Kharkiv Architecture Manual Mobile App

The Kharkiv architecture manual is a digital guide to the city, which is famous for its modernist architecture. The application has a handy map with objects indicated on it and gathered into routes complemented by text descriptions and detailed information. Unique author’s audio guides in Ukrainian and English will accompany you during a virtual or real journey. While exploring the architecture of the buildings, you’ll also find rare archival images, recent professional photography, and 3D models that show what these objects were like throughout the 20th century and their current state during the war.

If you’ve been dreaming of visiting Kharkiv for a long time and can’t wait to come to this peaceful Ukrainian city, this app will help you prepare for your journey. You no longer need to look for a guide, book a guided group tour or carry printed guidebooks with you, distracted by searching for the proper addresses in a navigator. The application simplifies the search for the desired objects, giving a clear understanding of where the object is, how to get to it, and how it looks now, taking into account all the historical changes in the urban landscape.

For true architecture lovers, to feel present in the urban environment of the city, there are no limits to the parameters of physical space or time, the cost of tickets, and travel expenses. The architecture manual creates a digital space and allows you to enjoy a walk through the city even if you are hundreds and thousands of kilometers away.

Download the application from the App Store or Play Market.

Find more information on www.kharkiv.archmanual.app.

Organizers: NGO Urban Forms Center in partnership with Brno House of Arts and Brno Architecture Manual with the financial support of House of Europe.

Exhibition "Architecture of Late Socialism in Ukraine and Czechia"

The works of Pavlo Dorohoi from Ukrainian Kharkiv and David Konečný from Czech Brno explore, document and draw parallels between the postmodernist architectural heritage of late Soviet Ukraine and late socialist Czechoslovakia of the 1980s and 1990s. Given the outrageous and unjustified aggression of Russia towards Ukraine today, the preservation of architectural heritage has become an increasingly significant issue not only for Ukrainians but for the entire world.

Working in collaboration with architects Ievgeniia Gubkina and Tomáš Růžička, the photographers selected the most striking examples of late socialist architecture in Ukraine and Brno to be photographed. Through their interpretations of this cultural heritage, visitors are encouraged to discuss and exchange ideas and experiences.

The exhibition reached out to a wide audience in Brno, showcasing the tangible cultural heritage of Ukraine at the end of the 20th century and drawing attention to its value as part of the broader phenomenon of European postmodernism. The event promotes public discussion and intercultural dialogue on the preservation of socialist architectural heritage, memories, experiences of restoration and revitalization of architectural objects in new socio-economic conditions.

Work on the exhibition was started even before the full-scale war in Ukraine. Accordingly, the project acquired a new meaning, because this architecture, no less than medieval churches, baroque and classicist buildings, and modernist residential complexes, is under threat of destruction due to the Russian invasion and relentless shelling of Ukrainian cities. Many of the objects photographed by Pavlo Dorohoi are/were located in the warzone, under occupation or partially destroyed. While Pavlo became the “eyes” of documenting the war staying in his native Kharkiv. The collaboration and intercultural dialogue that took place among Ukrainian and Czech photographers, architects, and cultural managers during the exhibition’s preparation are a vital aspect of the contemporary partnership between Ukraine and the Czech Republic. This partnership is built upon a profound mutual respect for history, culture, and heritage. Despite the ongoing war, the decision to continue with the exhibition’s preparation sends a powerful message. It nis not only about the already historical architecture of the period of the fall of the Soviet empire and the entire Eastern Bloc but also about today’s decolonization of Eastern Europe and the assertion of young, independent states’ subjectivity.

We hope to bring this exhibition to Ukrainian cities in the near future, introducing Czech architecture in the same way we have shared Ukrainian architecture with Czechs and guests of Brno.

The exhibition opened on May 21, 2022, at the Ukrainian Center in Brno and was later displayed at the Faculty of Architecture of the Brno University of Technology in October 2022.

Organizers: Pavlo Dorohoi with the financial support of House of Europe in partnership with Urban Forms Center, Větrné mlýny, Ukrainská iniciativa Jižní Moravy z.s. and the Faculty of Architecture of the Brno University of Technology.

Photos by Kateřina Rusňáková and Volodymyr Paliy

Ukrainian Constructivism

Ukrainian Constructivism is a multimedia project inspired by the phenomenon of constructivist architecture and created at the intersection of contemporary visual art, ballet, electro-folk music, and historical drama. Ukrainian musicians Nata Zhyzhchenko (Onuka) and Yevhen Filatov (the Maneken), Ukrainian-Danish artist and architect Sergei Sviatchenko, Danish choreographer Sebastian Kloborg and Ukrainian architect and researcher of modernism Ievgeniia Gubkina are the authors of a significant digital performance. The language of contemporary art and an experimental festival format will help reveal to the world the complex and extraordinary phenomenon of Ukrainian interwar modernism. The project works in the field of cultural diplomacy, contributing to raising public attention to problems of Ukrainian modernist heritage, the heritage that is a part of the riches of modernist monuments in Europe and the world.

Our project mission is to understand, reveal and protect the architectural heritage of Ukrainian constructivism, making the 20th century visible. Ukrainian constructivism deserves to be included into the UNESCO World Heritage List!

Ukrainian constructivism is not just a trend of international modernism of the 20th century. Ukrainian constructivism reflects an era with its complex history, experimental economics, and controversial politics. But at the same time, Ukrainian constructivism is the brainchild of the creative impulse of tens and hundreds of Ukrainian and European architects who sincerely sought to create a new architecture for the new Ukrainian society. Ukrainian constructivism combined the functions of the New Economic Policy, national communist slogans, regional materials, progressive constructions and unique features of Ukrainian national identity and philosophy. It was distinguished by an unprecedented variability of forms, movements, and modalities, testifying to the pluralism and creative freedom of the architectural sphere. During the Stalinist totalitarian era, progressive constructivism was banned and forcibly replaced by conservative Stalinist socialist realism. Today a substantial layer of architectural constructivism in Ukrainian cities remains unnoticed and misunderstood, and as a result it is decaying and being destroyed.

