the shape was scanned in a 3D format to visualize the exact shape. Permeating five stories, visitors are offered five distinct viewpoints of the sycamore tree from the different floors of the hotel. Hotel guests can also lay on a round leather pouf in the hall and engage in a unique emotional experience of contemplating the tree from under its roots.

The installation’s organic silhouette creates a calming contrast with the rhythmic geometry of the space, including the horizontal lines of the floors, vertical lines of the wall boards, and diagonals of the metal banisters on the stairs. Its tone and textures are reflected seamlessly throughout the natural surfaces and furnishings of the atrium, rooting the atrium design in is natural context. ‘We aimed to get the visual lightness and tell the story about the morning breeze that passes on the lake surface and combs the reeds’, comment the architects. This imagery and emotion is conveyed in the structure of the textured boards that clad the walls of the hall. Each board is fixed into a movable groove, and the pattern of the walls can be altered by moving the first board in the row.

evoking the textures and tones of the hotel’s local nature, the atrium is finished with a warm, natural color palette

a warm, natural interior embodies the lviv landscape

The central hall with the atrium extends to merge into the lounge zone, where there are two notional patios — square zones — recessed into the floor, with leather couches encircling a column protecting a fireplace. Following the principles of organic architecture helmed by Frank LLoyd Wright, the architects at YOD Group conceive an interior that is relevant to and rooted in its natural context, with an approach they refer to as ‘terroir design’. Utilizing a warm, light and natural color palette, honest materiality, and textured surfaces, the interior of Grand Emily Hotel reflects the local nature and landscape of Lviv.

‘We borrow the term from the wine industry. The terroir stands for the complex of environmental factors that affect a wine’s unique character. It would have a different character if this certain vine had grown in a different place. It is totally like that with our design. It reflects a local context and is relevant only where it was grown. Such interiors resonate with the surroundings and extend it. A person feels relaxed and natural in such a place as they are also the element of an entire structure’, comments Volodymyr Nepiyvoda, founder of YOD Group.

YOD Group’s Grand Emily Hotel is part of the Emily Resort in Lviv, Ukraine