How the Shukhevych Museum will look like after restoration: results of the All-Ukrainian competition
On 30 June, on the occasion of the anniversary of Roman Shukhevych’s birthday, a sketch of a project to restore the destroyed museum was presented at the site of the UPA General-Corporal Museum in Bilohirsk, which was destroyed by Russian shelling. The project won the All-Ukrainian architectural competition.
The competition jury, which included architects, museum workers, restorers, representatives of the city and regional authorities, unanimously selected the winning team, whose concept will be used for future design. The competition was won by the team of Andriy Lesyuk, who is the author of the Memorial to the Heavenly Hundred Heroes in Lviv.
At the request of Roman Shukhevych’s family, the shape of the building will be as close to its historical appearance as possible, and all the authentic elements that partially survived the Russian attack, such as carpentry, wooden stairs, a piano, busts, etc., will be restored and returned to the museum by the city, clearly separating the authentic from the new. The key to the future museum space should be the hiding place where Roman Shukhevych was hiding on the second floor.
According to Anton Kolomeytsev, the chief architect of Lviv, the competition revealed the full range of approaches to solving the issue of the museum’s restoration.
“The first place was awarded to the project that had the most tactful approach to the task: all the authenticity, carpentry, individual details and the entire volume were preserved as they were before, only to make it even stronger and clearly separate what will be restored in 2024-2025. It will be clearly visible that something new has been made, and this also contains a certain history of the attack, because it was not by chance that this particular object was destroyed. We show that our memory is not to cry over the ashes, but to keep the fire burning. This fire is visitors, a modern high-quality exhibition. We are giving this object a chance to be reborn,” explains Anton Kolomeitsev, chief architect of Lviv.
On the site of abandoned outbuildings, the architects proposed to arrange an educational space for patriotic education for young people, thus complementing the functional content of the museum.
“We don’t want this to be a one-off museum, but one that people would come back to again and again. There should be historical readings, meetings of Plast members, patriotic education for different age groups. In other words, this object should be actively alive every day. It should be a mecca for people interested in the history of Ukraine,” said Anton Kolomeitsev.
In addition, the project envisages the creation of a memorial park named after Roman Shukhevych with educational areas near the lake. The area around the monument to Roman Shukhevych will be landscaped and street furniture will be installed. The most important thing today is that the design solutions provide for full inclusivity of the facility.
“I don’t know of a better way to choose the best solution to the reconstruction issue than to hold an architectural competition. I think that the very fact of holding such a competition in time of war, especially if it ends in a successful outcome, is a testament to our strength. For me, the rebuilt Shukhevych Museum will definitely be the place where I will bring my children, my team and my guests.
Museums today are not just repositories of heritage and not just places of memory, they are tools for shaping national identity and tools for national and patriotic education. That is why it is very important that the renewed, revived, rebuilt Shukhevych Museum becomes a very lively and active place, a place of attraction and a place where the key meanings of our national identity are nurtured,” said Bohdan Tykholoz, director of the Franko House and one of the jury members of the architectural competition.
One of the members of the advisory group for the architectural competition was a soldier, Anton Petrivskyi. He also advocated the restoration of the museum according to the proposed design.
“The restoration of the Roman Shukhevych Museum is a matter of honour. The construction of the building is the first important step. The next step should be the quality of the museum’s content, which should harmoniously combine the exhibition of preserved objects of that period with modern interactive forms of conveying information about the figure of the UPA General-Corporal. And, of course, one of the museum’s interior walls should be decorated with a photograph of the monument to Shukhevych on Red Square in Moscow,” Anton concluded.
After the winners were selected, the proposal was discussed with the family of Roman Shukhevych, in particular with the general’s daughter, Maria.
“There were many discussions. My idea was to restore it as it was before. But there are a lot of ideas and opinions about how to restore it, and it’s dragging on. And if we keep discussing this, we don’t know when this museum will be revived. And in order for the museum to be revived, so that the enemy does not rejoice in the fact that it was destroyed and we gave up, we need to work and restore it,” said Maria Tryliovska (Shukhevych).
The project was also presented to various audiences – the museum staff, the working group, and members of the advisory board. The wishes and suggestions from the meetings were heard by the authors and will be taken into account in the future design. The content of the museum and its exposition will be developed with the staff of the Lviv Historical Museum.
“There were comments at the working groups, and we have even made some changes and are ready to work. We understand that you cannot just take a sketch and build it – it requires a detailed study, each object is a story, a large number of artefacts that need to be restored. We have to exhibit against the backdrop of authentic materials that remain and can be restored,” added Andriy Lesiuk.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi thanked everyone involved in the restoration of the museum and noted that there are many people willing to contribute to the reconstruction.
“We have a common opinion: the museum should be restored, it should be authentic and interesting for children to come here. I would like to thank Ms Maria, Mr Shukhevych’s daughter, the museum director, all the members of the working group and the competition jury. Next up is work on the drawings and the restoration process itself. We are doing everything efficiently and quickly, so that next year we can meet here and witness this beautiful exhibition.
We received a lot of proposals from various benefactors: schoolchildren, elderly people, military personnel, and well-known politicians – everyone wants to get involved, everyone wants to put in their own brick. The figure of Shukhevych is inspiring, and this building should inspire and make you want to come here again and again,” summed up Andriy Sadovyi, Mayor of Lviv.
By the way, afterwards, celebrations were held to mark Roman Shukhevych’s birthday