This workshop is a pilot version of the new KhSA Master’s program, which launched in September 2025. In addition, if you are planning to enroll in this program, participation in the workshop will give you a chance to get a discount on tuition (upon acceptance into the program).
In February 2026, a one-week international workshop «Building Back Better: An International Workshop exploring solutions for the sustainable rebuilding of Ukraine» will bring together students from all over Ukraine and Europe to work together with international experts in design studios in Lviv and Warsaw.
This workshop is a pilot version of the new KhSA Master’s program which launched in September 2025. In addition, participation in the workshop will give you a chance to get a 25% discount on tuition (upon acceptance into the program in 2026, amount of discounts is limited to three places).
The workshop will focus on Kharkiv and brought together a powerful international community to develop proposals on District scale for Kharkiv.
February 1-7, 2026 (arrival to Lviv by January 31)
Warsaw and Lviv (Kubiyovycha 35A)
English (B2) and Ukrainian (as you will be working in international teams)
Limited up to 30
Participation in the workshop is free!
The workshop will be attended by teachers and students from the following institutions:
◼︎ University of Limerick, Ireland
◼︎ Brno University of Technology
◼︎ Politechnika Warszawska, PW
◼︎ Kharkiv School of Architecture
Students apply and are evaluated and selected based on the submitted documents IN ENGLISH:
○ A copy of a document confirming education in architecture, landscape architecture, urbanism or related fields with design skills
○ CV (up to 1 page)
○ Brief selection from your portfolio (up to 10 pages, in Ukrainian/English)
○ Motivation letter (half a page)
PhD is an architectural historian and educator teaching at Kharkiv School of Architecture and the University of Utah. She researches ordinary architectures, particularly housing, under pressure and in times of change. Her first book, Taking the Soviet Union Apart Room by Room (NIUP/Cornell UP) was published in 2023. Her book Mass Housing in Ukraine (with Philipp Meuser, DOM Publishers) was published in September 2024. Her co-edited volume Protests Beyond the Plaza (co-edited with Nathan Mark Hutson) is forthcoming with Routledge (2026).
Architect, product designer, and researcher. Works at the intersection of architectural practice, education, and issues of health and well-being. Originally from Kharkiv. Has been teaching at the Kharkiv School of Architecture since 2017. In her professional and teaching practice, she explores how space can support people and foster a sense of safety, connection, and community.
А writer and urban anthropologist. She holds a Master’s degree in linguistics of Kharkiv National University, and MA in Cultural Studies via Erasmus Mundus Master’s Scholarship. In 2020, she joined “(Un) Archiving (Post)Industry” Project, digitizing the photographic legacy of Donbas (received Europa Nostra 2023 award). Her PhD research at the University of St Andrews is dedicated to the transformation of local communities in Kharkiv, Ukraine. In 2025, she was awarded David Riches Medal in Social Anthropology. She is the author of Kharkiv, A War City (Ibidem, 2025), and a co-author of the volume, Kharkiv is a Dream: Public Art and Activism 2013–2023 (Ibidem, 2025).
An architect educated in Ukraine and Germany, with professional experience in both contexts. She has worked with FAKT – Office for Architecture, where she contributed to the publication Berlin Maps. Alongside her architectural practice, she is actively engaged in architectural education as a workshop tutor, lecturer, and guest critic. Her teaching approach emphasizes design as a collaborative process, combining conceptual thinking with hands-on experimentation and an awareness of social and cultural contexts. She is a co-founder of assemble.berlin, an initiative offering architecture workshops for children with migration backgrounds, and since 2023 a member of chora | atelier für architektur, a Berlin-based cooperative and Germany’s first architecture practice with steward ownership.
А native Kharkiv artist and architect, artist, and rebel, has dedicated her life to disrupting structures that don’t serve us and to building new connections that make us stronger. With her visual interventions on the streets of Berlin and Kharkiv Vasylysa reminds us how we are all connected and how we together can heal and dream of new futures.
The first workshop already took place last winter, where 30 participants in Lviv and 30 participants in Warsaw worked on researching the city of Dnipro at 4 scales: river, city, district, and home. The workshop ended with an exhibition that later traveled to Kyiv.
WATCH THE MOVIE ABOUT BUILDING BACK BETTER 2024
The second workshop focused on Odesa. Students’ proposals were presented at the French Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale. The exhibition traveled to Kyiv and Odesa.
WATCH THE MOVIE ABOUT BUILDING BACK BETTER 2025
Yes! And even if you’re not currently studying but have an academic background in architecture and are curious about applying to the KhSA MA program, or to gain further practical and theoretical knowledge and experience in architecture and urban planning and design in the Ukrainian context of future transformation and reconstruction.
While we would prefer to have all workshop participants in one physical location in Ukraine, the current realities prevent this. For that reason, we will arrange virtual studio rooms where students from Warsaw and Lviv will collaborate together and interact with teachers from different locations as well. Students from both locations will be divided into four different studio groups, integrating and mixing students from different backgrounds.
The workshop will consist of design studio group work complemented by lectures and talks by invited guests. It will be a great chance to get to know other students and young professionals in Ukraine and abroad. The outcome of the proposals created by students will be an exhibition which will launch simultaneously in Warsaw and Lviv, and then travel to Kyiv. The developed proposals will be featured as part of the French Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2025.
The workshop will be free for all participants! Just apply! A select number of participants traveling within Ukraine from outside Lviv will qualify for sponsorships for transportation or/and accommodation in Lviv.
A limited number of participants who are traveling from outside of Lviv qualify. Notify us in your application if you need accommodation or transportation and we will then contact you to make arrangements.
Professors and professionals from the participating universities and schools, as well as invited guests who are practitioners, researchers, and academics.
Among them: Professor Robert Mull, teachers from University of Limerick School of Architecture, professors from Brno University of Technology, KhSA teachers who will possibly join the teaching team at KhSA MA program.
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