Archinect - News

Russian attacks destroy acclaimed Ukrainian design academy in Kyiv

2024-03-30T08:00:00-04:00

Various Ukrainian news outlets are reporting the recent near-total destruction of the Mykhailo Boichuk State Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design in Kyiv from a Russian missile attack in the morning hours of Monday, March 25th.

"During this morning's attack on Kyiv, as a result of falling fragments of a missile launched by the Russian Federation, the central part of the building at the Kyiv State Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design named after Mykhailo Boichuk was destroyed, particularly the sports hall, congress hall and exhibition center. The premises of the departments and the auditorium of the institution suffered significant damage," a press update from the country's Ministry of Culture and Information Policy reads.

Image: Helen Osadch via Facebook

News reports indicated that only two people were injured during the attack, which was part of a larger aerial assault on the capital's Pecherskyi and Solomianskyi districts. (You can read more about the att...

UNESCO survey verifies 341 damaged cultural sites across Ukraine

2024-02-15T17:35:00-05:00

UNESCO has verified nearly 30 dozen damaged cultural sites across Ukraine in a new survey meant to shed light on the extent to which the cost of war has left an impact on the nation’s spiritual landscape and intellectual heritage over the past two full years.

Kharkiv and Donetsk led the list of regions with the most damaged sites, totaling 56 and 87, respectively. The list counts a total of 341 sites, another 39 of which are in the Kyiv capital region. UNESCO officials compiled their tally from a number of on-the-ground sources. This is apparently meant to be a preliminary damage assessment that will hereafter be updated on a regular basis once the process for reporting is established.

The new survey counted 126 religious sites, 150 buildings of historical and/or artistic interest, 31 museums, 19 monuments, 14 libraries, and one archive. Among the most significant damaged sites are the National Palace of Arts in Kyiv and many buildings in the endangered historic city center of Ode...

UVA architecture students present ideas for rebuilding a war-torn Ukrainian city to the U.S. Department of State

2024-01-08T14:25:00-05:00

The culmination of the 2023 Fall semester at the University of Virginia saw a contingent of students from UVA’s School of Architecture travel to Washington, D.C., to discuss ideas for rebuilding the war-torn eastern Ukrainian city of Izium upon a special invite from the U.S. Department of State.

Together with Professor Suzanne Moomaw, the cohort of 23 students who participated in the school’s Ukraine Green Recovery Lab were delegated to the National Museum of American Diplomacy in order to present their research to State Department officials, other government representatives, and the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova.

Highlighting topography and other similarities between Izium and Charlottesville, the students presented six phases of a proposed redevelopment to those assembled. What they took away from it was a rewarding experience delivering findings that will, in turn, be presented to the people of Izium for feedback. All in attendance report to have en...

MVRDV and Orange Architects introduce master plan for new mixed-use district in Kyiv

2023-11-27T13:58:00-05:00

MVRDV and Orange Architects have announced a new master plan for a mixed-used district in Kyiv, Ukraine, that's meant to spark a revitalization of the capital’s downtown commercial area.

The design for the NUVO complex calls for a five-building mix of new structures united by a central shared infrastructure and connecting to a planned high-speed rail extension. The plan will increase pedestrianism in the area while tying its development to core principles of sustainable building and green design, the architects say. The project features a palette of local materials to “showcase” the architectural products of manufacturer (and the property's developer) Kovalska and expands on a pre-Russian-invasion master plan from APA Wojcehowski Architects.

Rendering: Wizard 3D Studio, image courtesy MVRDV and Orange Architects

MVRDV’s portion calls for a pair of new buildings to be designed around potential future adaptations. The larger, L-shaped 18-story tower uses flexible floor plans to offer ...

'A home for tea and life': Japanese and Ukrainian influences blend harmoniously in this Kyoto house renovation

2023-09-25T12:25:00-04:00

Ukraine-based MAKHNO Studio has completed work on a residence in Kyoto, Japan inspired by “sado,” a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. The century-old dwelling has been refurbished with attention to its history and the preservation of authentic elements while “adding a drop of Ukrainian color to the Japanese context.”

