Dear friends, colleagues, international community of architects.
It has been 1226 days since russia launched a full scale war against Ukraine.
In times when our government, army, territory defense forces and citizens are doing everything they can to foster peace in Ukraine, we call for your proactive political position.
We ask you to stop any cooperation with russian developers, seize completing public and private commissions from russia.
Working on the projects for russian clients you support putin’s criminal regime that is currently destroying our country. Given the latest threats from the russian government we might face an entirely new world order — the world after nuclear war — when architectural design is no longer in need.
We ask you to prove your dissent of russian aggression through action.
Go out on public protest, spread information among colleagues and friends and keep supporting Ukraine.✕
✕
ФОРМА is independent office driven by research and experiments in architecture. Our approach is to work at the intersection of the disciplines. In a constant dialogue with specialists in theoretical and practical fields, we use different representation forms for the projects. From spatial development strategies, master plans, renovation programs and buildings to books, interfaces, installations and exhibitions. Dealing with constant changes in ecology, economy, political and social systems allows us to think broadly and initiate cooperation for interdisciplinary growth.
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Location: Malopidvalna st. 12/10, office 10b
01034 Kyiv, Ukraine
Tel/Fax.: +38 (044) 279-04-39
For your suggestions or contact,
drop us a line: info@formaarchitects.com
Program: Cultural, Renovation
Partner: RIBBON International
Status: Ongoing
Year: 2025
Originally opened in 1967 to showcase Ukraine’s coal industry, the building is one of several pavilions on the National Complex Expocenter of Ukraine (VDNG) campus. Commissioned by RIBBON International, the project marks a turning point in Ukraine’s approach to Soviet architectural heritage, reframing Pavilion 13 as a dynamic platform for contemporary culture.
Reconstructing Kounellis’s work from 1997 in Ukraine today is to recognize that Kounellis was an artist informed by war, having lived through World War II and the Greek Civil War. His integration of industrialized materials common to wartime production as remnants of destruction, spoke as much to the postwar human condition as it did to fracture and disruption. As the artist noted, “since the war, we have only contradictions.”
Program: Museum, Concert Hall
Building area: 3 496 sq.m.
Year: 2014
The idea of the building as architectural incarnation of synthesis of vision and hearing, metaphor of music as a complicated system of simple primitives, as a shell for sound experiments, multifunctional stage for learning Hungary Music in all it’s manifestations.
GARAGE is a new gastronomic venue by @goodwine located on the territory of the former Tetra Pak plant in the Podil industrial zone. The building is divided into two independent parts. In the general planning approach, the function of the garage is retained – technological and service blocks are disposed not along the perimeter of the venue, but deliberately moved to the center. This provides the adaptability of the space to temporal scenarios, ensures democracy between volumes and free movement around the area. The blank industrial building becomes public and open, emphasized by the glazed line of the facade.
Play Factory
Program: Offices
Building area: 28000 sq.m.
Year: 2020
i am u are is a platform for empowering the creative industry of Ukraine. Fair & exhibition will take place in New York on March 24-26th at the heart of NYC, Skylight at Essex Crossing.
We adapted the 60s glass modernist pavilion into a space for electroacoustic performances. Scene 13 is series of music concerts that features academic multichannel electronic music and held on the 17-18th of August by the Pavilion of Culture in collaboration with the Cultural Platform.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, essential routes were equipped with defensive fortificationsーcheckpoints. All of them were built hastily from locally available materialsーconcrete, metal, wood, earth, or sand.
A checkpoint provides movement control and defense and can be part of a more extensive fortification system with surveillance, cover, and fire functions. The most effective protection of defensive structures is provided when combined with natural obstacles, such as mountains and ravines, rivers and lakes, swamps, and impenetrable forests.
KMF
Program: Renovation, Mixed-use
Building area: 40000 sq.m.
Year: 2020
P9 VDNG
Program: Cultural
Partner: Big City Lab
Area: 3692 sq.m.
