Youri Kravtchenko

Youri Kravtchenko is a Swiss architect, a studio critic at HEAD – Genève, and the principal at YKRA, a Geneva-based architecture and interior design office influenced by the narrative and theatrical dimensions of space, merging nostalgia with pragmatism.

After studying at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, Kravtchenko founded YKRA in 2012. Inspired by the narrativity and theatricality of spaces, his work blends together two complementary dimensions—narration and construction—to design projects that are as scenographic as they are architectural. Over the past decade, Kravtchenko has completed more than 80 projects in Switzerland and throughout Europe.

After winning the SIA Prize for the best MA project in Switzerland in 2011, he was a fellow at the Swiss Institute in Rome in 2016. In 2019, he was simultaneously nominated for the Swiss Art and Swiss Design Awards. In the same year, Kravtchenko co-curated the Scènes de Nuit exhibition at f’ar Lausanne, starting off the eponymous research project he currently co-leads at HEAD – Genève.

Studio Critic