Venice presented the Ukrainian Pavilion of Architectural Biennale-2025

Valentyna Rostovkova, Pryzm Photography

On May 8, 2025, the Ukrainian pavilion was opened at the 19th International Architectural Exhibition La Biennale Di Venezia. The Dakh exhibition was opened within the project: Vernacular hardcore.

In a comment for Up. Culture Exhibition Commissioner, Creative Director of the Ukrainian Institute Tatiana Filevskaya She said that this year Ukraine is for the fourth time representing its exhibition on the architectural biennale:

”Volunteers, hands of communal services by partner organizations, efforts are being restored daily, infrastructure in order for Ukrainians to continue to live, continue to resist Russian aggression and continue to find new ways of being in this world.

The project of the roof is about these efforts, he is about different initiatives that he unite about preserving our heritage of history, because at the center of the project the history and work of Bogdana Kosmina, as well as the life of her grandmother Tamara Kosmina, which is presented in the project as a virtual avatar with which visitors interact« .

Valentyna Rostovkova, Pryzm Photography

According to the commissioner, Vatar Tamara Kosmina viewers ask various questions, and she answers them.

Valentyna Rostovkova, Pryzm Photography

The roof in the concept of the exhibition is the basic element of architecture. The project explores and compares the traditional Ukrainian housing with the « immediate Vernacular », which arose in the process of self -organized, spontaneous reconstruction, in wartime.

Valentyna Rostovkova, Pryzm Photography

”Vernacular « means everyday spoken language inherent in a certain community and terrain, vocabulary without dictionaries and grammatical police. But Vernacular also refers to the forms of construction that happens without the control of professionals. It is architecture without architects« , – explain in the exhibition team.

Valentyna Rostovkova, Pryzm Photography

Therefore, the « roof » simultaneously sends to wartime and post -war reconstruction. And shows the audience how despite the danger, Ukrainians continue to build their own lives.

Valentyna Rostovkova, Pryzm Photography

« We say » the roof over our heads « when we mean home, comfort, safety. But this is exactly how every Russian shelling takes away from us … Our education and culture are also losing the roof over their heads: Russian bombs have destroyed more than 4,000 educational institutions, including three universities, 1419 cultural heritage monuments and 2233 cultural infrastructure. And that is why Dakh Project (Roof): Vernacular hardcore is so symbolic« , – said the first lady of Ukraine Elena Zelenskaya.

Valentyna Rostovkova, Pryzm Photography

”The word « hardcore » in the name of the exhibition project is used in its original sense, which comes from the vocabulary of Vernacular construction, and means different fragments, scrap, fragments of bricks that together make up the basis, the foundation « , – explained the theme of the exhibition curator (K) and the National Pavilion of Ukraine Bogdan Kosmina, Michal Muravsky and Kateryna Rusetska.

Valentyna Rostovkova, Pryzm Photography

Elements of the Ukrainian exhibition

• Roof, dynamic prototype of the Ukrainian roof, developed by an architect and artist Bogdan Kosmina.

• Selected materials from the archive of « Atlas of traditional Ukrainian housing from the end of the XIX to the middle of the XX century », a 50-year monumental study, which three generations of women architects worked on: Tamara, Oksana and Bogdan Kosmina. The archive became the basis for the creation of the roof, the images of research influenced its form, structure, materiality and spirit.

• Shi-Avatar architect and ethnographer Tamara Kosmina (1936–2016), which has been researching folk architecture for decades in Ukraine. The digital image of Tamara was created throughout the year of work using the IRIS tool (an autonomous tool for personalized artificial intelligence, which allows you to directly own and control data).

• Documentation of landscapes of emergency Vernacular architecture and processes of housing restoration in Chernihiv, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy and Zaporizhzhya regions, carried out by charity funds « Left Bank » (Igor Okunev, Vladislav Sharapa, Ksenia Kalmus) and Kharpp (Ada Wardap.

• « Places: Mykolaiv Oblast » – a photographic project of the artist and writer Eugene Belorussets, which explores the landscapes dehydrated by the war. The project is dedicated to the employees of the Nikolaev Vodokanal, who since 2022 have been fighting for the restoration of water supply in systems damaged by Russian shelling.

• « Drone Dome » is an immersive sound installation, smoked by Clemens with a pool and inspired by the « wedge » project, a grassroots initiative that deals with the creation of drones headed by Xenia Kalmus.

Dakh (roof) exhibition project: Vernacular Hardcore will be accompanied by a nomadic (nomadic) Public Program of Planetary Hardcore, which starts on May 10 at Scuola Grande Di San Marco in Venice, and subsequently moves in other cities of Ukraine (Kiev, Dnipro).

What is architectural biennale

It is an international exhibition of architecture, which is held every 2 years in Venice. Within its boundaries, the participating countries equip their own pavilions and present their architectural vision of today.

Architects from different countries are trying to demonstrate solutions that would answer modern social, technological and cultural questions.

The 19th International Architectural Exhibition will last from May 10 to November 23, 2025 (the previous opening took place-May 8 and 9).