Dear friends, colleagues, international community of architects.
It has been 1226 days since russia launched a full scale war against Ukraine.
In times when our government, army, territory defense forces and citizens are doing everything they can to foster peace in Ukraine, we call for your proactive political position.
We ask you to stop any cooperation with russian developers, seize completing public and private commissions from russia.
Working on the projects for russian clients you support putin’s criminal regime that is currently destroying our country. Given the latest threats from the russian government we might face an entirely new world order — the world after nuclear war — when architectural design is no longer in need.
We ask you to prove your dissent of russian aggression through action.
Go out on public protest, spread information among colleagues and friends and keep supporting Ukraine.✕
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ФОРМА is independent office driven by research and experiments in architecture. Our approach is to work at the intersection of the disciplines. In a constant dialogue with specialists in theoretical and practical fields, we use different representation forms for the projects. From spatial development strategies, master plans, renovation programs and buildings to books, interfaces, installations and exhibitions. Dealing with constant changes in ecology, economy, political and social systems allows us to think broadly and initiate cooperation for interdisciplinary growth.
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Location: Malopidvalna st. 12/10, office 10b
01034 Kyiv, Ukraine
Tel/Fax.: +38 (044) 279-04-39
For your suggestions or contact,
drop us a line: info@formaarchitects.com
Pavilion 13
Program: Cultural, Renovation
Partner: RIBBON International
Status: Ongoing
Year: 2025
Originally opened in 1967 to showcase Ukraine’s coal industry, the building is one of several pavilions on the National Complex Expocenter of Ukraine (VDNG) campus. Commissioned by RIBBON International, the project marks a turning point in Ukraine’s approach to Soviet architectural heritage, reframing Pavilion 13 as a dynamic platform for contemporary culture.
Faktura 10—Jannis Kounellis, Untitled, 1997/2025
Program: Exhibition
Artistic Director & Chief Curator: Marta Kuzma
Organiser: Faktura 10 is a core initiative of RIBBON International
Partners: National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
Status: Completed
Year: 2025
Reconstructing Kounellis’s work from 1997 in Ukraine today is to recognize that Kounellis was an artist informed by war, having lived through World War II and the Greek Civil War. His integration of industrialized materials common to wartime production as remnants of destruction, spoke as much to the postwar human condition as it did to fracture and disruption. As the artist noted, “since the war, we have only contradictions.”
Renovation of Gamma Factory
Program: Research, Mixed use
Site area: 9 180 sq.m.
Building area: 46 600 sq.m
Year: 2018
Gamma factory (Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine) was built at the beginning of 1960th, specialized on the production of high-tech electronic products for the space, aviation and nuclear industries. After 1991 the company declared bankruptcy and declined. ФОРМА’s proposal for the mix-used development was based on the idea of creating a cultural, business and retail core of the city.
Cxema+PAN
Program: Scenography
Area: 3000 sq.m.
Status: Completed
Collaborators: BlckBox
Year: 2019
“It seems like the most genuinely and painfully cool party left on earth.”
Electronic Beats, INT
KMF
Program: Renovation, Mixed-use
Building area: 40000 sq.m.
Year: 2020
Play Factory
Program: Offices
Building area: 28000 sq.m.
Year: 2020
Before the Future. VI PER Gallery
Program: Exhibition
Area: 100 sq.m.
Status: Completed
Year: 2023
The Biennale takes place at a time of the greatest doubts of Ukrainian men and women regarding personal life and professional strategies, a time of rethinking the role of architects in wartime, and a time of transforming relationships with space due to the experiences of war and experiences of regular terrorist attacks on Ukrainian cities and civil infrastructure. But at the same time, at the moment of greatest need to be present in the international dialogue, speaking on our behalf.
Medyk
Program: Park, Mixed-use
Area: 2000
Status: Ongoing
Year: 2022
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Busan Opera House
Program: Theatre, Opera, Event hall
Site area: 34 928 sq m
Area: 62 300 sq m
Status: International competition. Honorable Mention Award
Year: 2011
Project is awarded an Honorary Mention at the International Ideas Competition for Busan Opera House in South Korea. The competition was promoted by the Busan Metropolitan Mayor's Office seeking international ideas to build an opera house that would become "a future-oriented cultural space that can raise local performing art culture one level up with its hi-tech facilities and differentiated contents".
House of Hungarian Music
Program: Museum, Concert Hall
Building area: 3 496 sq.m.
Year: 2014
The idea of the building as architectural incarnation of synthesis of vision and hearing, metaphor of music as a complicated system of simple primitives, as a shell for sound experiments, multifunctional stage for learning Hungary Music in all it’s manifestations.
Program: Culture, Leisure, Learning centre
Area: 3500 sq.m.
Year: 2014
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Сxema. July 2018
Program: Research, Scenography
Site area: 2 000 sq.m.