The script for the digital venture “Ukrainian Constructivism” was written by Ievgeniia Gubkina and a historian Yaroslav Perekhodko and based on a true story. At the heart of the plot are memories of the stay in Kharkiv in the early 1930s of Lotte Beese, a young German female modernist architect from the Bauhaus. It is the interwar period distinguished by its acute contradictions and a series of tragedies for the Ukrainian people. A situation unfolds against a background of the transition from “socialist construction” of the New Economic Policy and national communism to the “forced industrialization” and Stalin’s totalitarianism. A flourishing of avant-garde arts, science, architecture and rise of national self-consciousness, characteristic of the Ukrainian “Roaring Twenties”, ends with a rise of a totalitarian system in the Soviet Union.

Within the project there was also a public festival program including online discussions, roundtable discussions, workshops and an initiatives fair. A British writer and journalist Owen Hatherley, lecturer at the Institute of Political Studies “Sciences Po” in Paris Maxime Forest, researcher of Soviet architecture and curator of the Armenian National Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale Ruben Arevshatyan took part in the discussions. The Initiatives Fair presented local projects that work effectively with heritage of constructivism and interwar modernism in Ukrainian cities and in different regions of the country. In videos initiatives members – Natalia Lobach, Pavlo Kravchuk (Zaporizhzhia), Lina Degtyaryova (Uzhhorod), Anastasia Bozhenko, Olesya Chagovets (Kharkiv), Yuliya Bohdanova (Lviv), Valentyn Starostin (Dnipro), Dmytro Kubanov (Kamianske) – are sharing their stories of relations with modernism and constructivism, they are telling about the objects being special for them; and they are specifying some difficulties they face and their nearest plans. Photos of constructivist objects in Kharkiv, Kyiv and Odesa for the project were taken by Olena Saponova.

The presentation of the project took place on November 12, 2021. Find more information on www.constructivism.world.

Organizers: NGO Urban Forms Center with the financial support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.

Encyclopedia of Ukrainian Architecture

Encyclopedia of Ukrainian Architecture is a multimedia online project that demonstrates the panorama of Ukrainian architecture with the help of various media tools. Curators Ievgeniia Gubkina, Yaroslav Perekhodko, Kateryna Radchenko, as well as guest directors (Dmytro Tyazhlov, Tetiana Kononenko), video makers (Yevhen Chervonyi, Leonid Yezhurov, Vika Haiboniuk), media artists (Mykola Ridnyi, Anastasia Starko, Piotr Armianovski), architects (Arthur Aroian, Vasylysa Shchogoleva, Dasha Tsapenko, Julian Chaplinsky) and more than 40 participants from around the world in their photo and video works, performances, collages analyze how society shapes architecture and how architecture shapes society. The project, created at the intersection of architecture, history, criticism, cinema and visual arts, encourages dialogue. This comprehensive approach allows to maximize the perception of the material environment, see it from different angles and form own opinion about its current state. This is a revision of the role of an architect and architecture of today, the interpretation of the axioms of this area, the visualization of its elements, styles, processes and temporal changes.

What is the architecture of Ukraine – fortresses or barns, huts or Khrushchev-era houses, palaces or ruins, tourist sites or developers construction sites? Or maybe it’s architectural styles – baroque, classicism, modernism, brutalism, postmodernism? Or maybe it’s all just beams and bricks?

In contrast to formal and informal databases, we offer another type of encyclopedia – created by a specific group of people with their own worldview, principles and methods, without being limited by the influence of any institutions. An encyclopedia that is not an end in itself, but only an instrument of cognition. Denis Diderot saw the encyclopedia as a bridge in time, as a way to convey the experience of reality through the optics of a caring encyclopedist. However, experience is not always about “successful cases” and won battles. It’s more about ways to deal with problems, mistakes and defeats. There can be no solution without a problem, and there can be no architecture without solutions. The Encyclopedia of Architecture of Ukraine is a critical project based on a problem-based approach. In it, the categorical principle of systematization of information corresponds to the brightest and most painful issues that Ukrainian architecture works with. After all, the essence of the architect’s activity is to find a form of solving social problems.

The general picture of the project has multiple perspectives – from large-scale to small, from theorizing to humanistic dimension. The architectural landscape of Ukraine, like a mosaic or collage, creates an intricate, multi-layered palimpsest. And many voices – polyphony. The macro level is contrasted with the micro level – local, personal histories of the relationship with architecture. And here the key is not only what and how we talk, but also about whom and with whom. We try to look where they don’t usually look, to give a platform, the right to vote to those who aren’t usually talked to, to see something more behind the walls. Which, perhaps, is much more outstanding and beautiful than bricks and beams. After all, architecture is not walls, it is people!

Find more information on www.ukrarchipedia.com.

Organizers: NGO Urban Forms Center in partnership with the small cultural capital of Ukraine 2020-2021 – Slavutych, Slavutych City Council and the Central State Scientific and Technical Archive of Ukraine with the financial support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and Zagoriy Foundation.

Collection "Bauhaus — Zaporizhzhia"

The collection was published in 2019. This release was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus and financially supported by Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Donetsk (Dnipro office). The collection was edited and compiled by Ievgeniia Gubkina. Preparatory work and publication was coordinated by the NGO Urban Forms Center.

