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Architects: balbek bureau
- Area: 793 m²
- Year: 2021
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Photographs:Maryan Beresh
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Lead Architects: Slava Balbek, Daria Ovechenko, Nata Kurylenko, Iryna Holovata, Sasha Martyniuk, Anastasiia Romaniv
Text description provided by the architects. The building on Khreshchatyk was constructed in 1849 as a postal station. Later, one of the first Ukrainian television studios started operating here, but it burned down in the 1990s. Two floors of the building were allocated for the future newsroom. The main hall is very tall, with ceilings reaching 9 meters, sometimes preserving soot from the fire. This large dark space had an impressive appearance and became the basis for the future concept.
Challenges. The main challenge for us was the unconventional functionality of the newsroom: we were working with the design of a television channel and news service premises for the first time. The client's technical task looked like a description of the team and their positions. The planning was developed according to their needs and functional requirements. The Suspilne news team comprises about 70 specialists who work in shifts and around the clock. Therefore, the design of workspaces was built on the hot-desk principle – each employee can take any desk as needed. Since team members are asked not to leave their personal belongings on the tables during non-working hours, lockers were provided for everyone working at hot desks.
The project's demand for acoustics and sound insulation was natural and significantly influenced the choice of materials. The design of each room was developed after consultations with an acoustics specialist – walls and floors should not reflect sound. It was also necessary to work carefully with colors and patterns, as certain frequencies or patterns may cause flickering during video shooting. The lighting on location was also adjusted for on-camera work to prevent flickering. A challenging aspect of planning was the server room: since the news must continue even during power outages, the space for it had to be very large and accommodate uninterruptible power supplies and other equipment. The process of installing communications and networks was done with a specialist, and the design also included easy access to all cables through the installation of access floors and ceilings.
Concept. The basis of the concept became the newsroom itself as the central hub for news gathering. The clients wanted to see a studio where, in addition to the host presenting the news, viewers could observe the work of the editors and journalists in the background. The audience should feel like they are at the epicenter of events, similar to the atmosphere on stock exchanges. The point of attraction in the design became a cube, in which we placed the television studio: it gathers and consolidates all work processes, and life revolves around it. In front of the studio is the so-called news-generating area – an open workspace where news is prepared for broadcast. According to our concept, it should be visible behind the host's back, so we elevated the cube studio relative to the rest of the space. Overall, the design is concise, balancing the visual noise from a large amount of equipment and people.
Interior. At the entrance to NewsHouse, visitors are greeted by a waiting area. Since castings and shootings occur here, it was intended to be quite spacious. Next to it are the dressing room, makeup room, and restrooms, all enclosed in a black cube. This is one of the areas where we applied the technique of inversion: the interior of the rooms within the black cube is designed in light tones, while beyond the white walls, it is the opposite, with dark tones. The entire first level of the space is dedicated to the work of journalists and reporters. Here is the entrance to the control room that manages the studio processes – the workplace for specialists in cameras, sound, and lighting. Among all the studio’s custom-made tables, the control room tables have the most complex technical solution: non-standard dimensions, extensions for specific equipment, and channels for cables.
The studio within the cube creates the effect of a room within a room – or a large aquarium that is always interesting to observe from the outside. The metal structure of the cube is covered with drywall, which, in turn, is finished with micro cement. The height of the cube is 3.8 meters, with a large part occupied by trusses to which cameras, technical equipment, and projectors are attached. The design of the area where the hosts are located was entrusted to specialists brought in by the client. The typical approach for news studios involves a highly dynamic, colorful background. Conversely, we aimed to make it minimalist and neutral, directing attention to the presenter.
Therefore, the interior of the cube itself is light gray, and the background behind the host – meaning the open space visible through glass – is dark, except for the light tables of the journalists. To prevent the frame from appearing black and white, we introduced color accents. For example, the floor on the first level of the open space is adorned with blue linoleum, and the glass cube on the second level is made of glass with a blue film. Simultaneously, we intentionally gave the floor of the second level, which is not captured in the frame, a warmer color.
In the open space, we covered the walls with textured and matte acoustic panels. In contrast, we decorated the ceiling of the first and second levels with metal perforated panels and rails, where the necessary color reflections from monitors, TVs, and lights are well visible. All ventilation is concealed behind the suspended ceiling. The ceiling above the cube was finished with exposed concrete. The premises of NewsHouse were intended to accommodate a large team of the Suspilne, so there was a pressing need for adequate space. The solution was a mezzanine above the open space, which not only allowed us to place the necessary workspaces for the administrative block but also added a spacious multilevel newsroom.
Stand-ups with a journalist can be filmed here if needed: the view of the cube and open space serves as an interesting backdrop. To zone the space for the comfortable work of different specialists without visually overloading it, we placed another glass cube on the mezzanine, which combines two editing rooms and two Skype rooms. Through this cube, we access other rooms, namely the conference room and a state-of-the-art radio studio – where cameras also work to record hosts for podcasts. The glass partitions of the radio studio also serve as a source of natural light from adjacent rooms. A large high table, around which guests and the host sit, is decorated with a bar planting. Its thick legs serve as channels for laying cables.
