International non-profit organization World Habitat, in partnership with UN-Habitat, has announced the World Habitat Awards 2024. The prizes strive to highlight projects that demonstrate novel and transformative approaches to housing that incorporate principles of climate change adaptation and community-driven solutions. This year, 8 projects have been selected, out of which 2 projects were recognized with the Gold World Habitat Award.
This article was originally published on Common Edge.
As this bloody year draws to a close, at a moment when the message “Peace on Earth” seems altogether mute, one might well ask: What power does architecture have? How can it address violence against innocent people, whose lives have been turned upside down? How does architecture respond to staggering cruelty? What can it say? Can it raise consciousness?
In the realm of media architecture and its role in supporting struggles for social justice, the recent Media Architecture Biennale 2023 (MAB23) in Toronto, Canada, shed light on a captivating aspect: The rapid and vast propagation of solidarity lighting in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The synchronized illuminations, infused with activism and global art projects, became a powerful emblem of worldwide support for Ukraine during its time of crisis. Two emphatic female political leaders in Europe initiated the lighting solidarity message. Surprisingly, the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag illumination on iconic buildings worldwide defined an image of solidarity even faster in the press than large crowds of people in anti-war protests the weekend after the war began.
The exhibition “Warsaw 1945-1949: Rising from Rubble” took place this year at the Museum of Warsaw, exploring the postwar reconstruction and rebuilding process that took place after the war. After the Second World War, Warsaw’s entire urban fabric, architecture, and social and economic status had to be rebuilt from the ground up. Curated by Adam Przywara, the exhibition “offered a new perspective on the myth of the postwar reconstruction of the Polish capital city and one of the most interesting pages in its history.”
Amidst the current wave of architectural globalization, the art of crafting designs attuned to specific contexts is fading. This concern is especially significant in countries in crisis, such as Ukraine, where the built environment's history is being eroded by war. In these conditions, the contribution of local architects with an innate grasp of the country's cultural nuances becomes imperative. Leading the charge in the rebuilding of Ukraine is prototype, a pioneering practice that challenges architectural conventions to push the country towards a promising future.
Recognizing their forward-looking vision, ArchDaily has featured prototype as part of the 2023 New Practices, a global annual survey. prototype's outlook on the future of architecture aligns with responsible design that addresses the environmental impact of construction and marries contextual and specific considerations for each project. Their recent accomplishments include the bookstore Readellion, and Ukrainian-Danish Youth House, epitomizing prototype's recurring design principles of mobility, adaptability, dynamic levels, and change of scenarios.
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.
DAGOpen OÜ has just won the architectural competition for a standard design of Ukrainian Family houses, with their design “Hata.” The competition invited 17 designs from Estonian and Ukrainian architects to design “a standard project for modern family-type small group homes to be built in Ukraine”. The architecture of Ukraine directly inspired the winning design and addressed the spatial decisions made to attend to the crisis.
Shigeru Ban has announced the intention to collaborate with the municipality of Lviv to design an expansion of the Lviv hospital. As the largest hospital in Ukraine, this unit has witnessed an increase in the number of patients since the beginning of the war, leading to the need to increase the capacity of the institution. Shigeru Ban’s proposal uses cross-laminated wood and joints inspired by traditional wooden construction techniques to create a safe and welcoming environment for healing and recuperating.
For the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, the Pavilion of Ukraine presents an exhibition titled “Before the Future,” focusing on the paradox of “building a future from a collapsing present.” The intervention reimagines two spaces, one in Arsenale and one in Giardini, to evoke protective structures that have become emblematic of feelings of safety while under threat for Ukrainian society. The curatorial team, composed of Iryna Miroshnykova and Oleksii Petrov, of the Kyiv-based architectural office ФОРМА, and Borys Filonenko, independent curator, art critic, and lecturer, set out to work with specialists from numerous fields to further explore the theme “Laboratory of the Future.”
