A world champion aircraft pilot, men’s jewelry designer, and filmmaker on an upcoming movie documenting the heroics of the Ukrainian Army Aviation, Tim Fatkullin and his crew, AEROTIM, do a lot. The team required a facility for their work, including a place to maintain aircrafts. The pilot tapped Ukraine-based designers +kouple for the hangar and office. Using the industrial spirit of the site, the designers use a minimal palette and precise build-outs to riff on and elevate aviation design.
The 1,312-square-foot (400-square-meter) facility houses the full-height hangar hall with maintenance and storage space on the first level and the crew space, kitchen, office, locker, and beds on the second level. A gate of zinc sheets, the main entry into the hangar, visually designates the first level while a line of polycarbonate panels tops the metal to lighten the facade and provide daylight into the hangar.
Within, the design exposes the structure. Steel trusses, corrugated metal roofing, and visible technical air-duct and engineering systems are on display, lined and emphasized with linear LED lighting. It’s mounted on the steel framing, highlighting the industrial spirit of the typology.
The walls are enclosed with cement bonded particle board, offering the durability required of the space and continuing the design’s embrace of the industrial. The board’s grain and texture create a rawness while visible joints taie after aircraft fuselage rivet-fastening techniques. The boards also make up the doors, tables, and shelving. “The overall design language remains deliberately restrained, relying on exposed surfaces, honest materials, and precise detailing to create a mature, disciplined environment suited to pre- and post-flight routines,” said Dan Vakhrameyeva, +kouple’s creative director.
Upstairs, a mix of warm and sleek materials define space. The crew spaces are housed within a single, frameless glass facade to provide crucial views down onto the aircraft interactions. The main space doubles as a place to relax and hold meeting. A central table with vintage reddish brown chairs anchor the main area. Around it, contemporary ProPro sofas provide relaxed seating amid a minimal speaker system and wooden record holder.
Behind the central table more warm wood takes over. The kitchen is clad in the same wood, including its grain pattern. The natural material provides a soft departure from the first floor, designating the second level’s social function while continuing the particle board’s raw detailing.
The crew area also houses a compact office beyond the central meeting room, a locker, bathroom, and place to sleep. In the bathroom, the material makes a sharp contrast to glossy metal. The vanity, sink, and shower are all built with stainless steel. The shower, too, is designed with exposed elements in mind; a transparent glass window connects the shower to the hangar down below, continuing views down below.
Unique furnishings offer a sense of discovery even within the minimal interiors. The design includes the Taitō poufs in bright blue, designed by +kouple as part of the Design National Berlin exhibition. A luminaire was also made on-site using aluminum wall-profile offcuts. It falls alongside the Block Lamp, a collaboration with Stefan Gant that stems from a concrete block which has taken on the role of defense in the wake of Russia’s attacks on Ukraine. The industrial material sits right at home in this center for Ukrainian aerobatics.