This collection represents the proceedings of the Conference held in Zaporizhzhia on November 19-20, 2017, organized by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Donetsk (Dnipro office) in cooperation with the NGO Urban Forms Center, the contemporary art gallery Barannik, and Professor Thomas Flierl (Germany). The research-to-practice conference was focused on research and preservation issues of the inter-war modernist architectural heritage (1920s and 1930s). Authors, among which were scientists as well as officials, activists, and architects, addressed the relationship between the phenomena of inter‑war modernism in various countries of Western and Eastern Europe (with special attention to the heritage of the Bauhaus architectural school and constructivism of Zaporizhzhia), practices of modernism heritage conservation in Germany, Ukraine and the world, emerging legal and technical issues, ways of advocacy, popularization and protection of architectural heritage, etc.

This collection is aimed at architectural historians, architects, conservator-restorers, culturologist, art critics, historians, urban activists, personnel of state and local self-government agencies in the field of architecture, civil engineering and protection of cultural heritage, and any reader interested in research and preservation issues of modernist architecture.

Editorial board: Ievgeniia Gubkina, Anastasiia Bozhenko, Dmytro Sysoiev

Advisory board: Thomas Flierl, Serhiy Hirik, Pavlo Kravchuk

ISBN 978-617-7645-32-9

The collection includes for the first time translated into Ukrainian essay by a prominent German historian Karl Schlögel ‘DniproHES: America on the Dnieper’, articles by Thomas Flierl (Dr. phil., Bauhaus Institute of History and Theory of Architecture and City Planning, Bauhaus University Weimar, Chairman of Hermann Henzelmann Fund), Jörg Haspel (Dr. Dipl.-Ing., president of ICOMOS Germany), Winfried Brenne (Architectural bureau ‘Brenne Architekten’, Berlin) as well as articles written in English, Ukrainian or Russian by Ben Buschfeld (Communication Designer, Berlin), Vlasta Loutocká (Methodical Centre of Modern Architecture in Brno), Michał Pszczółkowski (Dr. hab. in technical sciences in the field of architecture and urban planning, Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk), Ksenia Litvinenko (PhD student in Architecture, The University of Manchester), Timur Vahitov (PhD student, Moscow Architectural Institute), Pavlo Kravchuk (Department of Culture, Zaporizhzhia City Council), Olena Mokrousova (PhD in History, Kyiv Research and Methodology Center for Preservation, Conservation, and Use of Historical and Cultural Landmarks and Nature Reserves), Yuliya Bohdanova (Institute of Architecture, Lviv Polytechnic National University), Volodymyr Novgorodov (PhD in Architecture, O.M. Beketov National University of Urban Economy in Kharkiv), Oksana Chabanyuk (PhD in Architecture, Kharkiv National University of Construction and Architecture), Svitlana Bilenkova (PhD in Art History, Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture), Viktor Shokarev (PhD in Engineering Science, Director of Zaporizhzhia Division of the SE ‘State Research Institute of Building Constructions’), Oleksandr Kharlan (PhD in Architecture, Head of Department of Preserving and Promoting Cultural Heritage of South-Eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian National Institute of Cultural Heritage), Lina Degtiarova (NGO Uzhhorod Modernism, Uzhhorod) and many other authors.

The preliminary presentation of the collection took place on December 7, 2018 in Barannik contemporary art gallery in Zaporizhzhia with participation of the German Consul General of the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Donetsk (Dnipro office) Wolfgang Mössinger and collection editor and compiler Ievgeniia Gubkina. The presentation of the main edition of the collection took place on May 25, 2019 in Kyiv at the Arsenal Book Fair within ‘100 years Bauhaus. Discovering and protecting the Bauhaus heritage in Ukraine, Germany and worldwide’ public talk organized by the Frankfurt Book Fair in partnership with German Stories and Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany Donetsk (Office Dnipro) with participation of the German Consul General Wolfgang Mössinger, collection editor and compiler Ievgeniia Gubkina and Berlin-based photographer Jean Molitor moderated by Goethe-Institut Ukraine project coordinator Olena Lykhovodova.

You can find the contents of the collection at the link.

Conference "Zaporizhzhia modernism and Bauhaus school: universality of phenomena. Problems of preserving modernist heritage"

Dates: 19–20 November, 2017

Venue: Palace of Culture of Metallurgists, #7 Dobrolyubova St. (Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine)

On 10 October 1932, 85 years ago, the gala launch of Dnipro GES, the hydroelectric power plant (one of the largest in Europe at that time) took place. The construction of the plant on the Dnipro river along with the construction of a large industrial hub have become powerful factors in the development of modern Zaporizhzhia. Its architecture and planning in the 1920s – early 1930s reflected progressive trends of international modernism, which were close to the ideas of the Bauhaus school in Germany. In Ukraine, this trend was known under the titles of ‘architectural avant-garde’ or ‘constructivism’.

In the interwar period, many industrial centers of eastern Ukraine emerged, such as Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro, Mariupol, etc., with the newly emerged cities developed actively just in the period of the first wave of modernism. In particular, it is due to the ideas of socialist settlement around large steel mills, namely in the Sixth Settlement (Sotsgorod or the Socialist City), that the archetypal buildings of Ukrainian modernism appeared in Zaporizhzhia, with famous domestic and foreign male and female architects partaking in their development. Most residential, industrial and civil constructions exist till now but they are in poor (almost derelict) condition and are literary threatened with destruction.

Unfortunately, Zaporizhzhia Constructivism has not received due artistic evaluation and attention from the municipal urban planning bodies. At the national level, the unique legacy of the 1920s–1930s is not systematized, with no proper assessment mechanism available. Until now, the Ukrainian list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites has not any single object of modernism, therefore, the problem of preserving this architecture is high on the agenda at the moment. All of this weights on the historical appearance of the city, and eventually can lead to the loss of its identity.

The conference goal is to draw attention of the public, Ukrainian and international experts and authorities to the problem of preserving objects of the interwar modernism in Ukraine, to prove the universality of the phenomenon of the German and Ukrainian modernism of the 1920s-1930s (with the Sixth Settlement in Zaporizhzhia being the case in point) and to promote the exchange of experience in the preservation and legal protection of the legacy of this period with German partners from Berlin, Germany’s federal state of Saxony-Anhalt (Dessau), and experts from other EU countries.

