November 8 is World Urbanism Day.
This is a professional holiday for everyone who is involved in the construction of modern cities and thanks to whom cities in different parts of the world are becoming more modern and comfortable to live in. In particular, architects, designers, constructors, builders and the like.
What the ideal city of the future in Ukraine should be like and what can be done for this now – ICTV Facts found out.
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How many houses did Russia destroy in Ukraine?
How to make a city accessible
What should the city of the future be like?
How many houses did Russia destroy in Ukraine?
Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, as a result of artillery shelling, missile and airstrikes in Ukraine, the number of damaged residential properties as of June 2023 was more than 163 thousand.
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As of June 2023, the total area of damaged or destroyed objects is 87 million m2, which is 8.6% of the total area of the housing stock of Ukraine.
The housing stock in Donetsk, Lugansk, Kharkov, Kiev, Nikolaev and Chernigov regions suffered the greatest destruction.
According to experts, more than 18 thousand houses were completely destroyed in the Donetsk region, 6.7 thousand in the Kyiv region, and more than 2.5 thousand in the Lugansk region.
In the capital, during the full-scale invasion, 454 residential buildings were destroyed and damaged, the amount of damage from these destructions amounts to $728 million.
Already now in Ukraine the houses destroyed by Russia are being gradually restored, however, the bulk of the work will be carried out after our victory and after the Kremlin has paid reparations.
How to make a city accessible
In accordance with Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, accessibility (architectural, transport, information) must be ensured in Ukraine and barriers to the realization of people’s own rights must be eliminated.
Because of the war that Russia unleashed in Ukraine, many people were injured, some were left without limbs and became immobile. This applies not only to the military, but also to civilians who are injured every day during rocket attacks.
Taking all this into account, a modern Ukrainian city should be accessible to everyone, either for mothers in wheelchairs, or for people with prosthetics, and so on, and ramps alone cannot be used here, says the architect, lecturer of educational courses in architecture, author of the Virishui Misto training , lecturer of the Urbanism course on the Diya.Osvita portal Elena Tsymbalyuk.
– There is another problem. There is a problem of respect for such people. I very often come across designers who say: I won’t make a toilet for people with disabilities because people with disabilities won’t work in my office. And this is the biggest mistake we are faced with now, because the standards for accessibility were laid down a very long time ago, and now we have absolutely inaccessible cities,” Tsymbalyuk noted.
What should the city of the future be like?
Architect Elena Tsymbalyuk believes that there is no need to wait for the end of the war or the right moment. The ideal city of the future can be built now.
– An ideal city should be built now. If we build it comfortable for people with disabilities, both those with limited mobility and those with hearing and vision impairments, then, accordingly, it will be convenient for people for centuries, so to speak,” she noted.
All of these above-mentioned standards are already spelled out in regulatory documents, says architect and social activist Ulyana Dzhurlyak, therefore, in order for Ukrainian cities to become more comfortable and accessible, it is necessary to strengthen control over compliance with these standards.
– These are not some unique or fantastic methods that we should come to. That is, lower the curb at the pedestrian crossing or install a ramp, elevator or accessible public transport. These things are already prescribed by state building codes. The question is different: how do we carry them out when we design and build our cities, and how do we control their implementation, so I would like to focus on these aspects,” the architect emphasized.
How to make your city accessible today
- take care of safe and compliant ramps, and even better, one flat entrance for everyone. Where it is not possible, build a ramp taking into account the appearance of the building and in compliance with accessibility standards (inclination angle 1:12, presence of handrails);
- respect people's rights. Thus, a call button is not an optimal solution to the accessibility problem. Each person should be able to independently enter the building, without calling an escort service;
- ensure architectural accessibility in your city, a safe environment for everyone, accessible transport, provision of quality services in various fields;
- put doors accessible to everyone. For example, in a supermarket this could be automatically sliding doors;
- make separate parking for cars in the city and prohibit parking on sidewalks; pedestrians must have enough space to pass;
- make the public toilet accessible, taking into account the needs of people with various functional impairments (universal toilet stall);
- provide streets with information signs and other signs, where information is duplicated using pictograms, and also presented in readable large font, duplicating inscriptions in Braille;
- introduce low-floor public transport, convenient for various categories of citizens (pregnant women, elderly people, children, people in wheelchairs or with other functional impairments);
- build accessible public transport stops with lowered curbs.
Architects also note that for further comfortable life in Ukraine it is necessary to build affordable and modern shelters. Unfortunately, in modern realities this is a necessity.
Ulyana Dzhurlyak also noted that no matter how amazing it may be, special bunkers need to be built in Ukraine in case of a nuclear war.
