Lviv Urban Forum

This weekend let's watch fascinating speeches of the Lviv Urban Forum 2024: 👆Alejandro Aravena is a Chilean architect who received the Pritzker Prize in 2016 for "the revival of socially oriented architecture". Aravena delivers a lecture on how architects can be a kind of rebel and accept today's challenges with dignity, creating radical changes not tomorrow, but today. ✌️Markus Zilker talks about how working with communities becomes the basis for inspiring architecture, full of concern for human relationships and co-creation. The architect is the founder of the Austrian studio Einszueins Architektur. You can watch full videos on our YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/es9a5bga

Let's watch and learn some tips for urban development from these speeches at the Lviv Urban Forum 2024: 🌿 Marcin Maraszek and Maciej Kaufman, who are co-founders of the Polish bureau Archigrest, talk about how to work with public spaces that carry national memory, as well as with natural landscapes that combine a tribute to the living world and modern urban trends. 🏙  In the central discussion of the first day, city mayors and experts discussed spots of interaction in those cities where the responsibility is the basis of co-creation. The following took part in the discussion: Iryna Ozymok from UMAEF, Gdańsk architect Piotr Lorens, Andrii Besedin from Kupyanska administration, Mechelen mayor Bart Somers, Lviv mayor Andriy Sadoviy as well as former Vilnius mayor Remigijus Šimašius. You can watch these videos here: https://lnkd.in/e4RZ6jSK

There will never be enough knowledge about urban development 🤓 That is why we are sharing the following videos of Lviv Urban Forum 2024 presentations: ✏️ Austrian architect and urban design researcher at the University of Vienna, Andreas Hofer, will tell how to better plan and successfully implement affordable housing using the Viennese model as an example ✏️ Christoph Gantenbein talks about the responsibility for researching and nurturing local typologies, because they are the unique code of each culture and environment. The architect is a co-founder of the international bureau Christ & Gantenbein, which he founded in 1998 together with Emmanuel Christ. You can watch full videos on our YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/ewj_kjH4

We continue to share videos of this year's Lviv Urban Forum presentations and discussions: 👆Gilma Teodora Gylyte is causing a stir for the second time with her speech about the striking change in the formats of educational buildings of the Soviet era, which is designed to transform society as a whole ✌️ We will hear desires and ways to ensure the interests of boys and girls in modern cities of Ukraine in a discussion from the main stage with the participation of teenagers themselves. You can watch full videos on our YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/es9a5bga

This year's forum was strengthened by the youth program, which we managed to implement together with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Girls and boys joined: 🪴 renovation of the public space in Lviv (workshops were conducted by Urbanideas, which already has a tradition of giving new life to old spaces) ✂️ architectural and design workshops from Yulia Vorotniuk, who also manages the youth projects such as NeprOsti and Ditvak 📦 creation of street cardboard furniture (unique workshops were conducted by Polish architects Jerzy Latka and Artur Jorgen) 🔎 quests in different areas of Lviv (managed by the City Museum) Moreover, thanks to the Ukraine-Moldova American Enterprise Fund project “City Is Me” we heard the Ukrainian teens' needs and opinions from the main stage of the forum! You can feel the atmosphere in the video on our channel: https://lnkd.in/et4_8eSP

It's been one month since Lviv Urban Forum 2024, which means it's high time we shared the speeches of our speakers:  ✍️ an opening lecture by a Ukrainian philosopher, a professor at the V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Oleksandr Filonenko. We'll learn more on why responsibility is connected with beauty and care, for which a person is ready to fight at any time. And also about what the city spaces and residents are up to here. ✍️ architect and urban designer, former chief state architect of the Netherlands (2015-2021) Floris Alkemade talks about his research and practical advice on the future development of Ukrainian communities, which he derived according to the methodology that has been working in the Netherlands for many years. You can watch full videos on our YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/er-maD4v

There were queues at the forum this year not for coffee, but for books! This June our visitors could pick free books thanks to our German friends DOM publishers, which specialize in architecture and urban planning. Last year Philip Meuser, founder of this publishing house and Meuser Architekten, talked about the typology of Ukrainian housing, and this year he decided to present dozens of books on the design of neighborhood cities, hospitals and children's institutions, and many other useful publications. We are really grateful to Oleg Drozdov, Kharkiv School of Architecture and the logistics company MIRS from Odesa, thanks to whom the books were presented to the forum right from Germany.

Going back to June, let's recap the discussion on the central topic of the forum – the responsibility of cities – with the participation of city mayors and experts. Iryna Ozymok from the UMAEF Fund emphasized the role of youth: "Standards for cities are formed by young residents, who are not "our future", but integral part of the current. Thus, our responsibility is not only to protect cities from the enemy, but also to strengthen human capital, a significant part of which is youth". Piotr Laurence, an architect from Gdańsk, believes that building communities is the greatest responsibility. It is not only about meeting the needs by the authorities, but about co-creating cities together (for example, in the format of workshops). However, it is worth understanding - such processes are long, requiring decades of years. Andriy Besedin from the Kupyanska MBA shared the opinion that the responsibility of managers lies in the role of "architects of the cities' soul". This means that even in such complex regions as Kharkiv one, it is necessary to work both on the restoration of basic processes and on ensuring that residents understand and believe that tomorrow will definitely come! Bart Somers, mayor of Mechelen (Belgium) is convinced: "Everyone is a mayor, because everyone should try to change city for the better. With such an approach, it is important that the city itself and the government should be open to the active participation of residents, positively motivating people at the same time". Andrii Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv, said that he feels a special responsibility of his city, where it is now possible to plan more, provide shelter and at the same time help other communities. That is why Lviv's mission is to do things that seem to be unreal even in other countries. Ex-Mayor of Vilnius Remigius Šimašius: "When you are in the process, it is difficult to see that urgent doesn't always mean important. And therefore, the necessary transformations are rarely popular. However, it's attention to landscaping and alternative urban infrastructure that turns cities into magnets where people want to live".

Shall we start the week with responsibility? As it is about the inclusion of animals into the urban space too. We are glad that this year the Lviv Urban Forum was treated by furry urban experts' visits 🐾 From Levchyk, the Lviv City Cat, Korzyk and Borya (dogs-urbanists from Kyiv) as well as many other animals who care about the development of the Ukrainian cities 🐈 🐶 Thanks to the NE:Urban community for providing part of the following photos 👋🏼

Swiss architect Christoph Gantenbein, co-founder of Christ & Gantenbein, was also a special guest at the second Lviv Urban Forum, who shared his thoughts on the importance of local typologies: "Each city has clearly defined characteristics that are easy to read – it's not about prominent sights and monuments, because these are rather exceptions. It is more about typical houses and buildings that you will see on the ordinary streets of a certain city – they are primarily shaped by the climate and weather that create the form, body of architecture (for example, shutters on the windows of sunny cities), as well as by the political conditions of the city's development and the financial capabilities of residents, which, for example, are expressed in the materials and storeys of buildings. As for the residents, by the way, the city belongs to them, no doubts. However, architecture also defines the city to the same extent, because it is man-made, "human" architecture, where each building is unique, like a work of art. That is why I would recommend not to destroy more than necessary. Moreover, from the point of view of modern housing needs, environmental friendliness and circularity, try to minimally demolish the old".