Conference structure:

Panel 1: Theory and history of housing construction in the interwar modernist period

The conference organizers believe that the Ukrainian modernism is a legacy of the world architecture, which has international significance and, therefore, requires preservation for the benefit of present and future generations. The first panel of the conference analyzed historical examples of housing construction and typology of architectural and urban objects, which were applied in the process of development and construction of working settlements; identified its features, common features in Germany, Ukraine, other countries of Europe and the former USSR; studied approaches to workers settlement in different countries according to the historical, political and socio-economic context. The panel touched the issue of interrelation and universality of modernism phenomenon; the conditions and reasons for its emergence in the period of a rapid industrial development, in the wake of modernization and the emergence of new national and supranational states. Theoretical developments, methods, and approaches to housing construction applied by representatives of the Bauhaus school enjoyed a special attention. The first conference panel task was to liberate the concept of ‘Ukrainian constructivism’ from isolation and to include objects associated with constructivism in Ukraine in the broader and more universal concept of ‘modernism’ by motivating common stylistic and ideological characteristics, historical prerequisites for its emergence, approaches and methods of implementation.

Panel 2: Procedures and mechanisms of protecting architectural and urban objects of interwar modernism

Given the current unsatisfactory condition of numerous objects of interwar modernism in Ukraine, the multiple facts of their destruction, restructuring, the degree and variety of threats they face, and the passiveness of the state system regarding the protection of cultural heritage, there is an urgent need to take measures to improve the existing system of protecting the material cultural heritage. The second conference panel examined the system of heritage protection agencies in Germany and other European countries, the history of their origin as well as the basic principles and mechanisms of their functioning. The conference participants had an opportunity to get acquainted with the best world practices, experience, and methods employed to preserve objects of the interwar modernism. Participants talked about the leverages of control, monitoring and influence the society and experts possessto protect the cultural heritage. The panel addressed specific features of European and international legislation that regulates the protection of material heritage. The presentation of the experience of adapting objects of the interwar modernism to modern use was of a particular relevance. The panel considered the principle of balancing interests of various stakeholder groups in matters related to heritage objects; the panel also analyzed the way private investors, society, and experts are involved; what economic and tax incentives exist for owners and tenants of tangible heritage sites and what their responsibility is. The social culture of protecting material heritage and ways of its enhancement enjoyed a special attention. The second panel task was to define the problems of the functioning of the system of protecting material heritage in Ukraine by providing examples of Germany and other European countries. The second panel task also included the analysis of problems of ratification, execution and due implementation of the requirements of international legislation and treaties ratified by Ukraine in this field.

Panel 3: Features and technologies of restoring architectural monuments of interwar modernism

The international studies and the global practice show that restoration is a long-term economic and cultural investment. Unfortunately, nowadays Ukraine lacks a school for the restoration of objects of the interwar modernism, and there is an information vacuum in this sphere, which leads to a decrease in practical competence. At the moment, Ukrainian experts need improving in the field of examining and assessing the state of objects of the interwar modernism; using the latest restoration techniques capable of preserving both separate buildings, groups of buildings and urban ensembles that are the legacy of the interwar modernism. In the course of the third conference panel, the experts from Germany and other European countries shared their own experience, skills and approaches to the restoration of objects of the interwar modernism. Participants talked about the specifics of restoration technologies, particularly of the modernist architecture. Please note that the modernism of the 1920s-1930s is definitely a relatively new construction period in the history of architecture where inbrand-new technologies (new ones as of that time) were actively used – the use of monolithic reinforced concrete and new types of metal structures. That is why it is very important to develop appropriate technologies and approaches to the restoration of objects of this period, which will correspond to the original plan of architects and engineers. The panel paid attention to methods of selecting the authentic composition of building materials and their equivalent substitutes. In addition, the panel touched the issues of preserving objects of the interwar modernism, namely the basic principles of this approach to preserving objects and the way it is implemented in Germany and other European countries. The task of the third conference panel was to review the best international practices of restoration, the main issues of technological restoration and preservation of objects of the interwar modernism, as well as issues of conformity of restoration approaches used in Ukraine to the international legislation.

Participants of the conference were researchers and experts from Ukraine, Germany, Poland, Russia, the Czech Republic: Thomas Flierl (Bauhaus Institute of History and Theory of Architecture and City Planning, Bauhaus University Weimar, Chairman of Hermann Henzelmann Fund, Berlin), Ievgeniia Gubkina (NGO Urban Forms Center, Kharkiv), Vladislav Berkovsky (Photo and Sound Archive named after G.S. Pshenichny, Kyiv), Sören Herbst (Magdeburg City Council), Svitlana Smolenska (Kharkiv National University of Construction and Architecture), Michael Stöneberg (Magdeburg Cultural and Historical Museum), Jörg Möser and Oleksandr Shevchuk (Architectural bureau ‘Milde und Moeser Architekten’, Pirna), Michał Pszczółkowski (Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk), Igor Bogdanov (Chief Architect of Dnipropetrovsk Region, Dnipro), Vlasta Loutocká (Methodical Centre of Modern Architecture in Brno), Ksenia Litvinenko (Institute of Contemporary History, Prague), Pavlo Kravchuk (Department of Culture, Zaporizhzhia City Council), Timur Vakhitov (Moscow Architectural Institute), Olena Mokrousova (Kyiv Research and Methodology Center for Preservation, Conservation, and Use of Historical and Cultural Landmarks and Nature Reserves), Yuliya Bohdanova (Institute of Architecture, Lviv Polytechnic National University), Іnna Abramyuk (Lutsk National Technical University), Lyudmila Korneeva (Nizhyn State Mykola Gogol University), Cyrill Lipatov (NGO Urban Inst., Odesa), Olexander Kharlan (Ukrainian National Institute of Cultural Heritage, Dnipro), Winfried Brenne (Architectural bureau ‘Brenne Architekten’, Berlin), Volodymyr Novgorodov (O.M. Beketov National University of Urban Economy in Kharkiv), Viktor Shokarev (Zaporizhzhia Division of the SE ‘State Research Institute of Building Constructions’), Ben Buschfeld (Communication Designer, Berlin), Vera Heinemann (Bauhaus University Weimar), Konstantin Gudkov and Alexander Dudnev (1931.center, Moscow), Natalia Melikova (The Constructivist Project, Moscow), Lina Degtiariova (NGO Uzhhorod Modernism, Uzhhorod), Oksana Chabanyuk (Kharkiv National University of Construction and Architecture), Svitlana Bilenkova (Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture), Olena Rofe-Beketova (‘Kharkiv With You’ Charitable Foundation), Anastasiya Gulak and Zoya Panova (Architectural bureau ‘Portal-21’), Tetyana Balukova (GIZ project ‘Municipal development and renovation of the old part of Lviv’).

