THE VISION OF MARIUPOL RECONSTRUCTION WAS PRESENTED AT THE VENICE BIENNALE
Recently, the 19th International Architecture Biennale in Italy was officially opened, where the project for the reconstruction of Mariupol after de-occupation was presented. The Mariupol Reborn team was invited to the 2025 Biennale as part of the French Pavilion. The presentation of Mariupol in the architectural context is certainly extremely important for the international dialogue.
The Biennale Architettura is an international architecture exhibition held every two years in Venice. Participating countries have a unique opportunity to present their architectural vision in their own pavilions. This year's theme, “One Place, One Solution,” is intended to answer the question of how architecture should adapt to modern challenges - environmental, social, and urban. The organizers invite you to share your success stories, as this will give you the opportunity to form a “toolkit” for a better future. In turn, the French pavilion explores the themes of coexistence, recovery, and architectural responsibility in the post-crisis world.
We are pleased to see representatives of Ukrainian Mariupol in the French Pavilion. My team has been collecting information about the architectural monuments destroyed during the war for three years. We all need to remember that the preservation of cultural heritage and the role of architecture in post-conflict reconstruction are crucial challenges not only for Ukraine. France is with you, Ukrainians!
With the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Martin Duplantier opened an architectural studio in Lviv to develop reconstruction projects.
It is a great honor for us to represent Mariupol at such a prestigious event. Here, among the international community, I emphasize how important it is not to forget about Mariupol. The world must remember and support the city that heroically held the line for 86 days, and then, during the three years of occupation, the municipality led by Mayor Vadym Boichenko and the community that moved to other Ukrainian cities joined forces to create a unique product - the Urban Vision for the City's Reconstruction after De-occupation. This is a step-by-step document that will allow implementing projects developed by professional architectural teams immediately after the liberation of Mariupol.
Mariupol is a multicultural city with a rich history and complex heritage. Finding its multiple identities and harmoniously manifesting them in the urban space is one of the main tasks of post-war reconstruction. Four architectural teams were united into a single team to comprehend and analyze the developments and further formulate a unified reconstruction strategy. Each team was responsible for a separate layer of research and design. All projects were discussed and approved by the community of Mariupol.
The vision for the rebuilding of Mariupol is the result of more than six months of work by an interdisciplinary team consisting of residents of Mariupol and Ukrainians from other cities, as well as experts from Europe and the United States. This vision covers such areas as identity, memory and the future, environmental strategy and rethinking the role of nature in the city, as well as ensuring the comfort of residents and the quality of life in the urban environment at every stage of development
In its project, the French Pavilion has attracted a wide range of international architects, researchers, and students representing different approaches to urbanism, environmental design, and social architecture. Ukraine is represented by the Kharkiv School of Architecture. The main themes of the exposition are architecture in the face of climate change, cities of the future - flexibility and cohabitation, and the restoration of post-conflict and crisis areas.
It is very important that Mariupol is not forgotten. That is why we are grateful for every opportunity to speak about it loudly. Back in August 2022, Rinat Akhmetov's businesses made a strategic decision to support the Mariupol Reborn project in rebuilding the city after de-occupation. We did not understand when this would happen, but we knew for sure that the community and the team, and we, as an investor in Mariupol, needed a vision of how the recovery would take place. A vision of rebuilding in some other, better form. The main principle we started from is what is called build back better. It is the unified urban vision created by architects to answer what this “better” is.
The Mariupol Reborn project is being implemented by the Mariupol City Council with the investment support of Rinat Akhmetov's SCM.