The World Monuments Fund (WMF) announced a commitment of more than US$10 million to go towards preservation projects to protect culturally significant places from around the globe in urgent need of intervention. The initiatives vary in scope, from winterization efforts at Ukrainian heritage sites to protecting remote archeological sites representative of Peru’s Chachapoyas Civilization. The suite of projects launching in 2023 aims to address and help mitigate the threats that heritage sites are facing: conflict, climate change, and underrepresentation.
On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, a major escalation of the conflict dating since 2014. Now, a year later, the war is still ongoing. Both soldiers and civilians have fallen victim, while millions of others have become refugees, fleeing to safer areas across Europe or within Ukraine. What was instilled was a severe humanitarian and refugee crisis. The hostilities have also threatened Ukraine’s cultural and architectural heritage, as museums, monuments, and historical landmarks have become targets.
The implications are also reaching Europe and globally, as energy resources and food supplies become scarcer, damaging some economies. Still, Western countries remained unified in their support of Ukraine, as reported by international news outlets. Despite the economic difficulties, international support was mobilized through various initiatives in hopes of helping displaced people, protecting cultural heritage, and mapping a plan for reconstruction.
The World Heritage Committee decided to inscribe the Historic Center of the Port City Odesa, Ukraine, on the World Heritage List. The decision symbolizes the recognition of the outstanding value of the site and the commitment of the 194 States Party of the Convention not to undertake any deliberate step that may damage it and to help protect it. The site has also been inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger, which gives it access to international financial or technical assistance to ensure its protection and, if necessary, assist in its rehabilitation, according to UNESCO.
Norman Foster Foundation and Arup office in Berlin schemed a master plan for Kharkiv, Ukraine, to guide future urban regulations and prepare professionals for the city's reconstruction. In collaboration with a local advisory board, the outline is defined by a series of pilot projects to develop aspects such as heritage, infrastructure, and rivers. The initiative follows a request from the Kharkiv Mayor to the Foster Foundation through the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, weeks after the Ukraine War started in February 2022.
Zaha Hadid Architects has joined Ukrainian authorities to present the Odesa Expo 2030 bid proposal, an event planned to become the first Expo to be hosted in Eastern Europe. The masterplan is designed with legacy and sustainability in mind. The central pavilions are configured to be transformed into Ukraine’s first fair exhibition hub after the closing of the Expo, while the national pavilions are designed to be dismantled and redeployed as new civic buildings throughout Ukraine.
Shigeru Ban has just launched the office’s most recent project in Nieuw Zuid in Antwerp, Belgium. Named Ban, after its creator, and in collaboration with Bureau Bouwtechniek, the complex puts in place a 25-story residential tower and a separate building, creating a total of 295 residential units. During the breaking ground ceremony, the architect also inaugurated an exhibition of images highlighting his humanitarian work in conflict and disaster areas, in near proximity to the construction site.
Emerging Ukrainian architecture firm NOVA - New Office of Vital Architecture- designed the new Mariupol City Hall as a proposal to reconstruct the city, almost devastated during the current war in Ukraine. The project seeks to open the discussion on urban democracy and civic life through architecture by replacing traditional hierarchical schemes with an open and accessible government building.
LINIA, a project signed by VICE VERSA Association, is a photographic installation exploring and documenting the stories, and the collective mindset of the territories near one of the most fragile, yet rigid lines in today’s context: the line separating NATO from non-NATO nations. The project, initiated by Dorin Ștefan Adam and Laurian Ghinițoiu, is on display at the Timișoara train station, in Romania, and it represents one of the main exhibitions of the Timișoara 2022 Architecture Biennale, which ran from 23 September to 23 October 2022. The schedule of LINIA has been extended however to remain open to the public until April 23.
When war started in Ukraine, the faculty and students of the Kharkiv School of Architecture (KhSA) were forced to flee from their city. After three weeks of being scattered across Ukraine and Europe, they decided to reconvene in Ukraine and continue their work. The school relocated to Lviv, one of the safest cities in Ukraine, in order to restart their in-person education. Various platforms and institutions in Lviv, like the Lviv National Academy of Arts, are hosting the dislocated institution and providing continuous support. The KhSA is also looking for financial support to help keep the school open.