Image credit: Naoki Miyashita

The experience begins at the house's entrance, marked by a small tea garden named “roji.” Adorned with Japanese ritual stones and Ukrainian DIDO art sculptures from the MAKHNO workshop, the roji garden sets the tone for a tranquil visit, whose “good entities protect the house from sad thoughts and uninvited guests.”

Image credit: Naoki Miyashita

Upon entry through the “genkan,” or entrance hall, guests are greeted by a collection of Japanese and Ukrainian art. The main living area, segmented by a traditional Japanese screen known as “byobu,” serves multiple functions, showcasing art a...

UNESCO adds 42 new sites to World Heritage list

2023-09-22T13:06:00-04:00

The outcome of the 45th session of the committee has also been notable, however, for the places not approved for protection. On Friday, members voted against the notion that Venice be added to the heritage list. This was despite the recommendation of the World Heritage Centre (WHC), the convention’s permanent secretariat, which argued the city was at risk due to factors including mass tourism and climate change.

A total of 42 new sites were added at the ongoing special session held in Riyadh this month. Three Ukrainian sites, including the 11th-century Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, were also added last week at the start of the 15-day meeting.

The body’s recommendations to add Venice to the list of World Heritage in Danger sites was also denied at the outset, keeping it away from the dubious position despite criticism that city officials — who’ve just adopted a nominal daily entry fee trial — aren’t doing enough to resolve “long-standing but urgent issues” stemming from tourists’ overcrowding and climate change.

A new Kharkiv School of Architecture student project delivers valuable design solutions for rebuilding schools in Ukraine

2023-09-06T18:43:00-04:00

A new project aimed at improving the educational experience of Ukrainian schoolchildren is helping students at the Kharkiv School of Architecture participate in their country’s concerted response to an infrastructure crisis that began in February 2022 and has seen the destruction of an estimated 331 educational institutions nationwide, thus far.

The "First-Aid Spatial Kit" initiative is being taught as part of the school’s first-year construction practice curriculum and allows students to develop copyable designs for various interventions (furniture, pavilions, play spaces, etc.), which, in turn, can be implemented using readily-available materials by affected school districts looking for “self-help” solutions in rebuilding.

Photo: Zlatoslava Kryshtafovych & Oleksandr Holovashkin, courtesy Kharkiv School of Architecture

Over the course of four weeks, students developed a suite of six solutions that were also marked by a consideration for accessibility and universal design. Each of t...

Architects and builders detail Europe's first 3D printed school in Lviv, Ukraine

2023-08-07T14:45:00-04:00

The enormous effort of rebuilding civilian infrastructure in war-torn Ukraine has spurred a landmark example of the design and delivery of 3D printed architecture with the completion of Danish 3DCP Group‘s new Lviv School No. 23 project in the country’s internally-deluged western stronghold.

Their humanitarian design for clients Team4UA foundation was completed earlier this spring using a COBOD BOD2 printer and is now the title holder for the world’s largest 3D printed educational structure, simultaneously helping to bolster a key area of need in a community beleaguered by over 16 months of conflict and displacement.

Ukraine as a whole has lost some 277 schools since the latest phase of the Russian military invasion began last February, according to its Ministry of Education and Science. Jean-Christophe Bonis, a French-born entrepreneur who has resided in the country since 2019, took it as his charge to redirect his business activities towards the war effort, leading to the creation...

AECOM, Bechtel officially join reconstruction effort in Ukraine

2023-07-05T17:33:00-04:00

AECOM and Bechtel have both announced their involvement in the international effort to rebuild Ukraine following 15 months of a devastating war which had, by mid-spring, enacted more than $147.5 billion worth of damage to infrastructure across the country, according to estimates from the Kyiv School of Economics.

The moves were announced late last month in conjunction with the country’s Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development (AECOM) and the State Agency for Restoration and Development of Infrastructure of Ukraine (AECOM and Bechtel), and will include the delivery of a “wide range” of reconstruction projects along with supportive technical expertise to the government and other private contractors.

Important cost estimation and other kinds of engineering consultations will also be provided as part of the State Agency for Restoration and Development of Infrastructure memorandum as the country transitions to an international model for procurements.