Status: Ongoing
Year: 2025
044 House is a new residential complex in Podil district in Kyiv, designed by ФОРМА. The project was created on the principles of ecological urban development on the basis of in-depth study of “industrial Podil” and its historical architecture. The conducted research of residential buildings from 1980th, their rhythm, proportions and color scheme, gave an opportunity to develop a balanced design solution.
Program: Exhibition
Status: Completed
Curators: Isabella van Marle and Sonya Kvasha
Partners: pavilion of culture, BlckBox, Patriot
Graphic design: Faye and Gina
Digital design & consulting: Bureau Antoine Roux & David Broner
Web development: Tristan Bagot
Supported by un/fund, hup.foundation and Sarah van Rij
Year: 2024
Reflecting the landscape of Ukrainian photography today, Essential Goods is a group
exhibition featuring works by more than 20 young artists. Produced from 2014 to 2024,
their varied projects are held together by a common thread: of what it means to make
art in and of a time of war. When the future is uncertain, they ask: ‘what constitutes an
essential good?’
Opening in Kyiv on the 23rd May, Essential Goods is set across the Pavilion of Culture:
a 1967 modernist landmark, now a curatorial institution at the intersection of contemporary
visual art, music and architecture. With the outbreak of full-scale war, its programme was
suspended, and its buildings became a depot for humanitarian aid.
The question "Is culture the first necessity during the ongoing war?" formed the basis of the architecture of the exhibition Essential Goods with which the Pavilion of Culture begins a new season of activity after a two-year pause.
The uncanned building with the remained items of aid form the body of the exhibition, creating the possibility of coexistence between wartime needs and art.
The Biennale takes place at a time of the greatest doubts of Ukrainian men and women regarding personal life and professional strategies, a time of rethinking the role of architects in wartime, and a time of transforming relationships with space due to the experiences of war and experiences of regular terrorist attacks on Ukrainian cities and civil infrastructure. But at the same time, at the moment of greatest need to be present in the international dialogue, speaking on our behalf.
Program: Theatre, Opera, Event hall
Site area: 34 928 sq m
Area: 62 300 sq m
Status: International competition. Honorable Mention Award
Year: 2011
Project is awarded an Honorary Mention at the International Ideas Competition for Busan Opera House in South Korea. The competition was promoted by the Busan Metropolitan Mayor's Office seeking international ideas to build an opera house that would become "a future-oriented cultural space that can raise local performing art culture one level up with its hi-tech facilities and differentiated contents".
The important stage in the implementation of a major renovation project of the Promprylad factory in Ivano-Frankivsk. As part of an ecosystem, the space of interaction and cooperation promotes a new culture of innovation. It facilitates the creation of projects and supports those who change the rules of the game.
In recent years, the rethinking of the purpose of industrial architecture has become a representative practice in which possibilities are determined by research. Architects are facing the situation, where the proposal must justify a certain set of functions and goals of the object. The architectural design of Promprylad. Renovation can be considered as a proper example to explore.
“Putivnyk”. The guide book to the cultural landscape of Yaremche
Program: Research
Status: Completed
Year: 2021
The land in places that are surrounded by protected areas - such as Yaremche - is of exceptional value. The way construction and further management are carried out directly affect the local ecosystem. The boundaries where human activity encounters in the natural heritage are the most vulnerable. Our research investigates both scenarios of such interactions—the centres of destruction and the environment where new valuable connections between human and nature are formed.
Guilty wine bar was conceived as a place to start the evening, and the exhibition program, curated by Maria Lanko and Liza German, extended this conception into the context of art. Drafts and sketches by local artists, such as Lucia Ivanova and Ksenia Hnylytska, gave an alternative view on the idea of the origin and preparation.
