Safeguarding the Capital's Architectural Legacy: An Urban Center Rebuilding Its Foundations in the Shadow of Conflict.

Lesia Danylenko showed off with satisfaction her newly installed front door. Local helpers had playfully nicknamed its graceful transom window the “crescent roll”, a playful reference to its bowed shape. “Personally, I believe it’s more of a peacock,” she commented, appreciating its tree limb-inspired details. The restoration project at one of Kyiv’s turn-of-the-century art nouveau houses was supported by residents, who marked the occasion with a couple of neighbourhood pavement parties.

It was also an demonstration of opposition towards a foreign power, she explained: “Our aim is to live like normal people in spite of the war. It’s about arranging our life in the best possible way. We’re not afraid of staying in Ukraine. I could have left, 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 ordinary people in spite of the war. It’s about shaping our life in the optimal way.”

Protecting Kyiv’s built legacy may appear unusual at a time when missile strikes routinely fall the capital, bringing death and destruction. Since the onset of the current year, offensive operations have been notably increased. After each strike, workers seal blown-out windows with plywood and try, where possible, to save residential buildings.

Among the Conflict, a Campaign for Beauty

Amid the bombs, a collective of activists has been striving to preserve the city’s crumbling mansions, built in a distinctive style known as Ukrainian modernism. Danylenko’s house is in the downtown Shevchenkivskyi district. It was erected in 1906 and was initially the home of a wealthy fur dealer. Its exterior is decorated with horse chestnut leaves and fine camomile flowers.

“These buildings represent symbols of Kyiv. These properties are quite rare in the present day,” Danylenko said. The building was designed by an architect of Austrian-German origin. Several other buildings nearby exhibit analogous art nouveau features, including an irregular shape – with a medieval spire on one side and a turret on the other. One beloved house in the area boasts two forlorn white stucco cats, as well as owls, masks and a demonic figure.

Multiple Threats to Heritage

But external attacks is only one threat. Preservation campaigners say they face unscrupulous developers who raze listed buildings, corrupt officials and a political leadership indifferent or resistant to the city’s profound architectural history. The harsh winter climate adds another burden.

“Kyiv is a city where capital prevails. We don’t have substantive political will to save our heritage,” said Dmytro Perov, an activist. He claimed the city’s mayor was friends with many of the developers who flatten important houses. Perov further alleged that the vision for the capital harks back to a bygone era. The mayor denies these claims, attributing them from political rivals.

Perov said many of the civically minded activists who once protected older properties were now engaged in combat or had been lost. The protracted conflict meant that everyone was facing economic hardship, he added, including those in the legal system who mysteriously ruled in favour of dubious new-build schemes. “The longer this continues the more we see deterioration of our society and state bodies,” he contended.

Loss and Abandonment

One glaring location of loss is in the historic Podil neighbourhood. The street was lined with classical 19th-century houses. A developer who purchased the plot had agreed to preserve its picturesque brick facade. In the immediate aftermath of the full-scale invasion, excavators demolished it. Recently, a crane prepared foundations for a new retail and office development, watched by a surly security guard.

Anatolii Pohorily, a heritage supporter, said there was not much hope for the remaining coloured houses on the site. Sometimes developers destroyed old properties while claiming they were doing “scientific study”, he said. A previous regime also wrought immense damage on the capital, rebuilding its primary street after the second world war so it could accommodate large-scale parades.

Carrying the Torch

One of Kyiv’s most renowned champions of historic buildings, a tour guide and blogger, was killed in 2022 while fighting in a eastern city. His colleague Nelli Chudna said she and other volunteers were carrying on his crucial preservation work. There were at one time 3,500 masonry mansions in Kyiv, many built for the city’s successful business magnates. Only 80 of their authentic doors survived, she said.

“It wasn’t aerial bombardments that destroyed them. It was us,” she lamented. “The war could go on for another 20 years. If we don’t defend architecture now not a thing will be left,” she emphasized. Chudna recently helped to restore a full of character vine-clad house built in 1910, which serves as the headquarters of her cultural organization and doubles as a film set and museum. The property has a new vermilion portal and period-correct railings; inside is a historic washroom and antique mirrors.

“The war could continue for another 20 years. If we fail to protect architecture now nothing will be left.”

The building’s tenant, artist Yurii Pikul, described his home as “very cool and a little bit cold”. Why do many locals not value the past? “Sadly they do not have education and taste. It’s all about business. We are attempting as a country to integrate with the west. But we are still not yet close from that standard,” he said. Soviet-era ways of thinking remained, with people hesitant to take personal responsibility for their urban environment, he added.

Resilience in Restoration

Some buildings are collapsing because of institutional abandonment. Chudna pointed to a once-magical villa hidden behind a modern hospital. Its roof had collapsed; pigeons made their home among its smashed windows; debris lay under a whimsical tower. “Often we don’t win,” she conceded. “Preservation work is therapy for us. We are attempting to save all this heritage and splendour.”

In the face of conflict and development pressures, these activists continue their work, one building at a time, arguing that to rebuild a city’s identity, you must first save its history.