From War to Prosperity: the Future of Ukrainian Cities

2 July, 16:00

The Great Assembly Hall of the Lviv Municipal Council

On 26–30 June, 2022, Katowice, Poland, is hosting the 11th World Urban Forum, an international platform for discussing sustainable urban development. The topic of Ukraine is presented by several initiative groups of experts and researchers.

Right after the Forum, we have an opportunity to communicate with its participants and to talk both about global challenges and tendencies in urban development and the prospects of post-war reconstruction of Ukraine.

Ukraine has already started a discussion about its post-war reconstruction. The Ukrainian authorities have announced the development of the U-24 plan. Experts and activists are already proposing their visions of the future and organising online lectures and discussions.

Post-war reconstruction will be a monumental task for Ukraine. It is a huge challenge and at once an opportunity for Ukraine to reinvent itself and to build sustainable and open society. What words to use to discuss the post-war situation: rebuilding, reconstruction, renaissance or reinvention? How to design to meet the urgent needs of the cities and to relate the design to the strategies of the future? What approaches to apply to urban design? How to work with the local community experiencing the post-war trauma? What kind of relations to maintain between the authorities, the experts and the local communities? What important changes have to take place behind the “façade” of tangible reconstruction? Why top-notch education is important right now?

The urban coalition Ro3kvit invites a broad audience to discuss this and other issues.

Participants:

Oleg Drozdov, Ukraine, founder of Drozdov&Partners architectural office, co-founder and president of the Kharkiv School of Architecture, head of the Ro3kvit initiative group.

Anastasiya Ponomaryova, Ukraine, urbanist, co-founder and researcher of Urban Curators, focuses on participation, research through action and activists initiatives.

Lillet Breddels, the Netherlands, researcher, curator, publisher of Volume Magazine, director of Archis.org, an architectural analytical centre in Amsterdam, lecturer at KU Leuven, focuses on architecture in the (post)conflict context.

Fulco Treffers, the Netherlands, lead architect and urbanist with 12N Urban Matters, tutor and head of the Master’s programme at the Kharkiv School of Architecture, focuses on social urban design, participation and communities, Ro3kvit project manager.

Moderator:

Natalia Kozub, Ukraine, architect with Drozdov&Partners, assistant tutor at the Kharkiv School of Architecture, researcher with the civil society organisation “Another Way. Kharkiv”; focuses on landscape urbanism, blue-green infrastructure and strategical urban design.

Organisers:
Lviv Municipal Council
The Kharkiv School of Architecture

The discussion is organised under the public programme of the exhibition “Idea. Materiality. Architecture” of the Kharkiv School of Architecture.