The location of the legendary gardens of Babylon has not yet been established. It is not even clear whether they actually existed, or whether they are a kind of fata morgana - an oasis looming in the distance, our dream of an ideal place where we can relax and hide.
If, nevertheless, we believe that they were, then even then we will have to choose between two versions of their origin. According to one, the gardens were built by King Nebuchadnezzar II for his wife Amitis. The second says that Semiramis, the queen of Assyria, the wife of King Nina, who killed her husband for the sake of sole power. And she did it delicately - having received from her husband as a gift the right to rule the country for five days, she, without delay, ordered the guards to kill him.
Semiramis ruled the country for 42 years, two centuries before Nebuchadnezzar. Legends say that Semiramis was the daughter of the goddess Derketo, who offended Aphrodite, and she fell in love with her in an ordinary mortal. From this love was born Semiramis. The goddess, seeing her daughter, rushed into the water and turned into a fish, and the baby was fed by pigeons. Starting to rule the country, she ordered to break the very Hanging Gardens of Babylon. They write that they were located on a square platform supported by columns. They spread over several tiers, each of which was so high that there were tree roots under it. They were watered using a mechanism invented by Archimedes with water from the Euphrates.
The gardens had artificial ponds and waterfalls. Botanists, having studied the primary sources, came to the conclusion that quince, pear, olive, almond, dates, pistachios, figs and grapes grew there. There are those historians who doubt in general the fact of the existence of Semiramis. You can endlessly exchange versions and opinions about whether there was a Semiramis and its gardens or not. However, we will take a more rational path - we will accept as an axiom that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were the first terraces known in history.
Obviously, the word "terrace" comes from the Latin word "terra" - earth. They can be seen among the ruins of ancient Greek or Roman temples. However, in those distant times they were not singled out as a separate garden and architectural unit.
Terraces became popular in France in the 18th century. It was then that when planning castles and residences, architects began to create open areas on supports, closely adjacent to the building itself. The terrace connected the living space and the surrounding landscape, became a symbol of the transitional state from the interior to the exterior, in fact, that is why it combines the features and characteristics of both.
There are different types of terraces - with a roof, without and with a partial top cover. There are terraces with or without railings. Terraces located near the house, the pool or apart from them. Over time, terraces began to be designed not only on the first floors of the building. Sometimes the exhausting rhythm of a modern city forces its inhabitants to seek peace of mind and tranquility in nature. You can create your own small oasis of silence on your terrace, even if you live in the city center on the upper floors of a skyscraper.
We invite you to join a short journey through the Hanging Gardens of the design studio Belik. This is a terrace, the interior, which was created by our designers in the house at Kudryavsky Spusk, 3B. We implemented this project for a renovated apartment in Kyiv, located in the central skyscraper of the city. The family that became our client in this project consists of a 51-year-old father, a 45-year-old mother, their 13-year-old son and a cat. We don't know about the cat, but the rest of the family is happy to host guests, for whom we had to plan a pool, dinner table, grill and barbecue. Making design projects and renovating an apartment in Kyiv means being ready for any task.
The chairs that we chose for the lounge area, in addition to a comfortable shape, however, because it resembles the shape of folding chairs for fishermen, has several more names. Connoisseurs call him B.K.F. by the initial letters of the names of the designers who came up with it - Antonio Bonet, Juan Curchan, Jorge Ferrari Hardoy. Sometimes he is simply called Hardoya, after one of them. Most know it as the Butterfly Chair or butterfly chair.
The total area of the terrace is 42.8 square meters. Most of the surface is covered with porcelain tiles from the Spanish factory Almera Ceramica of the Dakota collection, imitating the texture of wood. The tradition of building wooden terraces comes from the early American settlers, who built houses from natural materials with obligatory terraces that served as a kind of lookout points from which they watched the approach of the enemy. We are ready to answer all your questions on the cost of a design project, as well as provide a price list for apartment renovation in Kyiv.
Above the table for leisurely breakfasts, we hung an Oslo lamp, reminiscent of street lamps from the beginning of the last century. The price list for our services includes, among other things, a selection of furniture and lighting for our projects. In addition, we will help you with the implementation of the project. Our staff will explain what includes cosmetic renovation of apartments in Kyiv, renovation of apartments in Kyiv, turnkey apartment renovation.
You and I can only fantasize what kind of view opened from the plateau of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. One thing is clear, Babylon, if the gardens were located there, was a very active city. We remember that the expression "Babylonian pandemonium" came from there. Kyiv, perhaps, does not claim to be the modern Babylon. However, life in it does not subside day or night. And the owners will watch this life from the terrace, from where a stunning panorama of the city opens.
We understood that the view is one of the unique characteristics of the entire apartment and developed the terrace project in such a way as to preserve it, especially since this was one of the tasks of the apartment owners.
On the parapets, we installed street lamps from the Polish factory Nowodvorski, matching them with the Fiumicino model from the Ukrainian factory Eglo.
We proposed to glaze a third of the entire area of the terrace, organizing a canopy over the kitchen area, bar, and the second lounge area. In the same part of the terrace there is a bathroom with a shower. It is separated from the open part by two sliding doors, each 1200 meters long. In summer, they open, connecting all parts of the terrace.
To cover the kitchen and bar area, we offered textured porcelain tiles from another Spanish factory, Azteca, the Sweethome collection. She has the most popular size at the moment - 600 by 600 millimeters. It has the fourth degree of wear resistance and frost resistance. All these characteristics are important when creating interiors of open spaces.
All fixtures have a high IP index, which means moisture and dust resistance.
The spectacular wall of malachite hexagons is the product of the creativity of our designers and the Spanish factory Porcelanosa, who created the Onix Hex XL collection.
We combined green and white hexagons from the Porcelanosa factory, creating for them a spectacular backdrop of Almera Ceramica porcelain stoneware, imitating natural wood.
The basic rule of doctors is: “Do no harm!” We can say that doctors and designers are in solidarity with this. When we start working on an object with stunning views, the main thing is not to spoil them, but to organize the space so that there are as many opportunities as possible to observe enchanting views. In this case, we placed a bar counter and a barbecue along the fence, turned the lounge area to face the city - making Kyiv an integral part of the terrace interior.
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