Refugee settlements around the world have been analyzed by the Ukrainian architectural studio Balbek Bureau to create a plan that provides shelter for people who have become homeless during the war. They called the project Re: Ukraine and developed a system of modular cities, each of which can accommodate up to 8,000 refugees. “We share the project and make all documentation available free of charge just so that these refugee camps can take place,” Borys Dorogov, a member of the studio, said today during the presentation of the project at the DOX center in Prague.
The lecture took place as part of the Living Forum Congress on Housing, Design and Architecture. Architects are now negotiating with authorities and private investors to secure financing. They hope to be able to start building in western Ukraine soon. Dorogov said the 24-person creative team began work on March 10 and now has plans in place for six refugee cities. “The costs were financed by our Balbek Bureau studio,” he said.
He recalled that the war had deprived almost 13 million Ukrainians, five million had left the country, and almost eight million more had moved within the country, mainly to western Ukraine. During his speech, he projected a mosaic of portraits of studio members. For those with a toy car, it meant that they had passed to relative safety in Ukraine, the pictures with the plane symbol indicated those who left the country. One of the characters was with almost every architect. “At the moment, we are not only architects, but also refugees, so we decided to use it somehow,” he said.
Balbek Bureau has been working for almost 13 years, focusing mainly on commercial interiors, and has had a number of projects in the USA and China. “The main idea in creating cities for refugees was to maintain dignity in this situation as well,” he said. The architects also relied on what arose during the previous war in Ukraine in 2014. Dorogov projected pictures of large shipping containers. “It looks like a garage rather than a place where you want to live. The basis of this project is that each person should have five square meters. The basis is mathematics. But we came up with the idea that more space needs to be provided and that it is also possible,” he said.
They began to design modules that are larger than in regular refugee camps. They are divided into four functions, ie housing for individuals or families, common space, kitchen and bathroom, which can be combined and adjusted in terms of scale. “Functionality, empathy and technology are important to us,” he said. They decided to build from wood. In the event that wood processing plants are bombed in Ukraine, they are looking for an alternative solution, such as galvanized metal profiles.
Houses composed of modules can be single-storey or two-storey, Dorogov says that they should also meet aesthetic requirements and projects a visualization of low houses, whose facade resembles exposed concrete. They are complemented by benches and lawns. They have calculated systems for 500, 1000, 1800 and 8000 residents, and proportionally they count on a certain number of kindergartens or sports grounds.
Source: Balbek Bureau studio and CTK
