Header: Mykhailo Lukashuk
Ukrainian furniture brand Kint and wool product manufacturer Gushka have introduced their first joint project—a limited series of chairs called Puffa M4 Stranded and Puffa M4 Brushed. This partnership, which started in 2024, combines modern design elements with traditional Ukrainian craftsmanship, mixing each brand’s approach to design to achieve a piece that transposes history into modern times.
The official launch of the Kint x Gushka collaboration took place on August 22 in Kyiv, during DVRZ Design Days, an event focused on modern Ukrainian design. The chairs were presented at the Panoptikum gallery in the functional art section, which Belgian gallery owner and collector Jean-François Declercq curated.
“We see how contemporary design and new technologies can work alongside traditional techniques and crafts. This project reflects a merging of our two worlds, allowing us to extend the life of traditions while finding new forms and giving them space to evolve.”
Daryna Lukanyuk, co-founder of Gushka
The centerpiece of this collaboration is the Puffa M4 armchair, part of Kint’s Puffa collection created by Rostyslav Sorokovyi, a Ukrainian interior and industrial designer and founder of the design studio MUDU. Sorokovyi says, “Puffa combined with Gushka is a reinterpretation of a commercial product into something unique and collectible, blending traditional weaving techniques with minimalist design.”
The distinctive shapes of the Puffa chair are reimagined, revealing the character of the piece through a material traditional to Ukraine—natural wool, specifically eco-friendly Carpathian wool from free-range sheep used by GUSHKA. To make the best out of culture and material, the two versions of the chair, the Puffa M4 Stranded, and the Puffa M4 Brushed, use different traditional techniques to shape the upholstery. The stranded technique involves layering wool strands smoothly, creating a visually more voluminous appearance. In contrast, the brushed technique is achieved by hand-brushing in the traditional smooth style.
Max Voytenko, creative director of Kint, notes that the collection reflects a growing sense of national identity in modern Ukrainian design. Only 100 units of each model will be produced, each tagged with a unique serial number and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity, making these chairs a must for any collector inspired by traditional Eastern European craftsmanship.
