Mushrooms feature on and off the menu at this restaurant near Bukovel, Ukraine, in which design studio YOD Group has installed a series of mycelium curtains.

Grybova Hata‘s name translates to “home of mushrooms”, as the vegetable appears frequently in the restaurant’s dishes.

Grybova Hata’s mushroom-heavy menu inspired its interior

This was a key point of inspiration for YOD Group in introducing rounded mushroom-like forms and organic colours, as well as furnishings made from mycelium, often described as the root structure of fungi.

“This architecture organically grew within the existing restaurant space – just as a mushroom grows from its mycelium,” said Volodymyr Nepyyvoda, managing partner at the studio.

“It embodies the ideas of locality and organic development, rethinking traditional materials and celebrating the culinary heritage of the region.”

A screen with bulbous, mushroom-like forms hides a coat rack

Grybova Hata consists of one large room with textured plaster walls and travertine paving.

As customers enter, they pass a coat rack obscured by a white woollen screen embellished with different-sized bulbs that look like the caps of mushrooms.

The restaurant’s three counters each represent a key element of Ukrainian cuisine

The flooplan was loosely divided into three zones, each representing a key element of Ukrainian cuisine: cheese, meat and spirits.

In the spirits zone, bottles of distilled herbs and botanicals are displayed on bulbous travertine plinths that almost resemble toadstools.

In the meat zone, smoked pork legs are hooked to a metal ring on the ceiling; they dangle above a curved travertine counter accompanied by creamy boucle stools.

There’s a similar set-up in the cheese zone, except here the metal ceiling ring is decorated with horse-shaped cheese sculptures that are traditionally offered as gifts in Ukraine.

Organically shaped walls and mycelium curtains help to divide the space

Additional clusters of tables and chairs were placed at the peripheries of the room, separated by mycelium screens. These were created by bio-designer Dasha Tsapenko, who wove together coconut and hemp fibres and then inoculated them with the spores of polypore mushrooms.

It took around three weeks for the spores to germinate and form layers of mycelium. Because this happens at different rates, some screens are more thickly coated than others, making each one unique in appearance.

Server counters are covered with chaga mushrooms

Chaga mushrooms, which typically grow on the trunks of birch trees, also decorate the front of Grybova Hata’s metallic server counters.

Recycled plastic was used in the bathrooms to form a pair of lights that also function as water taps, their fibrous surface texture suggestive of strands of mycelium. They sit above a large, amorphous travertine sink.

Lights in Grybova Hata’s bathrooms mimic the texture of mycelium

YOD Group is behind the design of several other eateries across Ukraine. This includes Terra, where surfaces are clad in terracotta and green glass tiles to complement the restaurant’s rural setting.

There’s also DOT Coffee Station, which features pixelated mosaics across its walls.

The photography is by Andriy Bezuglov. 

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