Nataliia Melnyk, Serhii Zholob & Oleksandr Melnyk

At NKEY Architects, we considered this project especially important because of both the complexity of the client’s request and the level of execution required to deliver it fully turnkey. It was a project that demanded not only strong creative vision but also deep strategic thinking, functionality, and attention to detail at every stage. Our team felt that the final result truly reflected our philosophy and professional standards, which inspired us to submit it for the NY Architectural & Interior Design Awards.

One of the main challenges of this project was that our client was an investment company planning to sell the property after completion. This meant the interior concept needed to appeal to a wide range of potential buyers with completely different lifestyles, tastes, and expectations. Our goal was to create a timeless, emotionally engaging, and highly adaptable environment that could resonate equally with a young professional, a couple, or a family with children. The team conducted extensive research into contemporary residential trends, human behavior, ergonomics, and buyer psychology in order to develop a design language that feels sophisticated yet universal. The final concept balances warmth, functionality, and understated luxury, creating a space that feels personal without being overly specific to one type of resident.

The founder and Creative Director of NKEY Architects, Natalia Melnik, believes her journey into design began in childhood. From a very young age, she was deeply attentive to details, constantly drawing, rearranging furniture, and reimagining spaces in her room from the age of five. Interestingly, her first professional education was in international relations, and she was originally preparing for a diplomatic career. However, after designing and renovating her own apartment, and later her house, she realized how strongly design influenced people emotionally and psychologically. Friends and acquaintances began seeking her advice, inspired by the ergonomics and atmosphere she created in her spaces. That experience ultimately led Natalia to pursue professional design education and later establish NKEY Architects — a studio built around the idea that interiors should reflect the individuality and inner world of each client.

For over 10 years, NKEY Architects has developed its philosophy around one central idea: “Unlock Your Inner Self.” We believe that many people struggle to clearly articulate what they truly want from a space emotionally, aesthetically, and functionally. Our mission is to uncover these unspoken desires and translate them into architecture and interiors that genuinely reflect the personality, lifestyle, and aspirations of the client. For us, design is not only about aesthetics. It is about psychology, emotion, comfort, identity, and creating spaces that people deeply connect with.

The challenge was not so much construction-related as it was connected to the client’s pre-selected materials and suppliers. Before the design phase even began, certain finishes, sanitary ware, and materials had already been purchased and approved. This created a complex task for our team: we needed to integrate existing elements into a cohesive and elevated design concept without compromising the visual identity of the project. In many ways, these limitations pushed us to think more creatively and strategically. As a result, the final interior became even more refined and layered, proving that strong design is not about unlimited freedom, but about the ability to create harmony within real-world constraints.

NKEY Architects is a full-cycle design company, managing projects from initial concept development to final realization. Every project, regardless of scale, is handled by a multidisciplinary team of architects, designers, project managers, and technical specialists. However, we believe the most important stage is the client briefing process. At NKEY, this stage is led by a dedicated brief architect whose role is not only to listen, but to understand even what the client cannot fully express verbally. We believe successful design begins with emotional intelligence and deep communication. From there, the creative team develops the concept, spatial planning, materials, and visual identity of the project, followed by detailed supervision during implementation to ensure the original vision is executed with precision.

Adaptive, emotional and timeless.

The most meaningful feedback always comes from the client. In this case, the client was impressed with the final result that they independently created a YouTube video dedicated to the project and their experience working with our team. Of course, receiving recognition from such a prestigious international award as the NY Architectural & Interior Design Awards is also incredibly meaningful for us. It confirms that our work resonates not only with clients but with the professional design community globally.

Receiving this award represents an important transition to a new professional level for our studio. It is not only recognition of one project, but validation of the philosophy, discipline, and creative standards our team has built over the years. For our designers and architects, it is also a strong source of motivation and inspiration to continue pushing boundaries, taking on more ambitious projects, and competing internationally within the architecture and interior design industry.

This recognition is both an honor and a responsibility. Awards like this increase trust from clients, partners, and developers while also encouraging us to continuously evolve creatively and technically. We believe international recognition opens the door to larger-scale projects, global collaborations, and more experimental architectural ideas that challenge conventional approaches to residential and commercial design.

Currently, we are working on an incredibly ambitious high-rise project located on the islands — two residential towers with complex exterior and interior solutions. This project is especially inspiring because it represents a completely new scale for our studio. High-rise architecture requires a different level of technical coordination, spatial thinking, engineering integration, and lifestyle planning. For us, it is both a challenge and an opportunity to redefine our capabilities as a studio and create architecture that becomes part of a city’s identity.

Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly integrated into the architecture and design industry, and this transformation will continue accelerating over the next decade. At NKEY Architects, we already use AI-driven platforms such as Claude to optimize internal processes, research, communication, documentation, and client briefing systems. However, we intentionally do not use AI to generate final architectural or interior design concepts. Today, professionals can already easily recognize many AI-generated visuals because they often lack contextual thinking, originality, emotional depth, and functional logic. But technology is evolving rapidly, and eventually these differences may become almost invisible. Even so, we strongly believe AI will remain a tool rather than a replacement for architects. True architecture is based on human intuition, cultural understanding, psychology, emotion, and the ability to create meaningful spaces that people genuinely connect with.

We believe the future of sustainable architecture goes far beyond simply using eco-friendly materials. Modern sustainability is becoming increasingly connected to longevity, adaptability, emotional durability, and human wellbeing. At NKEY Architects, we focus on creating timeless interiors and architecture that remain relevant for many years instead of following short-lived trends. We actively integrate natural materials, energy-efficient lighting solutions, smart home technologies, flexible spatial planning, and biophilic design principles that strengthen the connection between people and nature. We also believe that emotionally durable design is one of the most important sustainability trends of the future. When people truly love and emotionally connect with a space, they preserve it longer rather than constantly rebuilding or replacing it.

We would design the international space station of the future — not as a purely technical object, but as a fully human-centered living environment. Most futuristic concepts focus on engineering and functionality, but we would be fascinated by the challenge of creating a space in orbit that people emotionally never want to leave. A place combining architecture, psychology, wellbeing, technology, nature simulation, and adaptive environments to redefine how humans experience life beyond Earth.