Related ...

Ukraine's optimistic vision at the 2023 Venice Biennale

2023-05-29T15:32:00-04:00

A pair of time-sensitive installations from the Ukrainian contingent at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale is rallying two contraposed notions of future rebuilding and present-day trauma together for the outside world to experience optimistically under one prescient exhibition aptly titled Before the Future.

The country’s first Biennale entry since 2014 is being presented in two locations by curators Iryna Miroshnykova, Oleksii Petrov, and Borys Filonenko, who say their contribution presents Ukraine as a “powerful participant in transforming the image of the future in Europe and the whole civilized world.”

Beginning first inside the Arsenale’s Sale d’Armi, the exhibition remakes an otherwise cavernous host space into a windowless, claustrophobic chasm within which visitors can experience the state of abandonment and eerie comfort that Ukrainians are daily inhabiting as they fight for a more vital and sustainably built peace-filled world to come.

Image: © Matteo de Mayda, court...

Ukrainian practice MAKHNO Studio imagines contemporary Hotel Karpaty in the Carpathian Mountains

2023-04-25T11:58:00-04:00

Ukrainian firm MAKHNO Studio has designed a contemporary hotel in the breathtaking natural setting of the Carpathian Mountains.

With the KARPATY Hotel, the architects aimed to seamlessly integrate the approximately 43,056-square-foot structure into the environment, while also forming a striking spectacle.

The firm likens the hotel to a liner in the sky. The connection with the surroundings is reflected through the building’s organic form and muted color palette.

In the heart of the hotel’s courtyard is an expansive suspended pool, surrounded by a border of luminous stones.

The interior is distinguished by a stone garden, which is framed by an opening through the roof that resembles a mountain.

Each room in the hotel offers unique views through carefully crafted panoramic windows.

A colossal hall dominates the space, adding an element of grandeur to the overall design. The interior is crowned by a sleek, sinuous staircase that was designed by studying the intricacies of mountain ...

The Ukrainian architect who showed Norman Foster his Kharkiv

2023-04-10T14:05:00-04:00

Kharkiv’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, announced that Foster and his nonprofit, the Norman Foster Foundation, had agreed to work on such a plan in collaboration with the city. Max, who had never imagined he’d hear the words “Kharkiv” and “Foster” in the same sentence, was asked to join Foster’s working group. He was one of only two architects selected who were still physically in Kharkiv—the only people in a position to “show” Kharkiv to Foster.

The New Yorker contributing writer Masha Gessen tells the story of Maxim Rozenfeld, a Kharkiv-native, Ukrainian architect and historian with special expertise in the high-tech-style oeuvre of Norman Foster, who ended up briefing a Foster-led team when the city's mayor Ihor Terekhov announced an ambitious rebuilding plan for the heavily-damaged Kharkiv one year ago in April (new details emerged in December).

Ukraine has lost almost 500 churches and religious sites since the start of the Russian invasion

2023-02-25T08:00:00-05:00

As a result of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, at least 494 religious buildings, theological institutions, and sacred places were wholly destroyed, damaged, or looted by the Russian military. The Ukrainian Institute for Religious Freedom presented this updated data on the impact of the war on Ukrainian religious communities on January 31 and February 1 during the Summit on International Religious Freedom (IRF Summit 2023) held in Washington, D.C.

The Institute for Religious Freedom reported Russia’s tactic of using churches for military bases and hiding spots. Clergy members have also been targeted as part of the longer-term goal of destroying the Ukrainian language and culture. (The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which accounts for 48% of the survey, famously broke away from Moscow in a May 2022 declaration.)

Graphic courtesy Institute for Religious Freedom (source)

Non-Christian sites afflicted include the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial (which includes a synagogue designed by Manuel Herz) and several mosques. The destruction of holy buildings and other cultural property nevertheless pales in comparison to the waste of life on both sides of the conflict. The latest estimates from the UN human rights office have at least 8,006 civilian deaths in the country over the past twelve months, with the actual death toll of non-combatants likely much higher.

