Publications

The architect Ferdynand Kassler (1883-1942) shaped the architectural history of the city of Lviv in the first half of the 20th century like hardly anyone else. From the beginning of the 1920s, Kassler developed an independent language of modernism, which was articulated in trendsetting projects in residential and office buildings. With around 15 realized buildings, he is one of the most important representatives of the interwar period in Lviv and had a significant influence on the following generation of Ukrainian architects.

This monograph comprises for the first time a comprehensive documentation and analysis of Ferdynand Kassler's work in the context of the urban and architectural development of Lviv.  It is the result of a research project at Lviv Polytechnic University by Bohdan Cherkes and Julia Bohdanova. This research project and the publication of this monograph were financially supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research.

This book is a comparative analysis of the architecture of central public spaces of capital cities in Central and Eastern Europe during the period of their authoritarian and post authoritarian development. 

It demonstrates that national identity transformations cause structural changes in urban public spaces, and theorises identity and national identity within urban planning in order to explain the influence of historical, cultural, mental, social as well as ideological and political conditions on the processes of shaping and perceiving the architecture of public space. The book addresses the process of shaping and restructuring historic centres of European capital cities of Kiev, Moscow, Berlin, and Warsaw, which developed under authoritarian regime conditions throughout the 20th century and were characterised by ideological determinism and the influence of state ideology and politics on the architecture of public spaces.

The content of this book focuses on the publication of the best urban design projects from the Urban Density Labs of joint design projects of a resource-saving and climate-friendly urban transformation for Lviv from 2017 to 2020.
Transforming Lviv 2025“ aims to make a constructive contribution to the contemporary discussion of urban development from an academic perspective, linked to a didactic approach that is always practice-oriented. Approximately 30 to 35 selected academic projects on urban transformation present a trend-setting urban development for Lviv for discussion.

Anasztazia Hujvan introduces the concept of retrofitting, based on a project by students of Vienna University of Technology.  
Through technological and social “injections” we can transform extisting post-war modernist quarters into future-proof neighborhoods, improving quality of life of the residents, generating working environment and contributing to the creation of community and activating urban and green spaces.

Bohdan Cherkes' book "Identity, Architecture and Reconstruction of the City", first published in 2014 by LIT Vienna, Münster has been updated, translated into Polish and edited in Krakow in 2020.
The content looks at possible definitions of architectural and planning principles during the process of searching for national identity and the formation of public centres in capital cities. Using the examples of Kyiv, Moscow, Berlin and Warsaw, the author illustrates the analogies and differences which determine national identity of various cultures in architecture and city planning. The categories Identity and National Identity are examined in detail just as the method of considering identities when looking at the development and transformation of public urban centres.

Diese Publikation präsentiert die besten Arbeiten des gleichnamigen ad-lib design studios 2019 in Slavutych. Therefor students from the Lviv Polytechnic National University and the Vienna University of Technology examined in individual fieldworks how the lives and daily routines of the inhabitants are influenced by the specific urban and social conditions of the planned town.
Slavutych, located 186 km north of Kiev, 50 km east of Chernobyl, was built from scratch between 1987 and 1989 as a replacement town for the inhabitants of Prypyat, which had to be evacuated in consequence of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe. Completed in the year of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the city can be seen as the last Soviet planned ‚ideal city‘.

The academic format of the "Urban Density Labs Lviv" has been developed successfully - in its methodology, in the respective results as well as through the associated exhibition projects also in the dissemination - over the last years of its implementation both the demand for information content with a broader impact was araising. 
Accordingly, we had decided to produce a so-called “project documentation folder” of the two immediately preceding semester projects 2019 and 2018.

This folder are designed as a folding folder (A5 on A3) and contain in graphic form:
- objectives and task definition as well as the technical key data of the overall project;
- information about the requirements of the sites to be processed in Lviv;
- methodical phases of the entire semester program;
and
- selected project results designed by students.

The folders serve both as dissemination material for the work in our academic cooperation and as orientation for students in subsequent semesters about the contents of the so-called "Urban Density Labs Lviv".

Architectural Studies is a scientific journal periodically published by the Institute of Architecture of Lviv Polytechnic National University since 2015. The journal provides peer-reviewed articles in the fields of Urban Studies, Urban Design, Architectural Design and Planning History.

For more information and submission of articles:
http://science.lpnu.ua/as

Bohdan Cherkes‘ book „Identity, Architecture and Reconstruction of the City“ looks at possible definitions of architectural and planning principles during the process of searching for  national identity and the formation of public centres in capital cities. Using the examples of Kyiv, Moscow, Berlin and Warsaw, Bohdan Tscherkes illustrates the analogies and differences which determine national identity of various cultures in architecture and city planning. The categories Identity and National Identity are examined in detail just as the method of considering identities when looking at the development and transformation of public urban centres.

“This book is food for thought and provocation, especially when looking at the political landscape and the changes that took place since the fall of 2013, giving this analysis and its result an unexpected topicality”. 
Prof. Werner Durth, Author of “Baukultur: Spiegel gesellschaftlichen Wandels”

Printed with the support of the National Univeristy “Lvivska Polytechnika”, Lviv, Ukraine,  the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy in Vienna and the architecture firm “Zelemin”.

In recent years, the city of Lviv has become increasingly interesting for art and culture tourists and established itself as a prominent European urban tourism destination. This trend is borne by a vivid urban and architecture history that spans from the Medieval Epoch to contemporary 21st century architecture.

LEMBERG LVIV – Architecture & City sketches an architectural portrait on the basis of 100 landmark buildings. The selection of the most important buildings of the medieval Old Town as well as those 19th century buildings under the influence of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy reflects Lviv's historic variety. The impressive functionalist buildings of the interwar period, some of which are threatened by dilapidation, constitute a further focus point.  Buildings of the Soviet period and of independent Ukraine after 1991 complete the selection. 

The „100 landmark buildings“ also comprise urban design ensembles such as monuments, parks and cemeteries. Important urban development key data, information on the most significant urban characteristics and a detailed introduction to Lviv’s urban history at the beginning of the guide complete this compact architectural image of the city. The often close linkage between architectural and culinary interest culminates in individual restaurant and bar recommendations at the end of the book.

LEMBERG LVIV – Architecture & City was written by a research team of Vienna University of Technology and L'vivska Polytechnic within the frame of an academic cooperation that has been ongoing for many years.

Publication about the activites of the academic cooperation between the two universities.