unun.nu

Ukraine - the Netherlands Urban Network
Ukraine - the Netherlands Urban Network is a growing community of Ukrainians in the Netherlands, Dutch architectural and spatial planning organisations and other spatial professionals who joined forces to exchange knowledge in the context of the reconstruction of Ukraine.
The war in Ukraine has left many of its cities in rubbles and has affected millions of people. A growing community of Ukrainians in the Netherlands together with Dutch organisations and spatial professionals, have started the UNUN initiative to start thinking about the reconstruction of the country.

The aim of this platform is also to stimulate knowledge exchange and capacity building. That’s why the UNUN network will organise a series of meetups, workshops and lectures on a regular basis. The platform also aims to help spatial professionals who are affected by the war in Ukraine and who are looking for work in the Netherlands, by connecting them to Dutch design and engineering firms who are willing to employ people from Ukraine.

Ukrainian architects, landscape designers and urbanists seeking work can showcase their CV and/or portfolio on a platform, while design companies can easily upload their offers for various forms of employment within the collective labour agreement for architectural firms. In this way, we hope to pair spatial professionals from Ukraine with job offers.

We very much encourage that Dutch employers allow their Ukrainian employees to devote part of their working time to the reconstruction of Ukraine, by attending the monthly meetups and by becoming active within the UNUN network.
Restart Ukraine X Rotterdam at the Independent School for the City. Picture by Joke Schot
Restart Ukraine X Rotterdam at the Independent School for the City. Picture by Joke Schot
Job offers
Design, consultancy, and engineering firms as well as organisations in the public sector can post their job openings here

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Job seekers
Ukrainian spatial professionals who are looking for a job in the Netherlands can create a profile here

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library

aug 07

TU Delft course ‘Tools for Postwar Urban Recovery: Ukraine’

TU Delft in partnership with UNUN (Ukraine -The Netherlands Urban Network) and Ukrainian colleagues provided an online course on May-June 2023.

List of lectures

This course discusses spatial strategies for an integrated urban recovery in post-conflict settings. It investigates the process of reconstruction and what “building back better” implies: tackling inequalities, strengthening the capacities of local actors and pursuing a green, resilient and inclusive economic recovery anchored on sound spatial planning, design and policy.
This course was given by a team of academics & experts from several institutions.
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may 02

Report: Ukraine’s housing recovery forum – rebuilding a place to call home

PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency has just published a report based on the symposium ‘Ukraine’s housing recovery forum – rebuilding a place to call home’.

The report responds to Ukraine’s ambitions for the recovery of homes and neighbourhoods. It calls on policymakers in Ukraine, partner countries, and international organizations to give strategic attention to safe, affordable, and energy-efficient housing in future recovery efforts.

English and Ukrainian versions can be found here
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apr 19

Webinar: Post-war Reconstruction strategies

The webinar took place on 18-05-2022 and featured good case practices of recovery after war or natural disasters. Hosted by IHS Rotterdam (Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam).
Speakers: Anila Bejko, Pavlo Fedoriv and Claudio Acioly Jr.
Moderator: Oleksandra Tkachenko.
You can find a record of the webinar here
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apr 04

Article ‘Ukraine’s housing recovery forum – rebuilding a place to call home'

We are happy that new connections between Dutch and Ukrainian organizations (PBL and New Housing Policy) keep developing with follow-ups.

We are excited to share with you an article published in Housing Finance International by Julie Lawson, Oleksandr Anisimov, and Edwin Buitelaar. This article is a follow-up to our event, "Ukraine's Housing Recovery Forum – Rebuilding a Place to Call Home."

Overall, the article provides valuable insights into the challenges facing Ukraine's housing sector and the best practices that can be implemented to address them. We hope that this article will serve as a call to action for policymakers, practitioners, and stakeholders to work together to improve the housing situation in Ukraine
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nov 02

Launch of UNUN at City Makers Congres

On Friday 4 November UNUN will be publicly launched at the City Makers Congres in Rotterdam. In a short Q&A, Ukrainian urban planner and initiator of UNUN, Oleksandra Tkachenko, talks to Chief Government Architect Francesco Veenstra. They will discuss the Dutch-Ukrainian cooperation in which spatial design professionals will use their collective brainpower for the reconstruction of Ukraine. This will also be the official launch of unun.nu, our online platform.
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sep 08

Build Ukraine back together – A call for exchange and creating networks

While the war in Europe is still an everyday reality, people around the world are starting to think about the rebuilding of Ukraine. This weekend, for example, University College London is hosting an online symposium about the reconstruction of Ukraine. In this article, Hedwig van der Linden and Oleksandra Tkachenko explore how the Dutch professional community of urbanists, planners and architects could help Ukraine to build back its cities together and better.
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aug 16

Support for Ukrainian artists in the Netherlands

The Dutch government has announced that it will allocate 1 million euros to support artists who were forced to flee their country after the Russian attack on Ukraine and are living in the Netherlands, to enable them to continue their work here. This programme is financed by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, each allocating € 500,000. The Dutch Foundation for Literature is coordinating this support programme on behalf of the six national cultural foundations. Applications must be made by a Dutch legal entity, i.e. a cultural organisation or institution. The closing date of the support programme is 15 November 2022.
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agenda

lecture → oct 13

Fables of the Reconstruction

Independent School for the City
From the reconstructed heart of the city of Rotterdam, this seminar at the Independent School for the City will look at a variety of destroyed cities and how they have reinvented themselves or are in the process of doing so. From Rotterdam and Dresden, to Mariupol and Gaziantep, we will look at the historical form of these cities, and at the ideological questions their repair has posed or will pose. We will also try and put ourselves in the place of the politicians, engineers, planners and architects and formulate our own visions and maybe even tentative plans. Through lectures, excursions, workshops and conversations the seminar will cover a lot of ground in a short time and provoke an exchange of ideas across borders. Rotterdam will be the fitting background against which this seminar will play out.

reservations
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meet-up → oct 04

Studio Visit: KCAP

Rotterdam (details upon reservation)
We are excited to announce a fifth studio visit to KCAP. This time it will be a guided tour for Ukrainian colleges through Wijnhaveneiland and Laurenskwartier. Architect Ruurd Gietema plans to share insights and present his vision of urban development.
Please join us on Wednesday 4 October – 16:00 > 18:00h at Rotterdam.
Access is free and for everyone – capacity is limited to 20 individuals.
Please RSVP via the form.

reservations
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