Skip to main content

Bordeaux Exhibition


How do you keep the joy of your childhood when the war is stealing everything? When the sound of sirens has become more familiar than the school bell, with lessons continuing in basements while missiles fly above. Yet, even in this environment, children in Ukraine continue to play, imagine, and create.

Location: Kyiv, Ukraine

Year: 2024

Program:

Client: Kyiv City Council

Beneficiaries: Visitors of the public park

Results:

Team: Budmo, Polina, Nataliia, 30 children & parents, 4 saw mill workers, 1 PTSD homeless veteran.

Partners: visio guy, A Development

Financial Support: Kyiv City Council, Bordeaux Metropole.

Material Support: Kyiv Communal Forest, Creative States, National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine.

In September 2024, a collective of young architects and carpenters from France, Ukraine, and Latvia, known as Budmo, collaborated with children in Kyiv to create the vision of a playground that not only reflects their dreams and wishes but also serves as a safe haven where childhood cannot be stolen. The main goal of our project was to give children a sense of belonging and agency in shaping a space that truly belongs to them while also bringing moments of joy and laughter during difficult times. To achieve this, we organized a series of workshops involving children from different districts of Kyiv.

Over two days, they expressed their most incredible ideas through model-making, drawing, and interviews. These ideas became the foundation for the design of a wooden pavilion (located at Trukhaniv Island, Kyiv), which serves as a call to consider children’s needs in designing sustainable spaces.

© BUDMO