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Bucha School Shelter

Location: Zdvyzhivka, Bucha, Ukraine

Year: 2025 & on-going

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