Project name: IYKYK smashburger
Design firm: DA Bureau
Project team: Boris Lvovsky, Fedor Goreglyad, Irina Oleynikova, Olga Naumova
Design excutive team: Anna Lvovskaia, Boris Lvovskiy, Fedor Goreglyad, Maria Romanova
Assisting team: Yulia Grigorieva, Alena Goreglad
Project manager: Daria Belova
Location: Erevan, Armenia
Photo: Sona Manukyan
Area: 100m2
Year: 2024
Project description from design firms
IYKYK (If You Know You Know) – the first smash burger joint in Yerevan. For this project, we didn’t just design the interior – we also developed the brand’s design code, which will serve as the foundation for all future branches of the chain.
The IYKYK design code is built on a mix of:
• 1980s American street style – the vibe of the fast-food heyday and street culture is conveyed through details referencing American burger joints and retro food trucks.
• Bold modular objects, custom-made for the project, which will form the backbone of all interiors across the chain and make the brand’s image unique and recognisable.
• The signature orange brand colour, which pulls the whole burger joint’s image together into a cohesive system.
At the heart of the interior is a modular counter made up of ‘inflated’ flattened volumes. These forms reference a metallic retro food truck from the streets of Los Angeles.
This ‘puffy’ orange volume has also become a signature feature of the main façade. In doing so, we’ve made the project cohesive and hard to miss within the urban context.
IYKYK
Alongside the eye-catching façade and the striking modular counter, the brand is further reinforced by an LED display above the order area, a branded Instagram-friendly loo zone, a custom merchandise cabinet, and an illuminated sign installed on the open terrace.
The free-spirited atmosphere of 80s America comes through in the details. Instead of a standard burger joint LED screen showing adverts, we created an LED display in the style of American retro burger joints, featuring the menu items. And in the loo, we installed a rotary-dial phone, just like the kind you’d find at a petrol station somewhere on the outskirts of Los Angeles.
The overall laid-back vibe of the burger joint hits you straightaway, thanks to the open terrace that welcomes guests as they arrive. All the seating faces inwards, inviting everyone to become part of the friendly IYKYK community.
AXONOMETRY
Custom solutions
The counter modules were made using a bespoke technique.
Inside each module is a rigid load-bearing frame, onto which the main volume – made of high-density expanded polystyrene or XPS – is mounted. The polystyrene blocks are glued together to form a single solid block to the required dimensions. The blank is then trimmed and sanded either by hand or via CNC until the shape achieves the desired curvature. To create the outer shell, a reinforcing layer of fibreglass mat or cloth with resin is applied over the polystyrene. This fibreglass shell creates a tough, durable external surface that can stand up to heavy use. The form is then coated with a hard-wearing orange paint or enamel.
Another key bespoke feature in this project is the ceiling design system. We left all the mechanical ventilation exposed and installed a transparent suspended structure made from Perspex, painted in the brand colour. For this structure, we specially developed neat, arched fixings.
Alongside spotlights, we also installed a bespoke track lighting system made from custom LED tubes, mounted on climbing cables. This allows for even illumination across the whole venue and creates lighting scenarios suitable for daytime – when guests are relaxing at the burger joint with children and friends – and for the evening, when the place becomes a hotspot for the city’s cool crowd.