Cooper Union will remount Vkhutemas exhibition following internal review and outside criticism

2023-02-07T11:30:00-05:00

The Cooper Union has announced it will remount its Vkhutemas exhibition in a reversal apparently brought on by discussions with students, co-organizers, curators Anna Bokov and Steven Hillyer, and members of the school’s Ukrainian community.

In a letter dated February 6, the school’s President Laura Sparks, Acting Dean Hayley Eber, and Exhibitions Committee Chair Alexander Tochilovsky explained their reasoning as the following:

“Leadership also carefully reviewed letters and fielded outreach from colleagues, peers, and individuals from throughout our community. These conversations have been important and instructive, and have underscored both the significance of this exhibition and the need to frame this work within the broader geopolitical context, both then and now.”

“At its core, The Cooper Union has always been a forum for public discourse and dialogue addressing the challenges and opportunities of our time. The School of Architecture encourages students to investigate the rol...

Cooper Union postpones Vkhutemas exhibition in light of the ongoing war in Ukraine

2023-01-26T17:11:00-05:00

An exhibition at The Cooper Union examining Vkhutemas has been postponed by the institution amidst criticisms relating to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Vkhutemas was a Soviet art and technical school that existed from 1920 to 1930. It was a pioneer in the field of art and design education in the Soviet Union, playing a significant role in shaping the aesthetic of early Soviet art and architecture.

In an op-ed published on Archinect last week, Peder Anker, a Professor in History at NYU, outlined his opposition to the show, which was to be staged in the Houghton Gallery, just steps away from the Ukrainian Village and several important cultural sites associated with the large Ukrainian diaspora group that resides in New York City.

Previously on Archinect: The Cooper Union Promotes Russian Architecture. Why?

The op-ed originally suggested that Anna Bokov, the show's curator, is engaging in Russian propaganda, with direct ties to Vladimir Putin through her father, Andrey Bokov, the Nationa...

UNESCO adds three heritage sites to its 'in-danger' list

2023-01-26T12:15:00-05:00

The historic center of the Ukrainian port city of Odesa and sites in Yemen and Lebanon were added to the World Heritage List Wednesday by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). All three sites were simultaneously added to UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger. The statement said that the decision would give Ukraine access to “technical and financial international assistance” to protect and rehabilitate the city center.

Both the Yemeni site and, of course, Odesa were placed under the category in response to the ongoing conflicts afflicting both countries. The latter being of constant "grave concern” to the UN’s cultural body since its inception 11 months ago.

The third site, Rachid Karami International Fair in Tripoli, was designed by Oscar Niemeyer prior to the beginning of his exile from Brazil in the early 1960s. It had been left unfinished as a result of the long Lebanese Civil War that began in 1975. UNESCO’s nomination text cites “[an] alarming state of conservation, the lack of financial resources for its maintenance, and the latent risk of development proposals” as the reason for its inscription.

New details emerge for Norman Foster's Kharkiv rebuilding plan

2022-12-29T12:27:00-05:00

New details are emerging on Norman Foster’s proposed master plan for the besieged Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

Popular German outlet DW has some information on the plan, which Foster and Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov have yet to make publicly available following an initial announcement in April.

For now, the plan reportedly entails at least five “pilot projects” and an interior overhaul of the city’s destroyed House of Regional Administration building that is similar to the firm’s reconstruction of the Reichstag by leaving only its existing facade remaining over a modernized interior.

Among the pilot projects, a new science and technology center will be enacted in addition to an unspecified “architectural landmark” at the city’s center and new 6-kilometer (3.72-mile) pedestrian park at the confluence of the city’s Kharkiv and Nemyshlya rivers. Further “Industry” and “Housing” pilots will involve the adaptive reuse of surviving residential buildings and a coal-fired power plant, provid...

Zaha Hadid Architects designs Ukrainian Expo 2030 master plan with demountable and redeployable pavilions

2022-12-06T11:48:00-05:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has published details of its proposed master plan for the Odesa Expo 2030 bid. In seeking to secure the Expo 2030 contract for the southern Ukrainian city, the design team has presented a scheme composed of “demountable” and “redeployable” pavilions after the event has concluded.

