To break is not to build, the Russians say, and they continue to demolish the homes of Ukrainians like houses of cards. We have to restore all this later. Sure, we need to do better than it was, and the main thing is that everyone wants to have enough housing after the invasion of the Russians. At the round table dedicated to the reconstruction of Kyiv, architects and officials voiced opinions, figures, and analytics regarding losses, potential needs, and necessary steps towards a successful – relatively fast and unambiguously high-quality – renovation of the city. Read the article on "Apostrophe" to learn how the Ukrainian capital will change.
Consequences of destruction: how to investigate them?
Although the war continues, we need to think about reconstruction now. At least abroad, caring patrons are already ready to invest in this noble cause. However, for this, we need to know what resources are required and how to use them effectively. Moreover, this is impossible without clear data on what exactly was destroyed. The state statistics do not yet provide official information. Therefore, architects and urban planners are limited to individual research initiatives. Nevertheless, firstly, there are few of them, and secondly, no one is ready to vouch for their accuracy.
In the first decade of May, the mayor of Kyiv, Vitaliy Klitschko, announced the losses that the capital suffered as a result of the russian invasion from the eastern border. According to him, 390 houses were damaged in the capital, and 70 million euros are needed for their restoration. It should be noted that 220 of them are residential buildings, the rest are social infrastructure facilities. Residents of Kyiv remember very well how the Retroville shopping center was damaged by the occupier at the end of March. At that time, eight people died from the explosion, and the fire completely destroyed the favorite recreation place of Kyiv residents.
The executive director of the NGO "Center for Applied Research" Yury Shchedrin considers these figures to be significantly underestimated and gives others. According to him, the data of the Kyiv City State Administration indicate the following damages:
222 apartment buildings;
45 schools;
30 kindergartens;
1 orphanage;
13 administrative buildings;
2 sports facilities;
5 objects of the social sphere;
Shopping center Retroville
17 healthcare institutions.
How did these numbers come about? Yuriy Shchedrin says that for calculation, they used the methodologies of KSE (Kyiv School of Economics), Center for Economic Strategy, Dragon Capital, Anti-Corruption Headquarters, Institute of Analytics and Advocacy, Transparency International Ukraine, Prozorro, and Prodazhi.
"We took into account that the average area of a damaged apartment in Kyiv is 50 square meters (these data are very generalized and not accurate, - "Apostrophe"). The average number of apartments in a building is 100. The average market price per square meter in Kyiv is 2,000 dollars. (this figure differs from KSE). We took the average market price per square meter in Kyiv before the war, taking into account repairs and equipment. After all, we do not know the condition of the housing that was affected. But we start from the fact that it was a full-fledged apartment - with repairs, appliances, modern furniture, etc. That's why they took such a price," says Yurii Shchedrin.
Researchers estimate the damage suffered by real estate in Kyiv at approximately 1 billion 102 million dollars. The bulk of them is the loss of residential infrastructure.
"The amount of damage for 100% of an apartment is 100,000 dollars, for the entire high-rise building with 100 apartments - 10 million dollars. We took it from the data of the Kyiv City State Administration, but we could not calculate the exact percentage of damage of buildings," says Yuriy Shchedrin.
But according to the calculations, the following picture is obtained:
114 buildings are damaged by 30% and, accordingly, require 342 million dollars;
91 houses were damaged by 50% - which will require 455 million dollars;
17 buildings were completely destroyed and cannot be restored, so they need to be rebuilt, and this will cost 170 million dollars; the total amount of damage to residential infrastructure is 967 million dollars.
In addition, taking into account the fact that the object is damaged to the maximum, 45 million 220 thousand dollars will be required for 17 health care institutions, 31 million 250 thousand for 45 schools, 30 million 500 thousand for 13 administrative buildings, 30 million kindergartens - 11 million 865 thousand, for 11 cultural institutions - 10 million 340 thousand.
It is also possible to examine the destruction by the district. People's deputy Hanna Bondar, who is an honored architect of Ukraine and has been involved in the development projects of this metropolitan area for some time, tells about such studies using the example of the Podilsky district.
"The local self-government bodies are preparing the first approach to the extent of the destruction. Each district inspects the destroyed houses and makes a table. Using the example of the table in Podol, I will tell you what it includes: the estimated area in square meters of the existing building, the degree of destruction - it can be weak, medium, strong, or complete - as well as the address, date of destruction," says Hanna Bondar.
These data are already transferred to the city administration, which will make a report for each house with the help of the utility company subordinated to the city, and technical experts. The sum of money needed for reconstruction is calculated according to the methodology established by the Ministry of Regions.
Hanna Bondar emphasizes that this is only a bare statistic - and at the same time, it is not known what to do with it. No analytics are provided in these studies.
"For example, if the windows are broken, then a major repair should be done if the house is completely broken, and especially if it happened in an oversaturated, too dense area, then the question arises in what form it should be restored. The city and the community do not carry out this work." - remarks the People's Deputy.
"Each district administration collects information on its district. While this is primary information, a professional assessment will be made later - so that there is an opportunity to compensate them," - says Kyiv City Council member Ksenia Semenova in her turn.
Since the destruction is happening before people's eyes and in real-time, everyone can participate in documenting the damage with the help of the "Russia will pay" project, where you can download evidence of the destruction.
For this, you need to enter the category of a destroyed house, its subcategory, detailed address, and location, briefly describe what happened, and add a photo if necessary.
The main problems
Each country has its own history of post-war reconstruction. This is explained by the uniqueness of demography, economic policy and construction culture.
Now the main problem is that the war is not over yet. Therefore, the calculations are also complicated by the constant change in the data. In addition, experts highlight a number of problems that prevent an adequate assessment of the needs of the country, and Kyiv in particular, in new houses. They include the following.
