Safeguarding Kyiv's Architectural Legacy: A City Rebuilding Its Foundations Amidst the Onslaught of Conflict.

Lesia Danylenko beamed with pride as she displayed her newly installed front door. The restoration team had playfully nicknamed its graceful transom window the “crescent roll”, a lighthearted tribute to its bowed shape. “Personally, I believe it’s more of a peafowl,” she stated, gazing at its branch-like ornamentation. The restoration project at one of Kyiv’s early 20th-century art nouveau houses was supported by residents, who commemorated the work with two impromptu pavement parties.

It was also an act of opposition towards an invading force, she explained: “We strive to live like normal people despite the war. It’s about shaping our life in the best possible way. Fear does not drive us of staying in Ukraine. I had the option to depart, relocating to another European nation. On the contrary, I’m here. The new entrance shows our allegiance to our homeland.”

“Our aim is to live like everyday people in spite of the war. It’s about shaping our life in the best possible way.”

Safeguarding Kyiv’s architectural heritage may appear strange at a period when drone attacks routinely fall the capital, resulting in death and destruction. Since the beginning of the current year, aerial raids have been notably increased. After each attack, workers seal blown-out windows with plywood and attempt, where possible, to secure residential buildings.

Among the Conflict, a Campaign for History

Despite the violence, a collective of activists has been attempting to conserve the city’s crumbling mansions, built in a whimsical style known as Ukrainian modernism. Danylenko’s house is in the historic Shevchenkivskyi district. It was built in 1906 and was initially the home of a prosperous fur dealer. Its exterior is adorned with horse chestnut leaves and delicate camomile flowers.

“These buildings represent symbols of Kyiv. These properties are uncommon nowadays,” Danylenko noted. The building was designed by a designer of Central European origin. Several other buildings nearby display comparable art nouveau characteristics, including an irregular shape – with a pointed turret on one side and a projection on the other. One beloved house in the area displays two sullen white stucco cats, as well as owls, masks and a imp.

Several Challenges to Heritage

But military aggression is only one threat. Preservation campaigners say they face unprincipled developers who knock down listed buildings, corrupt officials and a political leadership unconcerned or resistant to the city’s profound architectural history. The harsh winter climate presents another challenge.

“Kyiv is a city where capital prevails. We don’t have real political will to save our heritage,” said Dmytro Perov, an activist. He asserted the city’s mayor was friends with many of the developers who flatten important houses. Perov added that the plan for the capital harks back to a previous decade. The mayor has refuted these claims, saying they originate from political rivals.

Perov said many of the community-oriented activists who once defended older properties were now fighting on the frontline or had been lost. The protracted conflict meant that all citizens was facing economic hardship, he added, including those in the legal system who inexplicably ruled in favour of dubious new-build schemes. “The longer this goes on the more we see decline of our society and governing institutions,” he remarked.

Destruction and Abandonment

One notorious location of loss is in the waterside Podil neighbourhood. The street was home to classical 19th-century houses. A developer who acquired the plot had agreed to preserve its picturesque brick facade. A day after the onset of major hostilities, heavy machinery tore it down. Recently, a crane excavated foundations for a new retail and office development, watched by a stern security guard.

Anatolii Pohorily, a heritage supporter, said there was not much hope for the remaining blue-green houses on the site. Sometimes developers levelled old properties while claiming they were doing “historical excavation”, he said. A former political system also wrought immense damage on the capital, redesigning its main thoroughfare after the second world war so it could allow for official processions.

Carrying the Torch

One of Kyiv’s most prominent advocates of historic buildings, a tour guide and blogger, was lost his life in 2022 while fighting in a contested area. His colleague Nelli Chudna said she and other volunteers were carrying on his important preservation work. There were initially 3,500 brick-built mansions in Kyiv, many constructed for the city’s wealthy industrialists. Only 80 of their period doors are still in existence, she said.

“It was not foreign rockets that eliminated them. It was us,” she admitted sadly. “The war could continue for another 20 years. If we fail to protect architecture now nothing will be left,” she emphasized. Chudna recently helped to restore a characterful creeper-covered house built in 1910, which serves as the headquarters of her cultural organization and operates as a film set and museum. The property has a new crimson entrance and original-style railings; inside is a period bathroom and antique mirrors.

“The war could last another 20 years. If we neglect architecture now little will be left.”

The building’s tenant, artist Yurii Pikul, described his home as “quite special and a little bit cold”. Why do many residents not value the past? “Sadly they are without education and taste. It’s all about business. We are trying as a country to move towards the west. But we are still some distance away from such cultural awareness,” he said. Soviet-era ways of thinking persisted, with people reluctant to take personal responsibility for their urban environment, he added.

Hope in Preservation

Some buildings are crumbling because of bureaucratic indifference. Chudna indicated a once-magical villa concealed behind a modern hospital. Its roof had fallen; pigeons nested among its smashed windows; debris lay under a whimsical tower. “Often we are unsuccessful,” she admitted. “Restoration is therapy for us. We are trying to save all this heritage and splendour.”

In the face of war and development pressures, these activists continue their work, one facade at a time, arguing that to preserve a city’s identity, you must first save its stones.