The participatory project ‘My Sotsmisto’ was also held within the conference in order to form a united conscious community of the neighborhood of the Sixth Settlement which joins the protection of historical and cultural heritage. The project was implemented in cooperation with the Garden-City NGO.

Each panel was followed by a public discussion with speakers of the conference joined by a moderator and participants and with the discussion analyzing main threats, opportunities, and ways of applying international experience by using the Sixth Settlement in Zaporizhzhia as the case in point. As well as round tables ‘Study and Popularization the Heritage of Interwar Modernism’, ‘Preserving the Cultural and Architectural Heritage of Interwar Modernism’, presentation of the results of the workshop of students from Germany and Ukraine, presentation of the results of the ‘My Sotsmisto’ participatory project, demonstration archival videos about Zaporizhzhia were held within the conference.

Find more information about ‘Bauhaus – Zaporizhzhia. Modernism in Germany and Ukraine’ project on Facebook page.

Conference organizers: Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Donetsk (office in Dnipro) in partnership with the NGO Urban Forms Center, Barannik contemporary art gallery and Professor Thomas Flierl (Germany).

The ‘Bauhaus – Zaporizhzhia. Modernism in Germany and Ukraine’ project was arranged also due to the support by Zaporizhzhia City Council, the Berlin Office for the Preservation of Monuments, the State Chancellery and the Ministry of Culture of Saxony-Anhalt, Bauhaus-University Weimar and Kharkiv National University of Construction and Architecture.

2nd International Conference "Modernistki. Violence in Architecture and Urban Space"

Dates: September 15–16, 2017

Venue: Zabolotny State Scientific Library of Architecture and Construction (Kyiv, Ukraine)

In the first half of the 20th century, women got a possibility to obtain architectural education in many countries. At the same time, the architectural profession has always been related with power, political and socioeconomic processes in the society. The architecture as a form of power resulted, quite often, in a special kind of violence because the decisions taken by architects would primarily comply with customers’ requirements – was it the state or a business entity – and hardly ever would they go in line with the requests of the society. Thus, women who were a discriminated social group, joined the profession that was allowing the discrimination of other people and themselves. The female architects were both the object and the subject of violence in the architectural context. The objects of study at the second international scientific conference are the female architects, their way to power within the architectural profession, the influence of the historical context on their career, and the results of their professional activity. Besides, the object of study is the city and basic categories of the feminist theory applied to it: violence, power, discrimination, etc.

The organizers and participants of the conference are eager to identify the phenomenon of violence in architecture and to highlight the role of women in the processes related with violence. The research of violence manifestations in architecture and urban space, as well as preventing them are especially topical now because different social groups are being discriminated in the Ukrainian cities. The reasons underlying certain scandals in architecture and development remain hardly attended. That hardens the stereotypes that the society has about the power and the architects’ role, and results in traumas and gradual stigmatization of people’s aspiration to influence on the decision making process in the city. The organizers want to extensively discuss the problems of inequality, security, and violence in the urban space.

The goal of the cross-disciplinary conference is to highlight and research the phenomenon of violence in architecture and urban space. Besides, the conference aims at stimulating an active interaction between scientists, activists, students, lecturers, and people professionally engaged in architecture and urban planning: the attendees will exchange experience in resolving the issues of spatial discrimination and ensuring the rights that different social groups have for the urban space. Additionally, the conference will serve as a platform for building the culture of sisterhood in the hands-on female architects’ community, and search for the mechanisms of reacting against the urban violence by means of urban planning, which should foster democracy, diversity, and equality.

The structure of the conference:

Section 1: Female architects and power

The organizers of the conference think that the co-existence of feminism and architecture covered a major part of the last century, lasts now, and is far from its end. The transformation of ethical regulations and responsibilities initiated by sociocultural changes in the societies, as well as changing political and socioeconomic conditions affected the woman’s role in the architectural profession. Apart from researching the creative career of female architects, we will bring up a point about how their professional activity affected their work results, projects, architectural and urban objects. Did the female architects from Ukraine and the whole world reflect the social changes and achievements of feminist and human rights movements in their professional activities? The task of the first panel is to consider the woman’s role in the fight for power, and as a representative of the architectural professional hierarchy in the context of different waves of feminism.

Section 2: Theoretical feminist categories in respect of the city

At the second panel of the conference we will consider the theoretical basis of such categories as power, acquisition, ownership, resources, violence, trauma, discrimination, privileges in the context of cities. The urban spaces produced by the patriarchic system result in hierarchical structures and, as a result, encourage discrimination and violence. The task of the second panel is to analyze the problems of architecture, urban space and municipal politics by applying the theoretical feminist categories.

