unun.nu

Ukraine - the Netherlands Urban Network

The Panorama Ukraine: Working on water

Date: Mon 27 November – Fri 1 December 2023
Location: Keilezaal, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Organized by: International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR), Archiprix International, Ukraine–the Netherlands Urban Network (UNUN), College van Rijksadviseurs (CRa), Vereniging Deltametropool (VDM), Independent School for the City, City of Rotterdam, and Nieuwe Instituut (NI), local Ukrainian partners and stakeholders.
From November 27th – December 1st, we invite (inter)national designers, municipalities and water experts to Rotterdam to work on water-related issues in relation to the Ukrainian rebuilding process.
The Panorama Ukraine: Working on water - workshop, is a week-long, interdisciplinary program, which will include inspiring lectures from leading experts around water-related issues (from design to technological, from ecology to governance perspectives), excursions to relevant projects and practices, and, of course, the situated and in-depth design workshops themselves.

During the workshops, international and interdisciplinary teams will work intensively together on several case studies, located in Ukraine – in a stimulating setting, surrounded by experts and peers from all over the world. Divided into five groups, the participants will approach one of the case studies through the lens of the following subthemes, all related to the rebuilding and reconstruction in the lower Dnipro-delta:
o Equitable drinking water accessibility
o Water as a sustainable energy source
o Water availability for agrarian purposes and industries
o Water in regional ecosystems
o Water in climate adaptation (inland + river + sea)
o Water as a carrier of socio-cultural spatial identities
o Integral water governance (from (inter)national to regional and local scale)

Designers, architects and experts from Ukraine and The Netherlands, as well as local stakeholders from different municipalities, will help all participants to understand the specific and situated needs, contexts and questions from Ukraine. The designers will use their research and analytical skills and the power of (design)imagination to visualize how spatial design in general and architecture, urbanism and landscape architecture can contribute to, and form initial conclusions around the situated issues at hand. The results of the five case studies will be presented and discussed collectively. As such, the Panorama Ukraine: Working on water – workshop will serve as an incubator of integral concepts around the rebuilding of Ukraine and jumpstart collaborations between international design talent, water experts and people specialized in innovative governance.
The lessons learned, approaches, strategies and the propositional (design)solutions developed during these workshops, will be made accessible to be deployable elsewhere: after all, water is a global and planetary issue.
@IABR / Sabine van der Vooren
@IABR / Sabine van der Vooren
Programme
In this respect, the pursuit of a healthy and equitable ecosystem is central to the IABR. In the context of the longer-term Panorama Ukraine-program, IABR takes care of the project coordination together with partners Archiprix International, Ukraine–the Netherlands Urban Network (UNUN), College van Rijksadviseurs (CRa), Vereniging Deltametropool (VDM), Independent School for the City, City of Rotterdam, and Nieuwe Instituut (NI) and local Ukrainian partners such as ReStart Ukraine.
Results
After an intensive and inspiring week, the participants will present their results on the last day (Friday, December 1st). We aim to have various spatial designs for specific parts of the Kakhovka Dam region, both on different spatial scales and with different temporalities, next to more strategic plans for water management.
The results will include timelines, narratives, sketches and reflections on lessons learned. The ambition is to integrate all of these designs into a map of the entire region, which will be shared in an online knowledge-sharing and archiving environment. As such, we will jointly develop building blocks for Ukrainian and global communities struggling with water management issues, that can be shared with and applied in other global contexts.

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


meet-up → dec 13

Studio Visit: West 8

Rotterdam (details upon reservation)
We are ready to announce a sixth studio visit to West 8.
This time it will be a guided 1.5 hours tour of West 8 projects with one of the directors of West8 Christian Dobrick and a lead landscape designer Nazar Dutko.
The tour will start from the Central station and follow west-south covering urban and landscape interventions we have made over the last 20 years in Rotterdam. West8 is looking forward to questions and active participation.

Please join us on Wednesday 13 December (time tbc) at Rotterdam.
Access is free and for everyone – capacity is limited to 20 individuals. Please RSVP via the form.

reservations
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lecture → dec 06

DUO Lecture: Schools of Tomorrow

Independent School for the City - Delftsestraat, 33 - Rotterdam
On the 6th of December, the UNUN network and the Independent School for the City will organize an event with David Gianotten, Michael den Otter (OMA) and Slava Balbek (balbek bureau) about their experiences in reinventing school buildings with innovative systems and technologies.
We will start the evening with an intro to the issue of the destruction of education infrastructure by Pavlo Gorokhovskyi (CRa and UNUN). Afterwards, David Gianotten and Michael den Otter (OMA) will explore further the topic of modular schools and the latest innovations in the field of education building. Slava Balbek from balbekbureau will join us online to discuss 3D-printed schools and the information needed to rebuild Ukraine's social infrastructure.
You can join either in the Independent School for the City or online!
YouTube Livestream

reservations
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