Image credit: Zaha Hadid Architects

“Future development in Ukraine will see a fundamental transformation of the country’s economy towards energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies,” the team said. “Zaha Hadid Architects’ design for ODESA EXPO 2030 targets the effective re-use of all facilities after the exhibition has closed, a challenge that all Expos share with major public events the world over; creating an Expo of the future where nothing is wasted.”

Image credit: JK Lab

Located on former farmland close to the city center, the proposed expo site is anchored by a main axis that will provide access to a series of national pavilions toward the south and a coastal eco park to the nor...

Ukraine’s architects look ahead to the challenge of rebuilding war-torn cities

2022-11-21T11:40:00-05:00

Eight months after Ukrainian forces retook the Kyiv suburb of Irpin from Russian occupiers, The New York Times has spoken with several architectural figures from the region on their mission to rebuild the urban landscape destroyed by war.

Since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, 885 buildings in Irpin have been destroyed, while 12,000 have been damaged. 119 high-rise apartment buildings have sustained significant damage, as have 1,483 private homes, resulting in 16,358 residents being left homeless. City officials estimate the cost of completely rebuilding Irpin to be over $1 billion.

Among those interviewed by The New York Times was Mikhail Sapon, an architect who is in charge of overseeing the city’s reconstruction in collaboration with the Irpin mayor’s office. “During this month, we started counting all the damage, scanning everything with drones,” said Sapon, who was himself shot at the...

The cost of war damage to Ukraine's buildings and infrastructure has reached $127 billion

2022-11-08T13:46:00-05:00

The latest analysis from the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) on the cost of direct damage to Ukraine's buildings and infrastructure since the beginning of the Russian military invasion of the country puts the estimate at $127 billion.

The report shows the largest share (39.7%) of the surveyable damage comes from residential structures, totaling 135,800 and equal to about $50.5 billion. As is usually the case in a total war scenario, transportation infrastructure was another big target. That category took up another 27.7% of the damage, with roadways ($26.6 billion) and railroad tracks ($4.3 billion) making up the majority of the $35.3 billion total.

Other civilian infrastructure, like education and healthcare, have been targets as well, suffering totals of $6.95 billion and $1.6 billion worth of damage, respectively. That includes some 978 healthcare facilities and a total of 1,270 schools, the deliberate destruction of which is generally considered a war crime under the Geneva Conv...

In Kyiv, a virtual tour guide shows the world what's left to uphold

2022-08-30T12:24:00-04:00

Soloviov’s virtual tours, which he announces on his Instagram page, have also become a way of coping with present circumstances. He says that during the pandemic and now the war, he has missed meeting visiting foreigners, some of whom were his most inquisitive tour participants. Now, he’s meeting them in their living rooms.

Dmytro Soloviov is unlike the many Ukrainian citizen journalists using social media to inform the non-traditional, non-television-connected audience about their war-torn home. Evacuated at the outset to the western Carpathian Mountains region, he began offering in-person and then (upon his return to the capital) virtual tours to audiences who described them alternatively as either “very intimate” or as places of refuge.

He says he won’t offer reviews of bomb-damaged buildings as a rule and is working to preserve the country's stock of Soviet-era architecture so as not to see it fall victim to war's terrible cycle of destruction — even after the shelling stops. “What will our descendants know of the 20th century in Ukraine if we demolished it all?” he said. “What will they think? That we did nothing?”

First came Putin’s War, then came the permanent changes to the architecture of one vital Ukrainian city

2022-06-21T17:46:00-04:00

The new construction is part of planning by Lviv’s mayor, Andriy Sadovyi, who said he envisioned a new, more resilient Ukraine after this war and is revamping his city’s infrastructure to prepare for an almost constant state of conflict […] for those displaced by war, Anton Kolomeytsev is envisioning something much less adorned, but no less graceful.

According to the New York Times, Lviv, Ukraine’s westernmost major city with a population of approximately 800,000, could face a war-fed refugee increase of around 50,000 persons if the process of internal displacement continues at its current pace. Recently updated building codes means the wave of new five- and seven-story apartment block developments must include mandated bomb shelters and reinforced concrete safety rooms (also called “Mamads”) in each unit. The first new developments are expected within two months.

