In Moscow, SAGA designs OKN, short for "Объект культурного наследия", framing modern Russian cooking through gold leaf, plaster and reclaimed timber.
SAGA composes the rooms as a sequence of contrasts. Plain plaster walls in warm putty grey carry candlelit linen and a long ash table. Across from it, gold-leaf panels line the booth banquettes. Reclaimed timber meets polished marble. The interior rhythm comes from these juxtapositions, restraint pressed against opulence, not from ornament.
ОКН is Russian shorthand for Объект культурного наследия, a classification given to buildings registered for heritage protection. The restaurant takes the name as both reference and brief. Chef Vasily Dolmatov serves a contemporary reading of Russian cuisine; pastry sits with Irina Leochko. The kitchen, the architecture and the art share a single editorial line, a modern look back at avant-garde and constructivist ideas, told through materials Russian houses hold onto.
Furniture and art objects are made with Futura Workshop, the Moscow workshop, in collaboration with artist Matvey Shapiro. The pieces sit through the space as encounters rather than display: a vessel on a shelf, a chair against a panelled wall, an inserted artwork in a passageway. The collaboration extends the editorial frame, avant-garde forms in dialogue with Russian craft.
The restaurant is read room by room. Each turn surfaces a new material register: plaster to gold, timber to marble, light to shadow. The architecture frames both the meal and the work Moscow is making now.
