This exhibition explores short and long term reconstruction efforts in Ukraine bringing together a wide range of grassroots projects to illustrate how architecture can foster mutual aid and facilitate crucial support networks for entire communities.
Courtesy of Repair Together. Photo by Oleksiy Ushakov / UNDP Ukraine
Constructing Hope: Ukraine presents the work of over a dozen participants currently applying architectural thinking to support Ukraine’s short and long-term reconstruction efforts. In the face of Russia’s unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine—a war that has destroyed and existentially threatened Ukrainians’ lives, ecology, culture and infrastructure—these multidisciplinary creatives regain agency over their environment by employing architectural strategies and practices as a form of resistance. Showcasing their work and ideas, Constructing Hope: Ukraine reveals the power of collaboration, horizontal organizing and knowledge exchange, illuminating architecture’s critical role in building a collective resistance that can generate hope for imperiled communities in Ukraine and beyond.
Constructing Hope: Ukraine is supported in part by the TAWANI Foundation, which is generously matching donations related to the exhibition up to $50,000. Take advantage of this opportunity to double your impact and support CAC's efforts to inspire through architecture education. Click here to donate and select Constructing Hope: Ukraine.
Chicago is the second location for this exhibition, which first ran in 2024 at the Center for Architecture in New York. Constructing Hope: Ukraine focuses on decentralized reconstruction efforts, presenting the work of grassroots initiatives happening inside and outside of Ukraine. The exhibition brings together a wide range of projects—from modular furniture designs and housing for internally displaced individuals to detailed documentation of destroyed buildings and spatial memories—to illustrate how architecture can foster mutual aid and facilitate crucial support networks for entire communities. Constructing Hope: Ukraine presents these resourceful initiatives to demonstrate how, even during wartime destruction, these actions provide the hope necessary to move forward.
Using artifacts and other methods of architectural storytelling to imagine a hopeful future, the exhibition includes drawings, photographs, videos, furniture and models. The exhibition will feature a full-scale prototype of a bed designed by the Ukrainian NGO MetaLab, who provide temporary emergency accommodation for internally displaced people in Western Ukraine. As part of their Co-Haty initiative, the team has designed a ready-to-assemble, modular bed that “exemplifies our commitment to thoughtful design, sustainability and adaptability to diverse living situations.”
Constructing Hope: Ukraine showcases models by the artist collective Prykarpattian Theater. The models represent the physical embodiment of people’s destroyed homes and beloved places created together with refugees through photographs and verbal testimonies.
Ukrainian graphic designer Aliona Solomadina created a visual identity for the exhibition inspired by taped windows that are typical throughout Ukrainian cities and towns during the ongoing war. Ukrainian people often tape their windows in intricate, criss-cross patterns to protect their homes from shattering glass during explosions. This practical solution has become a visible symbol of resistance and can be seen throughout the space as well as on the storefront of the Chicago Architecture Center.
Photo courtesy of METALAB.
Photo courtesy of Prykarpattian Theater.
Photo courtesy of Repair Together. Photo by Pasha Youz.
The Theater of Hopes and Expectations, designed by the Ukrainian artist collective Prykarpattian Theater. This once-temporary theater was repurposed as a permanent home. Courtesy of Prykarpattian Theater.
Enter the Co-Haty Quilt silent auction to bring home a symbol of Ukrainian resistance and support reconstruction efforts: a handmade quilt featured in the exhibition. All proceeds will be donated to MetaLab.
Hear how Chicago's early Ukrainian immigrants built a community where they could thrive as Americans, but retain their "Old World" personality. Tours begin in May and run through October.
Ashley Bigham
Curator
Betty Roytburd
Curator
Sasha Topolnytska
Curator
Aliona Solomadina
Graphic Designer
