An International European cultural project, U-RE-HERIT, launched an initiative to protect Ukraine’s architecture, heritage, and memory. This wide consortium of architectural institutions came together to reach a common goal of preserving Ukrainian culture. With the ongoing crisis, the project aims to address heritage as a resource for cultural, social, environmental, and economic recovery. Moreover, the project hopes to redefine local cultural identity and rebuild the city with the sensitivity of collective memory.
The project is made up of a consortium of 11 organizations interested in addressing the sensitive question of post-war recovery. Moreover, the UREHERIT initiative believes that the regeneration of culturally meaningful projects can be empowering for local communities, leading to the regeneration of a new and sustainable Ukraine. The partners involved are the Architects Association of Lithuania; Architects Sweden, the Federal Chamber of Architects and Chartered Engineers, Austria (BKZT); Royal Danish Academy; The Institute of Technology and Architecture (IBT); Romanian Order of Architects; The National Council of Architects, Planners, Landscapers and Conservationists (CNAPPC, Italy); The Federal Chamber of German Architects (BAK); Estonian Association of Architects; The National Union of Architects of Ukraine; Ro3kvit: Urban Coalition for Ukraine; Kharkiv School of Architecture with the Architects’ Council of Europe as associated partner.
The initiative will produce some much-needed deliverables in the form of a set of recommendations and creative strategies. The project will deliver heritage value assessment methodology, strategies for how to regenerate heritage in a culturally meaningful way, methodologies for the renovation of Soviet housing in Ukraine, and related improvements in educational programs’ awareness in architecture schools. Moreover, the recommendations will also include methodologies around participatory processes in heritage protection, encouraging healing through this form of remaking.
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Ukraine, as any other place, requires tailor-made, and not copy-paste solutions. Together with other project partners, we agreed from the very beginning to adhere to the principle that all the methodologies, recommendations and proposals will be created together with Ukrainian architects, cultural specialists and communities, trying to adapt the best European practices to the unique Ukrainian context. — Rūta Leitanaitė, the initiator and coordinator of the project, a member of the Council of the Architects Association of Lithuania.
As Ukrainian and European experts join forces, the project hopes to foster an ongoing conversation and a two-way knowledge exchange between Europeans and Ukrainians. Through this delicate co-creation process, a newfound knowledge of contemporary heritage preservation can be born. Moreover, the project will also encourage long-term cooperation between architects all over the globe, all tasked with one goal of reimagining processes of preservation in today’s world.
As the crisis in Ukraine is still ongoing, the implications of it reach the rest of the world in the form of geopolitical, economic, social, and cultural losses. In this year’s La Biennale di Venezia 2023, the Pavilion of Ukraine showcased “Before the Future.” The exhibition explored the possibilities of building a future from a collapsing present. Moreover, many designers are taking the initiative to create new definitions of spaces to fit the emerging crisis’s needs. DAGOPEN OÜ has just won the architectural competition to design a standard Ukrainian Family Home, addressing the spatial needs necessary to attend to the crisis. Finally, Shigeru Ban recently announced the intention to collaborate with the municipality of Lviv, to design an expansion to the hospital. The proposal features cross-laminated wood and joints inspired by traditional woodworking techniques to create a safe and welcoming environment for those who have fallen ill during the war.
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