Victoria Yakusha’s Radical Softness: Memory and Material Repair

Ukrainian designer Victoria Yakusha, based in Kyiv, develops a design language rooted in Radical Softness, emphasizing tactility and preservation through making. Her practice spans architecture, interiors, furniture, and installations, unified by a consistent material palette of clay, straw, linen, wood, and recycled fibers. Surfaces retain grain, density, and irregularity, with visible traces of touch and labor. Yakusha describes her philosophy as 'live design,' where spaces and objects remain tied to their environments and cultural histories. Her FAINA collection features furniture resembling geological or archaeological fragments, hand-finished with natural compounds. A key material is ztista, an experimental compound of clay, straw, wood chips, cellulose, and recycled paper, used for its matte, earth-heavy appearance and low-impact fabrication. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, her work has taken on added significance as cultural preservation and collective endurance, with materials acting as carriers of identity through craft traditions. Projects include the Vhory Interior in the Carpathian Region (2022), Unit Space B15 Hall in Kyiv (2023), and a Yakusha Studio space in Miami, Florida (2025).