Today, the space of Babyn Yar is filled with multiple scenarios. They are played out daily in the area, which rather disorients and makes it impossible to spend time consciously within the memorial and preserved areas. This study is an attempt of a comprehensive look at further work with the territory based on the landscape analysis of Kyiv ravines.
Program: Residential, Cultural
Building area: 6 185 sq.m.
Year: 2018
The project provides a unique solution for the planning structure, which adds new qualities to the area. The residential area with the cultural centre is located in the centre of the regular lattice of the Rybalsky peninsula general plan. Its unique role for the district is expressed by the transformation of the shape of the plan: an oval volume is inscribed in the quadrangular perimeter.
The most significant cultural projects of modern Ukraine are initiated by independent researchers, curators, and artists. The potential of these independent creators, intellectual and artistic level of their work is much more ahead of the existing institutional capacity. There is a lack of institutions in Ukraine, that could provide a decent level of support and development of cultural initiatives. This absence of institutional sustainability led to the idea of creating the Pavilion of Culture – an institution that will provide the audience, space, and opportunities for the realization of the leading cultural creators.
Before the Future. Spazio Esedra at the Giardini. The pavilion of Ukraine at 18th International Architecture Exhibition–La Biennale di Venezia
Ukraine is participating in the 18th International Architecture Exhibition curated by Lesley Lokko (20 May – 26 November 2023), with a Pavilion at the Arsenale (Sale d’Armi) and an installation in the Spazio Esedra at the Giardini. Before the Future is the title of the participation, organized by the commissioner Mariana Oleskiv, and curated by Iryna Miroshnykova, Oleksii Petrov and Borys Filonenko. Ukraine had not participated in the Biennale Architettura since 2014.
Program: Research, Mixed use
Site area: 9 180 sq.m.
Building area: 46 600 sq.m
Year: 2018
Gamma factory (Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine) was built at the beginning of 1960th, specialized on the production of high-tech electronic products for the space, aviation and nuclear industries. After 1991 the company declared bankruptcy and declined. ФОРМА’s proposal for the mix-used development was based on the idea of creating a cultural, business and retail core of the city.
The Second Biennale of Young Art was held in 2019 in Kharkiv and became the second edition of the biennial project, initiated by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine in the aim to support and represent contemporary Ukrainian art.
Promprylad.Renovation is an investment center on the territory of a revitalized former factory in Ivano-Frankivsk. The project embodies the idea of impact-investment and combines the advantages of commercial and socially significant enterprises. Based on the intersection of four different directions, which are new economics, urbanism, contemporary art, and non-formal education, Promprylad aims to become the center of the creative potential of the city and thus influence the development of the region.
Zigzag is a city cafe located on one of Kyiv’s most fashionable streets, which became popular among the local creative community. Zigzag is a symbol, which is widely represented in Ukrainian avant-garde poetry and art.
"The display symbolizes exhaustion on many levels. Besides the obvious – depletion of humanity’s resources and credit with the environment – it’s about psychological exhaustion due to social media abuse, the pandemic and economic recession." Pavlo Makov
Before the Future. Arsenale. The pavilion of Ukraine at 18th International Architecture Exhibition–La Biennale di Venezia
Ukraine is participating in the 18th International Architecture Exhibition curated by Lesley Lokko (20 May – 26 November 2023), with a Pavilion at the Arsenale (Sale d’Armi) and an installation in the Spazio Esedra at the Giardini. Before the Future is the title of the participation, organized by the commissioner Mariana Oleskiv, and curated by Iryna Miroshnykova, Oleksii Petrov and Borys Filonenko. Ukraine had not participated in the Biennale Architettura since 2014.
JOMO is an abbreviation of “joy of missing out”, which could be interpreted as the concept of abandoning the internet and technology without compunction. The JOMO burger cafe seems to be ironic about its surroundings and context: space is located in a bustling area, full of office workers and students. Rejecting the trivial representation of burger cafes, ФОРМА created a holistic clean space, disposed of unnecessary decoration.