1. Lack of research on migration flows. Figures about those who left Ukraine are very conditional. Some say about 10 million people, some say the number is less. But an even more difficult question is which of them will return. Do we have to build a 10-story building, if no one will live in it? At the same time, the demographic indicator in Ukraine is also disappointing: according to Anna Bondar, at the moment it is 1.44.
2. New planning requirements. The war showed what our cities are capable of. Some of them were able to withstand the attacks, others were not. Of course, to a greater extent, it primarily depended on the intensity of the shelling. But also from the defensive ability of buildings and the structure of cities. The same can be said about bomb shelters. Therefore, all this must be taken into account in the new planning.
"If the city is destroyed by more than 50%, what should be done with it? Should we leave the existing urban planning structure, or plan a completely new city? According to what procedures? Should this necessarily be a competition or not? There are no answers yet, there are only problematic issues. There are also issues of approaches to the construction itself, such as housing. These are the height and density of the building, the structural scheme, and planning issues," says Anna Bondar.
3. Obligations to the EU. Since the prospect of becoming an official member of the European Community is looming before Ukraine, everything needs to be fundamentally changed, in particular, the documents should be put in order. All our legislative and regulatory acts must be harmonized with the directives of the European Union - and this is also a huge and serious challenge.
4. Financial issue. Improvement of public space costs a huge amount of money, which is not yet available in our country. When and in what form they will arrive is also unknown. It is still unclear what signal the international community will interpret as the end of the war. Will it be the signing of a certain agreement, the return of territories, or perhaps just the cessation of missile attacks? There is still no answer to these questions either.
What does the government do?
The government has already started taking certain steps in this direction. In particular, as regards simplified documentation. Thus, draft law 7282, adopted by the Council and sent to the president for his signature, prescribes provisions for the introduction of a new type of documentation - this is the "Program of a comprehensive restoration of the region, territorial community or its parts". This is not yet an urban planning document. However, it is written in such a way that it should become a starting point for the development of new documents that will already directly relate to urban planning.
"That is, it is a bunch of statistics and analytics that will not pass the urban planning council and strategic environmental assessment. Also, after long discussions at the subcommittee, we added public discussions of such a program with amendments. Because we believe that residents should be involved even at the stage of collecting statistics and analytics." , - says Anna Bondar.
The authors of the program analyzed the negative effects of the war, the resources of the territory, the technical possibility, and the economic feasibility of restoring this or that settlement. The program includes how to change the functional purpose of certain areas and where to move production facilities.
The second part of the law focuses on temporary structures for the residence of internally displaced persons. The law contains planning documentation and a scheme for placing such structures.
"This is a low-rise, up to two-story, quickly assembled structure made of lightweight structures, mobile, inventory, quick-dismantling, container or combined type. These are the same modular towns that arise in cities that are in the rear, and where internally displaced persons can live for a certain time. There is no mention of permanent housing in this norm. Of course, there are certain restrictions for the location of such structures in certain territories," says Anna Bondar.
As for the bill, which concerns compensation for those who lost their homes as a result of russian aggression - most likely, this will be only the first stage of such compensation. Yes, it can be provided in the form of money or assistance in carrying out repairs or construction works. The bill also provides for a register of damaged property.
How to rebuild?
In the context of money, the problem is clear. But it is worth predicting now what the new city will be like after the war. First, it should be barrier-free.
"As much as it hurts to talk about it after the war there will be even more people with disabilities. And Kyiv is very poorely adapted in terms of barrier-free space. Until now, the pre-war projects of Kyiv included underground passages instead of above-ground ones. So far, the idea of overpasses is not popular enough in the department. "Passages are not accessible - they are equipped with elevators that almost never work," says Ksenia Semenova, deputy of the Kyiv City Council.
The second point that needs to be worked out is the transparency of decision-making regarding new construction. In Kyiv, this or that problem constantly arises,, and now there is no access to the registers at all. Even in such difficult times, builders are able to take advantage of this - what is worth, for example, the story of the Police Station building of 1902, which they tried to demolish at the beginning of March.
"Kyivites react strongly to new construction. In particular, due to traumatic experiences related to illegal construction, demolition of historic buildings, and construction on green zones. Therefore, proper communication with Kyivites regarding construction - even if it is temporary housing or modular houses - is very necessary." , - notes Ksenia Semenova.
Already now, architects are working on the development of new housing standards, striving to avoid chaotic construction in the future and at the same time take into account the defense needs of the city. To do this, they plan to even involve military personnel from the front line, in order to develop new housing based on their knowledge and tips. The experience of other cities that suffered from wars and were rebuilt should also be used. One of them is Warsaw. After the Second World War, the capital of Poland was destroyed by more than 60%. The round table was attended by Polish urbanist and analyst of polish independent think tank Wise.Europa, Dominika Jędrzejczak. She is currently working on the reconstruction project of Ukraine, initiated by the European Climate Foundation (ECF).
Ms. Dominika, among other things, advises Kyiv residents to pay attention to the concept of a 15-minute city.
"It involves planning in such a way that within 15 minutes you can get to work, recreation areas, a hospital, beauty salons, etc. Such planning not only improves the quality of life, but also allows you to avoid unnecessary movements and, accordingly, reduces the traffic load. This city is not car-centric, it is designed for people - says external planning expert Dominika Yendrejczak. - Besides, to be closer to the European Union standards, we should pay attention to the arrangement of pedestrian zones and bicycle paths. I believe that we are now on the threshold of a new revolution in urban design - together with other European states".
One way or another - first you have to win. But at the moment of victory, Kyiv should already have both a clear reconstruction plan and an understanding of where to take the money and what to spend it on. After all, winter is not far off - and Ukrainians need a good rear for their return from military migration journeys.