Section 3: Architectural environment and violence

At the third panel the attendees will explore practical examples to discuss practical and methodological matters of the architectural activities related to the phenomenon of violence in the cities. The participants will talk about the ways of identifying, monitoring, and reacting against the violence, discrimination, and violations of human rights in the cities. Daily interactions of women and other discriminated groups with the urban space continue causing many problems related with comfort, security and sensitive feeling, even in the developed countries. The purpose of the third panel is to explore the existing cases demonstrating, in Ukraine and all over the world, the negative aspects of the urban space related to the violence. We will also share the positive experience in resolving such problems and reacting against the violence by means of architecture and urban planning.

Workshop: Inclusive and gender-sensitive urban design

At the workshop we will present the ideas and experiences in resolving the spatial discrimination and violence issues in the urban space using Austria’s examples. The workshop tutors will attempt to analyze, together with the participants, specific cases and find out how gender issues and inclusion are implemented in the architectural and urban planning processes, and how they affect the design methods using cross-disciplinary approaches. The purpose of the workshop is to explore the international experience in applying the inclusion- and gender-sensitive approach to the formation of the urban spaces and architecture. The results of the workshop will be presented to the conference attendees in the end of the second day.

The conference is free of charge and open for everyone interested, particularly for: hands-on architects, design professionals and artists; scholars, educators, researchers, and students in the fields of architecture, art, anthropology, sociology, architecture, and culture; thought leaders; policy makers and representatives of municipalities working with architecture, urbanism, and urban planning; activists, representatives of women’s associations and non-governmental organizations; members of the public.

Organizers: NGO Urban Forms Center with the support of the Heinrich Boell Foundation’s Office in Ukraine, Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, and Zabolotny State Scientific Library of Architecture and Construction. Information partners – Hromadske Radio, Architectuul and VCRC.

Information about the 1st International Conference “Modernistki. Gender Issues in Art, Architecture and Urban Planning” (2016).

School module "Urbanistics"

The Urbanism School module is an educational project on urban planning for children, aimed at empowerment of young people as participants in decision-making process in the city. The project took place from September 19 to November 14, 2016, based on the Kharkiv Sanatorium and Educational Complex №13.

The purpose of the project is to provide children and young people with an understanding of the basic principles of city functioning, existing problems and different ways of their solution, thus raising a new generation of inhabitants who understand their right to the urban environment and know how to implement it. In addition, the project included possibility for pupils to participate in conducting sociological research among young people, which provided an opportunity to analyze the needs and general children’s attitudes to urban space and the processes taking place in it.

Organizers: NGO Urban Forms Center, CEDOS Analytical Center and Mistosite Internet Magazine with the support of Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and with the assistance of the Department of Science and Education of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration.

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Summer School "The Idea of the City: Reality Check"

On June 29, – July 11, 2016, Slavutych hosted an interdisciplinary summer school “The Idea of the City: Reality Check” from the series “Urban Summer Schools: Visions and Experiences” of the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe. It combines research and learning formats and establishes links between urban studies and urban history, and further with Humanities.

The subject for research for the school participants was Slavutych – a city in Kyiv region, an enclave on the territory of Chernihiv region. It was built after the nuclear disaster at Chornobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. It is the last planned city in the Soviet Union and the youngest city in the present day Ukraine. Exceptional circumstances of its establishment shaped the ideas and the implementation process of the project for a new city. Teams of experts from eight USSR republics were engaged into planning and construction works. As a result, Slavutych architecture manifests criticism of Modernist architecture combining international architectural context with socialist approaches and Soviet principles of regional peculiarities. Slavutych is the implementation of pursuits of the last generation of Soviet architects for environmentally sustainable architecture comfortable for living. It is also a new home to employees of Chornobyl NPP and inhabitants of polluted Pripyat.

The goal of the summer school was to combine learning and research formats, to integrate methods and opportunities of different disciplines to study the city. The curriculum of the school focused on social, humanitarian, environmental, and economic prospects in planning and functioning of modern city with account for historical contexts. The example of Slavutych allowed analyzing implementation and experiences of such urbanistic and social concepts as planned city, utopian city, post-disaster city, eco-city, and mono-city in terms of different disciplines.

The work of the school took different research prospects in three study formats. Together, they conducted analysis and developed general vision of what present-day Slavutych is all about, to which extent it meets the idea of architects and what prospects the city has for the future:

• Study 1: Urban Practices, Memories and Perceptions.
• Study 2: Space and Ecology of the City.
• Study 3: Finances and Administration of the City.

Participants of the school were researchers from Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, USA, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, France, Lithuania, and Belarus. The lecturers of the school were experts in the fields of planning and studying the city, in sociology and finance: Kees van Ruyven (“Kees van Ruyven Stadsontwikkeling”, Amsterdam), Iryna Sklokina (Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, Lviv), Dmytro Kokorin (London Royal College, Institute of Russia, London), Nataliya Otrishchenko (Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, Lviv; Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine, Kyiv), Tauri Tuwikene (Tallinn University, Tallinn), Bohdan Motuzenko (Kyiv), Viktor Maziarchuk (Center for Political Studies and Analytics “Eidos”, Kyiv).

In addition to the specialized research program for students of the school, there was organized a public program for broad audiences with the lecturers Volodymyr Udovychenko (city mayor of Slavutych in 1990–2015, Ukraine), Olga Kazakova (“Institute of Modernism”, Russia), Owen Hatherley (journalist, UK), Anselm Wagner (Gratz Technical University, Austria), Kate Brown (Maryland University, USA), Nataliya Zhyzhchenko (ONUKA, Ukraine), Mykhaylo Dumanskyi (Lviv Business School (LvBS) of Ukrainian Catholic University, Ukraine), Kees van Ruyven (“Kees van Ruyven Stadsontwikkeling”, Netherlands), Roman Zinchenko (“Greencubator”, Ukraine), Yevhen Nikiforov (photographer, Ukraine), Oleksiy Bratochkin (European College of Liberal Arts in Belarus), Inga Freimane (Northumbrian University, UK). Topics and synopsis of lectures, with information about lecturers are available at the link. Videos of the lectures are available at the link.

