About
I don't just design spaces. I understand the businesses that live inside them.
25 years between restaurants, architecture, technology and people.
Andrei YafimenkaFounder of 3dna.es
02 Behind 3DNA
I'm Andrei Yafimenka, founder of 3dna.es.
For 25 years I have worked in the restaurant industry. And if there is one thing I have learned in all that time, it is that a restaurant is never simply a place where food is served.
It is a system in which architecture, technology, people, processes, marketing and economics live together.
Designing that system takes far more than choosing materials, colours or furniture.
It takes understanding how a business works.
03 Origins and education
A story that began long before 3DNA
I was born in Belarus, where I spent the first nine years of my life. Then I moved to Ukraine, the country where I grew up, studied and built much of my professional career.
I studied Business Economics at the National University of Food Technologies in Kyiv and continued my training in industrial construction at the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture.
Over time I discovered that economics, engineering and design had much more in common than it seemed.
All of these disciplines try to answer the same question:
How do you make something work better?
That question became the common thread of my career.
04 25 years in restaurants
25 years inside the restaurant business
25 years inside the business. Not just behind the drawings.
My experience in restaurants has never been limited to interior design.
I have worked with restaurants, cafés, bars and restaurant chains from different angles: concept development, technology planning, design, engineering, marketing and the organisation of commercial spaces.
I have also taken part in the development and growth of restaurant chains, and in processes related to their expansion and preparation for franchising.
That let me know the business from the inside.
- 01Understanding how a kitchen works during service.
- 02How staff relate to the space.
- 03How the layout affects productivity.
- 04How the atmosphere shapes the customer experience.
- 05And how every design decision can have economic consequences.
A restaurant can be visually spectacular and, at the same time, work badly.
That is why my approach always starts with one question:
Will this space work for people and for the business?
05 Psychology of spaces
The psychology behind spaces
I have always been interested in the relationship between people and the places they inhabit.
- Why do we want to stay for hours in some restaurants?
- Why do certain spaces earn our trust from the very first moment?
- Why can a small change in lighting, circulation or layout completely transform an experience?
These questions led me to take a growing interest in marketing, the psychology of perception, consumer behaviour and business economics.
Today I believe a good commercial space has to balance three dimensions: people, experience and business results.
- People
Who lives the space: customers and teams, their routes, their comfort and what they feel.
- Experience
What the place conveys: atmosphere, light, circulation and trust from the first moment.
- Business
What the space has to sustain: productivity, service, costs and results.
Design begins long before the first drawing. It begins when we understand people.
06 International experience
From Ukraine to the world
United StatesCanadaQatarSpain
My career led me to work with clients and teams from different countries, including the United States, Canada and Qatar.
Working internationally taught me that cultures, markets and expectations may differ, but good ideas share something fundamental: they must answer real needs.
Today I live in southern Spain, on the coast of Granada, by the Alboran Sea.
I work on international projects and speak Russian, Ukrainian, English and Spanish.
07 Technology and innovation
When architecture meets technology
Over the years, my curiosity led me to explore new tools.
3D modelling, architectural visualization, interactive walkthroughs, virtual environments, programming and, more recently, artificial intelligence.
I am especially interested in how these technologies can transform the design process.
It is not only about creating attractive images.
It is about exploring ideas faster, studying spaces before they are built, communicating decisions better and shortening the distance between an idea and its realisation.
Technology does not replace experience. It amplifies it.
08 Funding Matters and ishare.ca
Innovation and international collaboration
I also collaborate with the Canadian organisation Funding Matters and am part of the development team behind the ishare.ca platform, which works on technology solutions for philanthropy.
I am also named as one of four co-inventors on a patent application for a method and system that matches giving opportunities with individualised, tax-efficient strategies.
This experience has let me take part in projects where technology, economics, visualization and social innovation come together.
09 Why 3DNA exists
How 3DNA was born
3DNA is the result of this whole journey.
- Economics taught me to understand businesses.
- Engineering taught me to understand systems.
- Architecture taught me to think in space.
- Marketing and psychology helped me understand people.
- And technology opened new ways to connect all these disciplines.
Today I apply this experience to commercial design, restaurants, fitness spaces, 3D visualization and the development of digital solutions.
I don't believe design is simply about making something beautiful. I believe it has to solve problems, improve experiences and bring real value.
10 Personal
A little more personal
After many years in Ukraine, life brought me to southern Spain.
Today I live by the Alboran Sea, on the coast of Granada.
I am the father of two children and share my everyday life with a dog and a parrot.
I love the sea, architecture, good food and conversations that begin with a question and end up becoming a new idea.
I keep learning, exploring technologies and looking for new ways of doing things.
And after 25 years in the restaurant industry, starting a new project still excites me.
3DNA is not simply my company. It is the result of my experience, my curiosity and the way I look at the world.
Andrei Yafimenka
Founder of 3dna.es
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