Design for Living: Ukraine when the bombing stops

Ukraine System housing for refugees. Photo / supplied

What's going to happen when the bombing stops? They'll rebuild, that's what. Ukrainian planners and architects are already on it.

The Russian invasion has driven at least 12 million Ukrainians from their homes, many in horrifying circumstances. Among them is Slava Balbek, a Kyiv architect and himself a refugee. At his firm the Balbek Bureau, they've created a prefab design system for refugee housing that can be put up quickly and cheaply, and is scalable and adaptable so it can be used anywhere. It doesn't just provide shelter, either. It's designed to help communities re-establish themselves.

Balbek calls it Ukraine System and it's already being erected in 10 sites around the country, including in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, where some of the early atrocities committed by Russian troops were discovered.

Ukraine System housing consists of prefabricated wood-framed units with walls of waterproof Strandboard and mineral wool insulation, each 18sq m, designed to be configured in village-like arrangements. The units can serve as bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens or office spaces and they can be joined to make larger units. They can also be stacked to create a two-storey building: useful if you need a health clinic or a school.

Balbek thinks the units will last up to 20 years but, if they are vacated earlier, most of the materials can be reused at another site.

These units are not large but they're bigger than the norm for emergency accommodation. Balbek has rejected suggestions to make them smaller, so they're easier to transport, and taller, to pack more on to the site. He wants occupants to not feel too cramped, and not to be shaded by tall buildings next door.

Stacked two units high, Ukraine System can be used for larger functions such as a school or health clinic. Photo / supplied

Another difference is the way the buildings fit together. Long rows are common, but not here. The units are designed to be grouped around shared facilities like kitchens and bathrooms: the community naturally interacts and that makes it easier for people to help each other.

Ukraine has been here before and tried to learn the lessons. Balbek says Russia's recent occupations of the Donbas and Crimea have created other refugee villages. "People have been living in them for five years now and the conditions are awful. These are scary-looking places."

Those villages are far from their occupants' old homes. That's not happening with Ukraine System. "I interviewed people living in and around Bucha and Irpin," Balbek says. "I asked them if they want to live further away, in western Ukraine where it's relatively safe and there are still birds and trees and really nice nature? They said, 'Please no: If you're going to build something, build it right next to our cities. We want to be able to walk to the sites of our homes, be near our friends and our gardens.'

"Ukrainians want to fix their own homes as soon as possible," he says. "And help their neighbours as soon as the bombing stops."