The mission is possible. How to restore old buildings and what are the main problems

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Quantity destroyedof architectural heritage, especially during the war, is growing every day. The authorities have drawn attention to this trend, and the question arises of how to carry out restoration and preserve the main value of the buildings.

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In mid-December 2023, a long-awaited event took place in Kyiv – the famous capital’s architectural monument – the Tereshchenko manor (1875) was returned to communal ownership. The building itself, the current condition of which can be assessed as terrible, still retains the remains of its architectural beauty. The unique combination of Venetian Gothic styles and Polish motifs, as well as the monumentality of the Tereshchenko manor raise an important question – how it will be restored.

According to the deputy head of KMDA Vladyslav Andronov, all subsequent steps of the authorities “will be aimed exclusively at restoring the building and giving it a second life.” In turn Rostislav Karandeev, in at. The Minister of Culture and Information Policy says that there are still many old buildings waiting to be “returned to life”. In particular, part of the architectural heritage is destroyed due to careless attitude towards it, and part is destroyed due to the war. Thus, Karandeev claims that currently many monuments of both national and local importance have been destroyed, some have been completely destroyed.

For example, the significantly destructive Museum of Antiquities in Chernihiv, which was built at the end of the 19th century. in the then popular pseudo-Gothic style. Or the Okhtyr city local history museum, which was housed in a two-story estate of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During the shelling in the museum, windows were broken, walls were mutilated, and the roof was destroyed.

“According to our data, as of today, 862 attractions have been affected. And how much more is there in the occupied territory? The level of destruction and restoration work is enormous“, said the Acting Minister.

But behind the great desire to carry out restoration work, there are also great problems.

Yury Dubyk. Photo:

In the opinion of the associate professor of the Department of Architecture and Restoration of the Lviv Polytechnic National University Yuriy Dubykcurrently the state, on the one hand, talks about the need to preserve cultural heritage as a part of identity, but on the other hand, in regulatory documents, the procedure is the opposite, and restoration for some reason is a type of construction in Ukraine.

“And actually here, this contradiction between construction and culture is clearly manifested in the production of project documentation, the implementation of projects. Thus, the regulatory documents state that the main goal of restoration is to preserve the object. But in general, restoration means bringing a conditional architectural object to a more or less normal state, and for some reason it does not talk about preserving authenticity at all“, Dubyk notes.

He adds that today the difficulty lies in the fact that the state has not defined the bodies for the protection of cultural heritage, in principle, who supervises cultural heritage and with what efficiency. For example, at the local level, the functions of supervision of historical buildings are carried out by departments of architecture and urban planning, development of urban planning or departments of culture, where there are separate divisions – management or departments for the protection of cultural heritage, in which at best a few people work.

“In the Lviv region, there are more than several thousand objects of cultural heritage, and it is clear that such management is unable to cope with either the preservation of architecture or the care of restoration“, says Dubyk.

Destroy or restore

Regional coordinator of Heritage Monitoring Lab expeditions in Kharkiv and Kharkiv region Viktor Dvornikov insists that before approaching restoration, attention must be paid to the main problems with the architectural heritage. The first is the lack of a common information base suitable for calculating losses, especially those caused by war. Moreover, the expert says that the available lists of cultural heritage objects are incomplete, often do not have exact addresses, which makes it difficult to control the state of monuments.

Also, the lack of awareness of the value of cultural heritage objects among citizens and government representatives becomes a problem: after damage to monuments, communal services do not take care of their preservation and work only in the interests of the safety and convenience of passers-by or residents.

Museum of Antiquities in Chernihiv.

Dvornikov cites an example of how a historic building was damaged during Russian shelling in Kharkiv, and communal services simply demolished part of the building without consulting specialists.

“The municipality, as a rule, encourages such works without an appropriate expert assessment of the state of the monument. Therefore, sometimes there is nothing to restore“, says Dvornikov.

