SALON: The principle of minimalism - what exactly is it manifested in?

- First of all, in the deliberate limitation of artistic means, narrowing their spectrum. The color scheme is actually reduced to the contrast of black and golden ocher (from the brightest shades of it to the inclusions of "pure gold"). The graphic ornament of wallpapers (black leaves on a gold background) and its combination with large planes of local color became the main decorative motifs. As for the organization of space, there is also a dominant theme here - the introduction of a hyper-scale.

S: What is meant by this?

- Enlargement of all forms in comparison with the usual norms, their hypertrophy. Within a relatively small space of an apartment, this gives an unexpected effect, introduces expression.

S: Tell us what means you have achieved hyper-scale.

- A simple physical increase in some elements, such as entrance openings (their height is 2.8 meters instead of the usual two). Placing in the interiors of large mirrors (already at the entrance you are met by a mirror with a height of more than three meters). Carpets were picked up with a large pattern. The floor covering used a wide floorboard. By the way, in some rooms (office and bedroom), its scale is additionally accentuated by contrasting stripes - black on a light wood and white on a dark brown wenge.

Also by combining individual forms into large blocks. Thus, almost the entire kitchen is solved in one color and is perceived as a solid black-lacquer monolith. Another example: in the zone of a staircase, decorative wallpaper moves from the walls to the ceiling, visually combining spatial elements. There is no longer any crushing into horizontal and vertical planes, carried and carrying parts - everything is one.

S: But this integrity does not exclude nuances, details ...

- Yes. In any case, in relation to the color gamut. Thanks to the materials color behaves differently. The same black is the deep color of the velvety wallpaper, the color of the shiny, reflective surfaces of kitchen panels, and the color of the tinted glass of the partitions, which let light through.

S: Light also plays a significant role in the perception of space?

- Of course. In this apartment we used this, I would say, theatrical lighting scheme. There is no direct, "simple" light anywhere. There are small turning lights, giving very narrow, locally directed beams. There are darkened floor lamps, which shine only upwards, and table lamps, which direct the light downwards. The chandelier can work in the mode of diffused, flickering light (like a smoldering fire in the fireplace). Spotlights stripes and spots snatched fragments of space, accent individual parts ...

S: By the way, about the details. Attract attention paintings and sculptures. They were selected specifically for this project?

- Half a year before work began on this interior, being at the personal exhibition of the famous artist Olga Domanova, I noticed two of her paintings, which I suggested to the client. They served as the starting point for creating the interior. A sculpture in the interior was originally planned, but I could not find it for a long time and only at the last moment I found it in the catalog of a Prague exhibition (an interesting sample of cubofuturism).

S: How would you define this style?

- The main theme of this project is the combination of minimalism with expressive decor. So it turns out - expressive minimalism, more precisely, and can not be said.

Александр Кратович: “This apartment is located in an elite building in the center of Minsk. However, its original layout looked more like Khrushchev’s apartments with small rooms and curved corridors than modern housing. We completely redid the space, visually increased its scale, introduced an energetic decorative theme. As a result, the apartment changed to unrecognizability, has become a functional, modern and beautiful space "