The digital tool protecting Ukrainian architecture from war

These houses are part of Ukraine's traditional village architecture

But because of the war launched by Russia, they're at risk of vanishing. Forever

There are no comprehensive studies by this time on the architecture of the last 100 years

So if it is destroyed by the war, these authentic features, they are not preserved and not researched and it can be lost forever

Anna Viktorova manages Re-Ukraine Villages, a project launched by the Ukrainian architecture studio Baubek Bureau

They're currently creating a database of rural buildings across the different Ukrainian regions in an attempt to digitally preserve this unique material culture

We see that there are many initiatives who are dealing with urban reconstruction with the planning for the post-war reconstruction

And at the same time, we saw that there is not enough attention to the rural areas

The Re-Ukraine Villages project also isn't focused on reconstruction, at least not yet

For the moment, they're focused on research and preservation. Documenting one region at a time, volunteers travel around researching the buildings

Remote researchers also use Google Earth and Maps. We have researched about 17 villages of the Kyiv region, and we started seeing the recurring patterns

and we understood that these patterns are the authentic features of the architecture of villages of the Kyiv region

As there is no previous written knowledge on rural architecture in Ukraine

the team wasn't initially sure exactly what they'd find. The more we research the more we understand how many differences there are and how unique are some of the villages From materials to color palettes to rooftop and window shapes each region has its own unique features But there are also some overlaps

The boundaries that we draw on the map are like geographical boundaries of the region, as it is now

But in the actual cultural sense, it's not that distinct. So there are still a lot of similarities

It's still very flowy, so some elements can be seen in one region and another region

A lot of it, Slava says, is also due to Ukraine's migration history

There were a lot of wars and famine and a lot of natural disasters

human-made disasters in the last century. So people were constantly moving. And I think because of this migration and changing of settlements

a lot of customs and a lot of traditions and culture, they just transmitted to different regions

Some design influences also come from Ukraine's interaction with other European cultures

Like in the McLeave region, there is much influence from the German architecture because there was a time in the history

when German people came and lived in those regions. So the more we research, the more we understand

that there is so much more yet to know. All of this research that Anna and Slava describe is gathered in a database

where architects can determine the prevalence of architectural features in each region, which they will then create drawings of

Then we have 3D models done by other architects and then we usually take all this volume and

we export it into Grasshopper, which is a visual programming language inside a 3D framework

called Rhinociris. Basically what it allows us to do is it allows us to do parametric modeling

Parametric modeling is usually used in architecture to create complex shapes like those in the buildings of Zaha Hadid for example The tool also saves a lot of time which is especially important on a small budget project that is also racing to preserve architectural memory during an ongoing war

It allows us to add or change something on the very late stages of the project

where it would be cumbersome and really tedious to change everything if we have done it manually

Everything is described with parameters, algorithms, patterns, correlations, codependencies. And in this way, when we change some aspect of the model, everything else adjusts to it

So it allows a lot of freedom, it allows a lot of flexibility. And it also allows us to spend as little amount of time as possible on every region, designing the code

The platform is not only there to digitally preserve the buildings, but it also serves as an interactive tool that people can use to explore the buildings and even build their own house

You just go on a website, you select the region that you want the design code of

and then you have, let's say, 8 to 12 steps. It really depends on the region, like how many categories of elements you have

Then you go through all those steps. Every step is like a specific selection of available floor plans and roof types and the creation elements, facade systems and whatever not

And on the last step, you select the color palette. And on the last step, you have the opportunity to download a PDF with all the documentation for the option that you choose on the website

The project has so far documented 11 out of Ukraine's 24 regions

But it doesn't always go smoothly. In areas like Kharkiv which is just 30 kilometers away from the Russian border volunteers need specific permissions to go and photograph local buildings Basically you have to follow the police or you have to follow the military

you have to have the permission, you have to have a lot of papers. We just drive in the car, and we have a camera sticking out of the window

and we take photos of the house. And then people get really confused because everyone's scared

everyone doesn't know what's actually happening. It's just a black car with a camera in the window, taking photos

nobody knows what it is. So people freak out, they call the police

Before launching the full-scale invasion on Ukraine, Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, wrote an essay in which he claimed Ukraine to be culturally Russian

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, it has become more than apparent

that the war is not only territorial, but cultural, too. With strikes deliberately targeting churches, libraries and museums

museums, and Russian authorities banning the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar languages in occupied territories

In finding more about their own architectural heritage, the Re-Ukraine Villages project sees an antidote to Russia's

attempt to erase Ukrainian culture and history. The more we research it, the more we understand how regions

sort of grew together, like side by side, and people moved a lot

because of the famines and natural disasters and wars. and by studying that and also correlating it to the knowledge that we have from economics

finances, trade and all the other aspects of society, we can see how regions grew together and side by side

how they cooperated and correlated. And from that we can make an assumption that regions of Ukraine were intertwined

and they cooperated a lot and they had a lot in common together

but they had nothing in common with Russia