Almost three years have passed since the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and as the war proceeds, the damage to the built environment worsens. This project suggests an approach to address the forthcoming post-war context. It focuses on two parts: tackling an increasing housing shortage and retrofitting the existing housing stock. 

The first part of the project proposes a housing typology that can be applied across Ukraine. The building features a shell of vital functions organised within a grid, offering a flexible plan, which allows the residents to customise their living spaces. A well-studied feature of Ukrainian housing has been the residents’ adjustments to their apartments’ exterior features, such as balconies. This has included construction, self-made glazing and ornamentation. To treasure this tradition, the building has been fitted with balconies designed as a basic shell, to be completed by the residents. The other side of the building offers an unheated, weather-protected deck access, providing additional space beyond the apartments.

The second part of the project concerns retrofitting the existing housing stock, focusing on Soviet-era serial panel housing. As in the housing typology, additional space is added in the form of a glazed deck and balconies to buildings requiring exterior renovations.