Collection: Drevo
Drevo — meaning “tree” in Ukrainian — is a collection of engraved steel panels by architect and artist Victoria Yakusha, created as a tribute to one of the most powerful and timeless symbols in Ukrainian culture: the Tree of Life (Drevo zhyttia).
The collection connects heritage with contemporary design — a visual and emotional bridge between generations. Each handcrafted panel is both an artwork and a story, embodying the soul of Ukrainian ornamentation while fitting seamlessly into modern interiors.
The Meaning Behind Drevo
In Ukrainian tradition, the Tree of Life represents the unity of all living things — the link between earth and sky, ancestors and descendants, the human and the divine. It is a symbol of renewal, continuity, and protection. For centuries, it appeared in embroidery, ceramics, wood carvings, and wall paintings that decorated homes across the country.
The Drevo collection draws from this symbolic language. Every pattern and engraving originates from archival ethnographic drawings collected in the Podillia region of Ukraine. These motifs once adorned the clay walls of rural homes — painted by young women as gestures of care and guardianship. Birds symbolized the spirit and memory; flowers, vitality and rebirth; the tree, continuity and life itself.
Through Drevo, Yakusha reinterprets these fragile gestures in a new material language, transforming and bringing the beauty of Ukrainian folk art into contemporary design. The engraved lines echo the ancestral motion of the hand, each mark preserving an act of creation that once gave breath and protection to the home.
By translating these wall drawings into steel, Yakusha gives them a modern form, one that speaks not only of roots but also of resilience and evolution.
Within the Collection
The Drevo collection includes eighteen unique panels, each engraved by hand and named after a traditional Ukrainian woman’s name — an homage to the generations of unnamed artists who painted and protected their homes with these sacred motifs.
Every piece is distinctive in pattern and character: some delicate and floral, others geometric and powerful. Together, they form a modular language of symbols that can be arranged as a single focal point or composed into larger wall installations.
The panels serve both decorative and functional purposes. As contemporary wall art, they bring texture and depth to residential spaces, galleries, or public interiors. Their reflective steel surfaces capture light and movement, creating an atmosphere that shifts throughout the day. Installed individually, they become intimate works of remembrance; arranged together, they transform walls into architectural statements rooted in heritage.
Each engraved line and pattern reflects the philosophy behind Ukrainian design — one where art, craft, and life coexist in harmony.
Materials and Craftsmanship
At the heart of the collection lies stainless steel — a material chosen for its strength, purity, and timelessness. In Drevo, it becomes a metaphor for endurance: what was once drawn on clay walls now lives in steel, preserving the spirit of protection and renewal.
Each panel is engraved entirely by hand using traditional metalworking tools. This slow, precise process requires mastery and deep focus — every line must be intentional. The craft itself becomes a ritual: repetitive, meditative, and deeply human. No two panels are identical; every surface carries the maker’s touch, transforming an industrial material into something alive.
This handcrafted approach defines the collection’s exclusive and luxurious nature. Rather than mass production, Drevo celebrates individuality — each work is a unique fusion of tradition and contemporary artistry, made in limited numbers by skilled Ukrainian artisans.
Sizes and Applications
Drevo panels are available in various sizes, adaptable to different spaces and compositions.
From smaller, standalone artworks to expansive modular installations, they can shape an environment with both subtlety and presence.
In interior design, the panels become versatile accents — introducing cultural depth to minimalist homes or adding texture and meaning to public spaces, galleries, and hospitality projects. Their polished steel finish interacts beautifully with light, architecture, and natural materials, integrating effortlessly into both modern and timeless settings.
Every piece serves as a dialogue between past and present, where Ukrainian authenticity meets contemporary design language.
Through Drevo, Victoria Yakusha invites us to see design as a living continuum: to honor what was built by hand, to reinterpret it with today’s materials, and to carry it forward as a lasting gesture of beauty and remembrance.
Drevo Collection by Victoria Yakusha — a union of heritage and modernity, ritual and innovation, memory and creation. Each panel holds the strength of steel and the soul of the ancestors, reminding us that even what once lived in clay can continue to grow — in light, in metal, in time.