Dubyk adds that there are discussions in the public sphere about the fact that something was built or restored in the city center, but not about how it was built in the historical part of the city. Work with monuments is noted in the project activity, but there is nothing in the regulatory documents about the state’s obligation to check the quality of the project documentation at all stages of the work.

Museum of antiquities after destruction.

“For example, in the main document, which is called “Restoration task for the design of the cultural heritage object”, the state has now removed itself from control over what needs to be done. She gave it exclusively for repurchase to the investor-customer. This indicates the formality of the approach to the preservation of historical buildings. Abroad, on the contrary, any work with monuments of cultural heritage is monitored by state representatives at all stages of work until the very end.“, Dubyk emphasizes.

A difficult revival

On October 10, 2022, Kyiv was under massive rocket fire. On that day, the remnants of the rocket fell near the capital’s Khanenko museum. Director of the museum Julia Vaganova says that people started to offer help, volunteers carried OSB-plates with which they covered the broken windows.

At the same time, the question of quality restoration arose. But first it was necessary to assess the consequences of the Russian missile attack on the old estate of the Khanenkos and its wooden interior elements: the grand staircase, window frames and doors. This research was financed by UNESCO, and the public organization Museum for Change became the operator of this money, helping the museum with purchases.

Vaganova says that in a short time it was possible to conduct 3D scanning of historical interiors, photogrammetry of facades, which helped to determine exactly what and how seriously damaged by the blast wave. At the same time, thanks to UNESCO, a restoration project was developed for the 19th-century wooden entrance doors and interior doors.

The Tereshchenko estate in Kyiv. Photo: “Ukraine Incognita”

About the practical things of restoration, he says Ihor Liskythe main investor of the Palats Rizdil project, which was bought recently at a state auction.

According to the requirements of the monument protection agreement, which was signed with the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of the Lviv Oblast, there are three years for the preparation of scientific design and estimate documentation for the restoration and the direct implementation of the restoration works.

“Separately, it should be added that the main highlight of the palace is more than 300 authentic windows and doors, made in the rather rare “flounder” technique, which we have to restore, additionally taking into account the wet processes and the almost complete absence or employment of carpentry restoration specialists at other sites. But we have set a very high bar for the quality of restoration work, because this is a public project that should become a model for other future investors in the field of cultural heritage“, Liski assures.

He notes that it is necessary to successfully combine the requirements and principles of the restoration of the monument with modern technologies, requirements (including barrier-free requirements) and utilitarianism, because the palace should effectively fulfill its function in the future, and not just be an object for contemplation . In general, it is planned to spend several million dollars on the entire project, including the full development of the estate.

Museum-reserve “Zhovkiv Castle”.

Dubyk explains what such estimates can consist of. The palace is a large building-residence, which was built by rich people and families. The best European specialists were invited for their design and construction. Accordingly, expensive materials were used there: slate roofs, marble floors, stairs, carved wood, expensive wallpapers, etc.

Some palaces were royal residences, for example, Zhovki Castle. The expert says that now, in order to reach the appropriate level of restoration of these objects, it is necessary to spend a lot of effort. Let’s say you need to restore wallpaper, restore it or restore carved wood, or restore a marble staircase or marble floor. First, there is the issue of technology. Secondly, where to get the appropriate material. And thirdly, to discover and find out what it was made of, that is, it is necessary to conduct scientific research. These are very complex and expensive chemical and technological studies.

But one should be very careful with generalizations, the expert notes. Many tenement houses, for example, in Lviv, were built using the brick construction method with plastering with ordinary lime-sand plaster. Therefore, restoration work is carried out using ordinary cement mortars.

“Therefore, you cannot always say that restoration is too expensive. But you can always say: the main factor during restoration is the preservation of authenticity. This is actually the great value of our culture“, Dubyk concludes.

Read also: Dream Palace. How abandoned historic buildings can change the lives of entire communities

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