Within the summer school, there took place a camp for children “Play in cities”. During the camp, young Slavutych citizens explored the city together with the teachers. They studied its past, present and future, and had fun with the peers.

Organizers: Heinrich Boell Foundation’s Office in Ukraine, Center for Urban History of East Central Europe and NGO Urban Forms Center.

WikiD Ukraine: Women. Wikipedia. Design.

WikiD: Women, Wikipedia, Design is an international education and advocacy program working to increase the number of Wikipedia articles on women in architecture and the built environment.

In Ukrainian Wikipedia there is a very limited presence of women involved in architecture, urban planning, art or design. Many articles that do exist, are often contradictory in their coverage and quality. According to recent reports, 10-20% of Wikipedia editors are women. This significantly affects the content of one of the largest repositories of human knowledge in the world. For example, only 13% of Ukrainian biographical articles on Wikipedia – about women. We understand that architecture in this case isn’t an exception to a general situation when women are under-represented in both roles: as objects and as participants on Wikipedia as a whole. That’s why we invite everyone to join the international education and advocacy program for elimination of gender inequality and recognition of female architects which they really deserve.

Within the project there were held trainings and workshops on writing and editing articles on Wikipedia in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Lviv from April 20 to June 16, 2016. List of female architects who are not on Wikipedia yet was made up by experts on the history of architecture. This list is in the public domain and continues to be complemented. It shows how much work really needs to be done more and what an immense amount of knowledge is still out of Wikipedia. Employees of the Zabolotny State Scientific Library of Architecture and Construction made up a bibliographic written reference “Female architects of Ukraine” where they collected an information about sources that are relevant to the topic of the campaign, available in the library and can be used in further work.

The experts of the trainings were: Olena Malakhova (Cand.Phil.Sci., director of the Gender Centre in the H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, expert of “KRONE” gender information-analytical center), Ievgeniia Gubkina (architect, researcher of the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe), Andriy Pavlyshyn (historian, journalist, social activist), Olena Synchak (linguist, lecturer at the Ukrainian Catholic University), Iuliia Popova (coordinator of the “Promoting Democracy” program of the Heinrich Boell Foundation’s Office in Ukraine), Dmytro Myronenko (Zabolotny State Scientific Library of Architecture and Construction) and members of Wikimedia Ukraine.

WikiD is a collaborative project between Parlour (Australia), Architexx (USA) and n-ails (Germany) that received seed funding through a PEG Grant from the Wikimedia Foundation. The project was organized in Ukraine by the NGO Urban Forms Center and NGO Wikimedia Ukraine in partnership with the Public Initiative “Feminist workshop” (Lviv, Ukraine), Center for Urban History of East Central Europe (Lviv, Ukraine), Zabolotny State Scientific Library of Architecture and Construction (Kyiv, Ukraine) and Gender Culture Centre (Kharkiv, Ukraine).

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1st International Conference "Modernistki. Gender Issues in Art, Architecture and Urban Planning"

The conference was held on March 11–12, 2016, at the Zabolotny State Scientific Library of Architecture and Construction (Kyiv, Ukraine).

The interdisciplinary conference aims at attracting attention to gender issues and researching the women’s role and input into the development of architecture, art, and urban planning in the age of modernism. Another goal we set by organizing the conference is stimulating active reciprocal exchange of experience in resolving problems related to gender-based spatial discrimination, and assuring women’s rights for urban space. We encourage scholars, activists, students, professors, and other people involved in architectural development and urban planning.

The conference program consisted of the following:

• Section 1: Woman in Professional Architecture and Art. History
• Section 2: Woman in Architectural Space. Practice
• Round Table: Women in Contemporary Ukrainian Architecture

The conference participants were experts and researchers of history of architecture, urban planning and feminism: Halyna Voitsekhivska (Ukraine), Alex Bykov (Ukraine), Olena Maznichenko (Ukraine), Lev Schevchenko (Ukraine), Olga Kazakova (Russia), Zhenya Molyar (Ukraine), Starlight Vattano (Italy), Hanneke Oosterhof (Netherlands), Michal Pszczolkowski (Poland), Olga Mykhaylyshyn (Ukraine), Marta Vasevych (Ukraine), Svitlana Shlipchenko (Ukraine), Ievgeniia Gubkina (Ukraine), Olena Mokrousova (Ukraine), Nadia Plungian (Russia), Kateryna Goncharova (Ukraine), Milota Sidorova (Czech Republic), Marion Roberts (UK), Elena Vacchelli (UK), Uliana Bychenkova and Sasha Talaver (Russia), Darya Ozhyhanova and Anna Pomazanna (Ukraine), Maria Zamelan (Ukraine), Tetiana Fesenko (Ukraine), Alina Kurlovych (Ukraine).

Organizers: NGO Urban Forms Center and Heinrich Boell Foundation’s Office in Ukraine.

Information and educational project "Modernistki"

The project was held from February 26 to March 15, 2016 and organized by the NGO Urban Forms Center and Heinrich Boell Foundation’s Office in Ukraine.

Almost 40 universities of five cities in Ukraine (Kharkiv, Lviv, Zaporizhia, Slavutych and Kyiv) were pleased to host panels containing information about women whose discoveries and great contribution to the development of architecture, ecology, physics, IT and other branches of science and culture have been utterly vital and significant. Our motto is “Not an exception but one of many” emphasizes the real importance of accepting women’s achievements in various spheres since neither the general public, nor the specialists pay proper attention to this issue.

