Foster + Partners founder Norman Foster has proposed to rebuild the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv by bringing together the best design minds in the world.
The British architect recently met with Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov to discuss the future rebuilding of the city, which has faced devastating destruction in the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war. Kharkiv is the second-largest city in Ukraine with a population of about 2 million, and is located very close to the Russian border. According to Terekhov, more than 1900 buildings have been destroyed in the bombardment.
The meeting, which was facilitated with the assistance of the UNECE Secretariat in Geneva following discussions at the 2nd UN Forum of Mayors in Geneva, also saw the participation of Igor Abramovych, People’s Deputy of Ukraine of the 9th Convocation, and Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy; and Olga Demyanenko, Director of the Department for Relations with International Agencies and Financial Institutions.
Professor Ian Goldin of Oxford University and Professor Ed Glaeser of Harvard University, along with the co-heads of the Design, Architecture and Technology Unit of the Norman Foster Foundation, Diego Lopez and Alberto Cendoya, also attended the meeting at Foster’s invitation.
With most of Kharkiv completely destroyed, Terekhov set out his vision for the rehabilitation of the city, its buildings and its infrastructure encompassing housing, hospitals, schools, cultural institutions and historic buildings.
At the meeting, Foster shared the draft of a manifesto he had prepared for the reconstruction of Kharkiv. Pledging to assemble the best minds with the best planning, architectural, design, and engineering skills in the world through the Norman Foster Foundation, the architect said that the process would begin with a masterplan, which would capture the Mayor’s vision and provide the framework for the creation of Kharkiv as a city of the future.
“In the spirit of combining a planetary awareness with local action, I would seek to bring together the top Ukrainian talents with worldwide expertise and advice.
“The first step would be a city masterplan linked to the region, with the ambition to combine the most loved and revered heritage from the past with the most desirable and greenest elements of infrastructure and buildings – in other words to deliver the city of the future now and to plan for its life decades ahead.
“A masterplan is an act of confidence in the future for generations still to come,” the architect concluded.
