Resilient Futures
Initiatives
Building Back Better: Kharkiv


Our research and workshop in February focused on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second most populous city, located just 25 miles from the frontline at the Russian border. Prior to the full-scale invasion, Kharkiv was a vibrant hub of business, innovation, trade, and higher education, hosting around 200,000 students, including many internationals. Historically, the city has played a vital role for Ukraine and Eastern Ukraine more broadly, culturally, politically, and economically. The two-week international workshop explored Ukraine-led approaches to sustainable urban recovery, highlighting the importance of local knowledge and expertise in shaping resilient futures. Building on previous initiatives in Odesa and Dnipro, international students, tutors, and partners met again in Lviv and Warsaw to exchange ideas and collaborate on strategies for sustainable urban, social, and cultural rebuilding.



Building on insights from previous editions, we spent two weeks bringing together participants from around the world with their Ukrainian peers in a space of dialogue and co-creation. Together, we explored the complexities of recovery, generating ideas that respond to both immediate needs and long-term recovery.


City Scale Studio (Warsaw)

The Kharkiv workshop demonstrated the importance of embedding recovery strategies within the city’s own cultural and historical context. By drawing on local narratives, traditions, building typologies, and materials, participants explored ways to reinforce Kharkiv’s unique identity, strengthen collective memory, and nurture a sense of belonging, essential for psychological resilience and for recovery that is genuinely rooted in the local community.


Organisers:
  • University of Limerick, School of Architecture
  • Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture
  • VUT Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture
         
        


Resilient Futures