The project was implemented with the support of the Public Initiative “Feminist workshop” (Lviv, Ukraine) and Gallery of Modern Art “Barannik” (Zaporizhia, Ukraine).

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Summer School "Novyi Lviv"

On August 22–30, 2015, the Novyi Lviv International Architecture Summer School, organized by the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe (Lviv, Ukraine) and the MARCH Architecture School (Moscow, Russia) as part of the project “Modernism. Future Continuous” together with the NGO Urban Forms Center, was held in Lviv.

The participants of the school studied the district New Lviv, in particular the 1920-1930s modernist buildings and residential development of the second half of the twentieth century.

Within four laboratories – “Space,” “Sociology,” “Heritage,” and “Interventions” – school participants looked at the history of the development of Novyi Lviv, analyzed its spatial and social structure, and searched for opportunities to implement simple and fast projects that can provide visible results in the short term. The result of the school’s activity was The project for the restoration and sustainable development of Novyi Lviv.

The teachers of the school were experts in the fields of urban planning and research: Kees van Rayven (“Kees van Ruyven Stadsontwikkeling”, Amsterdam), Kateryna Honcharova (“UkrNDIproektrestavratsiya”, Kyiv), Iryna Sklokina (Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, Lviv), Dmytro Kokorin (King’s College London, Russia Institute, London), Natalia Otrischenko (Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, Lviv; Institute of Sociology of NAS of Ukraine, Kyiv), Toralf Weise (Eberhard-Schöck-Stiftung, Baden-Baden; Construction Industry Support Fund, Kyiv), Nadia Nilina (Moscow School of Architecture (MARCH)), Yaroslav Kovalchuk (Moscow School of Architecture (MARCH); Head of workshop in NDiPI General Plan of Moscow, Moscow), Annette Mattieson (“Gemeente Barendrecht”, Rotterdam), Mary Sievers (Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture; Construction Industry Support Fund, Kyiv). Experts of the School: Yuliya Bohdanova (researcher of Modernist Architecture, National University “Lvivska Politekhnika”), Yulian Chaplinskyy (Chief architect of Lviv, cofounder at “CHAPLINSKYY & Architects” company).

Organizers: Center for Urban History, MARCH Architectural School with financial support from Eberhard-Schöck-Stiftung Foundation (Baden Baden), Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Kiev and German Society for International Cooperation GIZ. With assistance from Lviv Business School of Ukrainian Catholic University.

Smart Sustainable Cities: Ecology, ICT, Architecture

On March 28, 2015, the forum “Smart Sustainable Cities: Ecology, ICT, Architecture” was held in Kyiv with support from the Swedish Institute (Stockholm, Sweden) under the SI Alumni Event grant program. The forum was attended by the SI alumni, local activists, representatives of private and public companies working in the fields of ecology, architecture and technology. Presentations were made by: Hennig Droher (Sustainability & CSR partner at BDO Ukraine), Urs Tomann (Vinnitsa City Council), Alex Pasichny (PhD, KTH, World Data Center for Geoinformatics and Sustainable Development), Hossein Shahroni (PhD, KTH, Division of Industrial Ecology), Yaroslav Kovalchuk (Research and Project Institute for the Moscow City Masterplan, Russia), Roman Ivanenko (Development and Improvement Foundation of Bobritsa village), Ievgeniia Gubkina (architect, NGO Urban Forms Center), Maria Uvarova (Development and Improvement Foundation of Bobritsa village). The speakers presented examples of the cities that have been successfully developing recently, both from abroad and from Ukraine.

Kharkiv: Inventory

On November 28, 2014, the forum “Kharkiv: Inventory” was held in the Center for Contemporary Art “Ermilov Center” (Kharkiv, Ukraine). It was one of the events of the series of research and educational activities dedicated to the city and its urban forms.

The main aim of the forum – is to “take stock” of Kharkiv modern architectural environment, namely to fix the presence of the objects of the city environment, to assess their current state, to discuss what should be recognized as the “heritage” of Kharkiv and what “has no value”, to understand how and what to do in the near future – not only within the professional community, but also what ordinary citizens should do.

The forum was attended by the prominent Kharkiv architects, city planners, conservators-restorers, artists and designers: Oleg Drozdov (“Drozdov & Partners”), Valery Ponomarev (Institute Kharkivproject), Nikolay Ridnyi, Vladimir Novgorodov (Member of ICOMOS, corresponding member of the Academy of Architecture of Ukraine, member of the National Union of Architects of Ukraine and the Kharkiv Planning Council), Maria Norazyan and Ilya Pavlov (design studio “GRAFPROM”, concept designers “Fedoriv.com”), Vasilisa Shchegoleva and Bogdan Volynskiy (architects “Snizhok”, Kharkiv). Videos of presentations, discussions and interim results of the study are available at the link.

Organizers: NGO Urban Forms Center and NGO Critical Thinking (Kharkiv, Ukraine).

Atomograds: Planned Cities in the Contemporary Society

The urban colloquium “Atomograds: Planned Cities in the Contemporary Society” was held at the Gallery of Modern Art “Lenin” (Zaporizhia, Ukraine) on 19–21 September, 2014, with the support of the Swedish Institute (Stockholm, Sweden). The event was focused on the problems of atomograds and other planned cities of Ukraine. Participants visited Zaporizhia NPP and its satellite town Enerhodar, listened to the lectures by architects and culture experts, participated in the workshop on sustainable development. The following speakers took part in the event: Ievgeniia Gubkina (Urban Forms Center, Kharkiv), Dmitry Zadorin (Netherlands/Belarus), Xenia Vytulova (NDITIAM, Moscow, Russia; Columbia University, USA), Natalia Lobach (Gallery of Modern Art “Lenin”, Zaporizhia), Vasilisa Shchegoleva and Bogdan Volynskiy (Architects of “Snizhok”, Kharkiv).

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