Issuu

6262 October 2023

BRDA Foundation × Base UA × Urban Curators × Massachusetts Institute of Technology

We are the BRDA Foundation. Our goal is to create sustainable, quality housing opportunities and to shake up the building sector in Poland and Ukraine. We work and encourage working with material reuse in design and architecture.

6262 is the dialing code to Sviatohirsk in the donieck region. That’s the direction we are choosing to launch a pioneering project of creating an urban plan for reconstructing a Ukrainian city. A small one, but an important one, that can be reconstructed in total in a short period of time. We wish to create an unprecedented document, that will be the beginning of concrete, real, quantifiable reconstruction together with the local government and non-profits. In the spirit of sustainability, respect for nature, using local resources, implementing material reuse and social engagement practices. We would like to invite you, together with our academic and social partners, to create that vision together with us.

Sviato hirsk

SVIATOHIRSK BEFORE THE WAR

• number of inhabitants: 4309 • area: 8,4 square kilometers • part of the National Historic and Architectural Reservation • popular SPA and health destination with a large rehabilitation and hotel base • lively industrial region with a nationwide famous production of bricks and ceramics • historic connection with Poland

SVIATOHIRSK AFTER THE WAR

• number of inhabitants: 900 • area destroyed: 90% of the city • area around the city are being demined • since the liberation, there were no attacks on the city • a new mayor arrived in town, ex-military and engaged activist, Volodymyr Rybalkin • the reconstruction is already happening thanks to local engagement, but without strategy and urban planning

WHY SVIATOHIRSK?

• a city drastically stricken by war that needs our support • an ambitious and motivated mayor • investment potential: a touristic gem by the river, immersed in nature, with pre-war architecture • a sanatorium past: what about a post-war, reconvalescent future? • the presence of the Lavra is a valuable part of Ukrainian identity and history • we already know activists and nonprofits working in the region

MORE ABOUT SVIATOHIRSK

• New York Times http://bitly.pl/8yUah

• Svidomi (before and after the occupation photos) http://bitly.pl/Iduzi

• About the Lavra: https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/ news/2023/04/20/7398762/

• That’s why we need to help: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=voL2YCbgyCQ&ab_channel=Associ atedPress

Our process

1. COLLECTING DATA A team of urban planners, city council employees and photographs under the eye of architect Varvarya Yanysheva from Urban Curators build up the documentation necessary for further work. Base UA volunteers carry out a sociological inquiry among Sviatohirsk inhabitants to map their priorities and needs.

2. ANALYSIS, PREPARING THE WORKSHOP MIT students under the eye of architect and academic Anastasiya Ponomaryova organize and analize the data, preparing recommendations in English for our workshop. The BRDA Foundation organizes the teams, working conditions, events, implements a communication strategy.

3. BUILDING A VISION Intense work begins and will last two full months (online and offline), during which we will hold two three-day sessions in Warsaw. Our Polish-Ukrainian team of architects, engineers and urban planners will prepare a complex report for Sviatohirsk, with visualizations, plans and an expert database, prepared with the use of professional technology.

4. BUILDING A NETWORK The Warsaw sessions are also a chance to bring the context of the reconstruction of Warsaw closer to our Ukrainian friends during walks, events and special lectures at the Warsaw University of Technology. The expert team created during those two montsh can continue their work in future projects, engaging the Polish and Ukrainian building sector in stage two of the Sviatohirsk reconstruction.

REFERENCES

Our team

A team combined of circa 10-20 people will be working in Sviatohirsk, Warsaw and online. We are gathering Polish experts whose functions will be mirrored 1:1 in the Ukrainian team. That’s how we will create duets working together on topics in their area of expertise. The subteams work will be confronted with the whole team during weekly online meetings and during two sessions in Warsaw. Our architects are very much familiar with practices implemented in the reconstruction of Polish cities after the war. They will serve as professional support for Ukraine not only during the workshops, but also lectures at th Warsaw University of Technology and thanks to access to documentation regarding post-war Warsaw reconstruction. The work is organized based on partnership – nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. We are here to share know-how, knowledge and to organize the process.

