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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...

Hapi Homes donates 10 “foldable” residential structures in Odesa

2023-04-07T11:33:00-04:00

A new gift facilitated by the Ukrainian Red Cross has installed 10 new “foldable” modular home designs from Hapi Homes, LLC. to the beleaguered historic port city of Odesa.

The gift is meant to house local families that have been displaced as a result of the ongoing conflict. The two-bedroom units come fully furnished and are set to be delivered later in the month in an effort to alleviate the burden on local workers – all doctors, nurses, teachers, and engineers, respectively.

The company says: “The prefabricated homes are prebuilt and folded by Hapi Homes and assembled on-site. Each home is “plug-and-play,” and will be assembled in less than 8 hours. The homes will be located on a 2.4-acre site that the city hopes will ultimately house more than 70 homes."

Image courtesy Hapi Homes LLC.

Each design offers a total of 420 square feet of space for the workers’ families and includes a kitchenette, private bathroom, dining, and living room, with double-layered tempered glass windows, ...

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.

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...

Ukrainian cultural workers are rushing to protect their country’s heritage from Russian military onslaught

2022-03-14T17:45:00-04:00

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine presses on into its fourth week, volunteers and cultural workers, a number of whom are also at arms, are rushing to erect makeshift barriers and other forms of protection against what could be a demoralizing strike against heritage sites across the embattled republic.

Brave residents in places like Odesa and other metropolitan areas have been attempting in earnest to shield several important pieces of cultural infrastructure such as the port city’s monument to Duc de Richelieu and the historically significant St. George's Cathedral in Lviv. Meanwhile, a parallel effort is also underway to secure the country’s fine arts holdings, which are also afforded special protection status under international law.

Location of museum heavily damaged by strikes in Okhtyrka, Ukraine: 50.3046154, 34.8928959

The images below were taken about 12 years apart (March 2010 and March 2022). pic.twitter.com/qqyBHcW9Sb
— Brady Africk (@bradyafr) March 12, 2022

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An Instagram account with an eye on Soviet-era modernism is cropping up in Ukraine

2021-10-14T11:55:00-04:00

An IT specialist in his 30s, he says that his interest in his hometown’s Soviet-era architectural history began gradually, starting with an appreciation of 19th-century neoclassical architecture. From there, he became interested in constructivism, and finally, modernism. “I began to understand that these [Soviet-era buildings] were not just ‘boring, Soviet panels’, as most people thought of them, but perhaps masterpieces of world architecture.”

The Ukrainian port city of Odesa offers a unique blend of popular 19th-century styles and Soviet-era modernism. Architect Heinrich Topuz’s Academic Theatre of Musical Comedy, completed in 1981, stands as one of the city’s best examples of building in the period. Similar social media tributes to modernism remain among the more popular for design fans online.

“My Instagram account will become an architectural monument to the Odesa which we have lost,” the curator of @odessamodernism told The Calvert Journal. Currently, the account has over 6,000 followers.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by architecture | design | art (@odessamodernism)