Other designers have been able to expedite the housing process with a bit more alacrity, but Lviv's chief architect, Anton Kolomeytsev, says the protocol is always to plan buildings that can last for centuries. Kolomeytsev, the 35-year-old in charge of the rebuilding, said it also hinges on a concerted effort to preserve the city’s rich aesthetic character (including some of its Soviet-era examples) side-by-side with any new development in a plan that echoes key aspec...

UNESCO releases a new list of damaged cultural sites across Ukraine

2022-06-08T18:26:00-04:00

The UN’s official cultural body UNESCO has issued a new report documenting damage to an alarming amount of historic sites, monuments, and structures since the beginning of the Russian Federation’s criminal invasion of Ukraine began in late February.

The organization has verified that 139 sites have suffered damage since that time, a combined total of 62 religious sites, 12 museums, 26 historic buildings, 17 cultural buildings, 15 monuments, and 7 libraries, including the Babyn Yar Holocaust remembrance site in Kyiv, which have come under Russian bombs and artillery shells as the conflict shifts from a three-pronged invasion to a more targeted offensive focused in the eastern Donbas region.

Somewhat remarkably, none of the country’s sites listed on the organization’s official log of protected cultural property have been impacted or targeted by Russian shelling, the latter act being...

Hire Ukrainian Designers

2022-05-11T19:03:00-04:00

As we approach the third month of Russia’s ruthless attacks, citizens of Ukraine have continued to suffer unimaginable challenges. One of the many concerns that Ukrainians have had is financial, and how to maintain a livelihood during this tragic situation. Architects and designers, many of whom are regular users of Archinect, with work we’ve featured over the years, have been without work and income. If you’re a design firm that’s currently hiring, you’re in a position to help!

Previously on Archinect: Voices from Ukraine: Architects, designers, and academics share personal insights with Archinect

A new initiative called Hire Ukrainian Designers has been formed to connect struggling Ukrainian architects and designers with American firms for remote and freelance work. The group has been actively collecting applications from Ukrainian designers, verifying skillsets, availability, and English proficiency, and connecting them with US-based AEC firms. They are even providing hiring, IT, ...

Despite stigma and war, preservationists are fighting to keep Ukraine's Soviet-era architecture intact

2022-05-10T12:45:00-04:00

Attitudes towards Soviet-era architectural heritage are divided in Ukraine. Some value the country’s modernist, post-modernist and brutalist buildings for their sharpness and conciseness of form, for their functionality and concrete simplicity. But for others they stand as an unwanted reminder of Ukraine’s Soviet past, and much of this built heritage has come under threat in recent years.

Ukraine’s pre-WWII cultural infrastructure has been a focus of the press and comprises the vast majority of listed buildings in Ukraine’s state database. Examples of Soviet-era architecture are, however, systemically less protected. Their plight is being well-documented by social media activists like ukrainemodernism and has reignited a debate amongst preservationists inside Ukraine as to their rightful place in a country some feel is under threat of losing its national identity.

“Any way you put it, it’s our heritage,” photographer Dmytro Soloviov told Al Jazeera of his personal philosophy. “Regardless of your political affiliation, these are buildings and art objects that were created by Ukrainians.”

The preservationist cause is also being folded into the country’s plans to rebuild following the cessation of hostilities. Some hope they will include the Stalinist and Soviet-era s...

Norman Foster releases manifesto outlining his vision for Kharkiv, Ukraine as a 'city of the future'

2022-04-20T14:07:00-04:00

As the Russian invasion and occupation of Ukraine grind on, the leadership of one of the country’s most affected cities is already planning future rebuilding efforts after taking a special meeting with Norman Foster.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov met with the architect Monday to discuss his vision for rehabilitating a city that is now almost completely unrecognizable after two months of brutal shelling.

In the meeting, Terekhov laid out his vision for a reborn city defined by a new “high-tech architecture” and master-planned by Foster to “provide a framework for the creation of Kharkiv as a city of the future.”