POLISH GROUP • Michał Sikorski, TŁO - overseeing the final shape of the plan

Architect and urban planner. Between 2008-2017 Michał worked for the Belgian studio XDGA. He created the masterplan of the city-campus Paris-Saclay (FR). He also co-created the vision of urban development of the Warsaw University campus (BIPA UW). Lecturer at ETH Zurich. Since 2021, leader of his own architecture studio TŁO and urban planning lecturer at WAPW. Member of the Municipal Commision of Architecture and Urban Planning, author of one of Warsaw’s crucial district masterplans.

• Mikołaj Gomółka, TŁO - Polish group coordinator

Architect and urban planner. Winner of BDA-SARP, TUP, Architektura & Biznes and KIPMiM awards. Lecturer at WAPW, Technische Universität Berlin and the University of Detroit Mercy. Conducts research on the depopulation of Polish towns, retrofitting buildings and adapting them to new functions and urban composition. Collaborates with TŁO, where he is responsible for urban planning projects.

• Zofia Jaworowska, BRDA - process coordinator

Activist with many years of experience in the non-profit sector, with a creative acadamiec background. Coordinated projects and implemented communication strategies in top foundations in Poland. She founded and coordinated the work of Grupa Zasoby, an awarded and acclaimed initiative that supported Ukrainian refugees ariving in Poland. Founder and chairwoman of BRDA. Landscape architect, technical and transport engineer: TBC

UKRAINIAN GROUP Most of the group (coordinator, urban planner, landscape architect, technical engineer) will be employed based on received offers, which will allow us to access not only the best architects in Ukraine, but also the ones that are mobile and available. • Varvara Yahnysheva - organizing documentation in Sviatohirsk Architect and urban planner from Donetsk. Since 2019, she is part of the Urban Curators group as an urban planner. She creates temporary pavillions, traditional urban projects, currently focusing on emergency housing. In 2023, Varya completed her research on the architectural identity of the donetsk region, and she engages in the reconstruction efforts in the Cramatorsk region – she will make sure, that the project is deeply rooted in current needs and reality.

• Anastasiya Ponomaryova - organizing data analysis Architect, researcher based at ETH Zurich. Cofounder of Urban Curators and the acclaimed Co-Haty project, which repurposes abandoned buildings into housing for IDPs. Anastasiya conducted research at the Levental Center for Advanced Urbanism at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is currently working on environmentally responsible housing for IDPs in Ukraine.

RESOURCES • Base UA is a social organization working in the donetsk region since 2022. They are most active where they are most needed – from evacuating civillians, to working with children, coordinating a mobile hospital and reconstructing destroyed homes.

• Urban Curators is an organization that combines urban planning, sociology and working with locality and identity by carrying out architectural and social projects. Since 2022, UC conducts Co-Haty; as part of the project they’ve already turned a dozen of abandoned buildings into homes for IDPs ready for living, working and restoring balance.

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology: we will be joined by MA students from the Architecture Department at MIT. The university has been a long-time leader in global academic rankings. The participation of American students in the project will allow to place it on an international urban planning and architectural map.

• Warsaw University of Technology: academic center for Polish architects, urban planners and researchers. The school housed the best urban planners in the country who reconstruction of the capital. It’s the heritage of the Warsaw urban school that is well documented by the University, which will be an inspiration for reconstructing Sviatohirs.

Spe cifics

Planned effects of the project:

• complex report available online with visualizations, plans, well-described methodology and its effects, and a roadmap for the future: a site-specific foundation for implementing and designing in Sviatohirsk, graphically designed, in two languages – English and Ukrainian,

• online database of materials used during the process available to anyone who is interested (maps, statistics, sociological research, photo and video documentation),

• wide communication campaign about the project in Polish, American and Ukrainian media. Project duration: December 2023 - May 2024 Necessary budget (we are looking for mixed financing options which include several partners): 80 000 PLN

BENEFITS OF WORKING TOGETHER • Taking part in a pioneer Polish-Ukrainian reconstruction project – the size of the area, local context and expert team allow for the plan to have a real chance of being carried out,

• BRDA conducts and carries out a common communication strategy with the Partner, • Strengthening ESG rates in the company thanks to carrying out a social project about sustainable reconstruction,

• Presence at a potentially new market for the Partner, • Participating in project events (lectures, curated walks, elegant thank you dinner, events with top architects in Poland).

BRDA Foundation KRS: 0000977888 NIP: 5213973491 REGON: 52237258800000 Belwederska 36/38 00-594 Warsaw

fundacjabrda.org ↗