The pair were joined by senior Ukrainian economic officials Igor Abramovych and by Olga Demyanenko, academics Ian Goldin of Oxford University and Harvard professor Ed Glaeser, and the Norman Foster Foundation’s Co-Heads of the Design, Architecture and Technology Unit Diego Lopez and Alberto Cendoya. Foster prepared a short manifesto for the meeting, which in part addresses th...

3D scanning is helping Ukrainians' risky fight to preserve their cultural heritage

2022-04-12T13:06:00-04:00

People in Ukraine are using 3D modeling tech to preserve cultural heritage sites — before they risk being destroyed by the Russian invasion. The project, called Backup Ukraine, was organized by smartphone camera capture app Polycam, which partnered with The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Vice Media Group, Danish non-profit Blue Shield Danmark, Ukraine’s Heritage Emergency Rescue Initiative, and the National Museum of the History of Ukraine.

Ukrainians’ makeshift efforts to hastily secure and protect vital sites across their country have become increasingly important given Russia’s well-documented pursuit of a Total War concept which has put civilian centers under the crosshairs with damage to residential infrastructure and cultural property becoming a frequent if not inherent result.

Users of the Polycam app can upload their scans to Backup Ukraine's project website, which will host the 3D replicas for a period of at least five years. Photogrammetry has been incorporated previously in conflicts like the Syrian Civil War that featured the deliberate targeting of monuments and other cultural relics. The U.S. Army is one prominent proponent. And it has been used recently in less-lethal disputes and the fight against climate change.

Estimated cost of damage to Ukraine's infrastructure reaches $63 billion

2022-04-05T20:23:00-04:00

The cost of direct damage to Ukraine's infrastructure in the month since Russia invaded the country has reached $63 billion, according to an analysis from the Kyiv School of Economics.

The Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) also reports that between the start of the invasion on February 24th through March 24th, at least 4,431 residential buildings, 92 factories and warehouses, 378 schools, 138 healthcare institutions, 12 airports, and seven thermal power and hydroelectric power plants have been damaged, destroyed, or seized. Ukrainian officials have reported that so far in April, Russian forces have destroyed the country’s only fully functioning oil refinery and have hit other critical infrastructure.

To calculate the cost of Ukraine’s damaged infrastructure, KSE researchers analyzed data submitted by civilians, the Ministry of Infrastructure, and local authorities. They also employed indirect methods, such as calculating the estimated area of war-damaged property in the most impacted cities.

The effects of the invasion are not only curtailing Ukraine but also Europe. Growing Euro...

War in Ukraine will bring long-term hurt to European construction

2022-04-01T12:16:00-04:00

Over one month since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the impacts of the war on Europe’s construction sector are beginning to emerge. Since the military offensive began, a steady increase in European sanctions against Russia has curtailed material supplies across the continent, while the uncertainty surrounding the supply of Russian oil and gas to Europe is expected to cause significant cost increases for manufacturing and supplying construction products.

Although the conflict has been ongoing for over a month, industry groups from Europe and the UK predict that the worst is yet to come for the AEC sector. The progressive nature of sanctions, the prior availability of products already in stockpiles or supply chains before the conflict began, and the tendency for manufacturers to agree on energy prices well in advance of supply, have all created a lag between events in Ukraine and their impact on construction sites.

“All projects are likely to be affected by issu...

Kyiv-based Balbek Bureau develops modular refugee shelters for displaced Ukrainians

2022-03-29T16:58:00-04:00

With more than 3.7 million Ukrainian refugees fleeing the country and another 6.5 million internally displaced, architects in Ukraine have been hard-pressed to put their skills to work by creating the necessary shelters and accommodations required for those uprooted by the brutal Russian war machine.

One such firm at the forefront of this effort is Kyiv-based balbek bureau, an award-winning 70-member practice whose peacetime portfolio ranges from retail and residential spaces to corporate offices, hotels, restaurants, and wellness centers. Led by its founder Slava Balbek, the team has pivoted to the refugee crisis with a new project for temporary housing titled RE: UKRAINE.

The modular town system is meant to provide a modicum of dignity for their fellow citizens via the expedited delivery of an adjustable set of structures centered around four basic elements: private rooms, public recreation areas, adequate kitchens, an...