Status: Completed
Collaborators: BlckBox
Year: 2018
ФОРМА was involved in the organization of Cxema parties from 2015 to 2019, rethinking from the perspective of architectural practice the typology of rave and creating a holistic visual image of the space. Every season had a specific concept that directly influenced spatial and lighting solutions.
Before the Future. Spazio Esedra at the Giardini. The pavilion of Ukraine at 18th International Architecture Exhibition–La Biennale di Venezia
Ukraine is participating in the 18th International Architecture Exhibition curated by Lesley Lokko (20 May – 26 November 2023), with a Pavilion at the Arsenale (Sale d’Armi) and an installation in the Spazio Esedra at the Giardini. Before the Future is the title of the participation, organized by the commissioner Mariana Oleskiv, and curated by Iryna Miroshnykova, Oleksii Petrov and Borys Filonenko. Ukraine had not participated in the Biennale Architettura since 2014.
P9 VDNG
Program: Cultural
Partner: Big City Lab
Area: 3692 sq.m.
Status: Ongoing
Year: 2025
First Biennale of Ukrainian Contemporary Artists
Program: Exhibition
Area: 8 000 sq.m
Year: 2017
“Today that never happened” curators Lizaveta German, Maria Lanko, and Kateryna Filiuk applied to the categories of changes and fluidity, reflected through the aspects of blurring of topographic boundaries, the fragility of nation-states, the variability of identities, and the disappearance of the boundaries between the private and the public. ФОРМА was responsible for the exhibition design of the festival.
Program: Pavilion, Retail
Site area: 2 400 sq.m
Building area: 635 sq.m
Year: 2020
Program: School
Site area: 1,5 ha
Building area: 12 562 sq.m.
Status: Ongoing
Year: 2020
Babyn Yar
Program: Research
Status: Completed
Year: 2020
Today, the space of Babyn Yar is filled with multiple scenarios. They are played out daily in the area, which rather disorients and makes it impossible to spend time consciously within the memorial and preserved areas. This study is an attempt of a comprehensive look at further work with the territory based on the landscape analysis of Kyiv ravines.
Rybalsky Residential Block
Program: Residential, Cultural
Building area: 6 185 sq.m.
Year: 2018
The project provides a unique solution for the planning structure, which adds new qualities to the area. The residential area with the cultural centre is located in the centre of the regular lattice of the Rybalsky peninsula general plan. Its unique role for the district is expressed by the transformation of the shape of the plan: an oval volume is inscribed in the quadrangular perimeter.
Corridor Park. Strategy for Dnieper Islands
Program: Research, Strategy, Masterplan
Collaborators: Bassinet Turquin Paysage
Site area: 2000 ha
Year: 2011
The main reason why Kyiv islands have become a wasteland is that they almost have no access from both sides of the river. For a 12-kilometer piece of land of Trukhaniv and Muromets islands there are only three points from which one can get into the area (from the Northern bridge, from the pedestrian bridge and from Hydropark). Hardly anybody can cover the distance on foot and get pleasure from walking and contemplation.
Program: Education
Building area: 500 sq.m.
Year: 2014
Essential Goods
Program: Exhibition
Status: Completed
Curators: Isabella van Marle and Sonya Kvasha
Partners: pavilion of culture, BlckBox, Patriot
Graphic design: Faye and Gina
Digital design & consulting: Bureau Antoine Roux & David Broner
Web development: Tristan Bagot
Supported by un/fund, hup.foundation and Sarah van Rij
Year: 2024
Reflecting the landscape of Ukrainian photography today, Essential Goods is a group
exhibition featuring works by more than 20 young artists. Produced from 2014 to 2024,
their varied projects are held together by a common thread: of what it means to make
art in and of a time of war. When the future is uncertain, they ask: ‘what constitutes an
essential good?’
Opening in Kyiv on the 23rd May, Essential Goods is set across the Pavilion of Culture:
a 1967 modernist landmark, now a curatorial institution at the intersection of contemporary
visual art, music and architecture. With the outbreak of full-scale war, its programme was
suspended, and its buildings became a depot for humanitarian aid.
The question "Is culture the first necessity during the ongoing war?" formed the basis of the architecture of the exhibition Essential Goods with which the Pavilion of Culture begins a new season of activity after a two-year pause.
The uncanned building with the remained items of aid form the body of the exhibition, creating the possibility of coexistence between wartime needs and art.
NPAK Armenian Centre for Contemporary Art
Program: Museum, Performance centre
Building area: 5 100 sq.m.
Year: 2019
The Armenian sailing vessel “Kilikia” being a true copy of a merchant ship of the Middle Ages, from 2004 to 2006 was able to overcome the route from Yerevan around Europe, having passed through seven seas. In the Middle Ages the ship was a symbol of the unification of nations, and travellers and merchants played an important role in the intercultural dialogue and exchange. In the 21st century the participants of world discourse are artists. The story of the journey of “Kilikia” was the inspiration for our decision. Squeezed in the city structure The NPAK building today is the part of the architectural ensemble that had lost its original function.
ZigZag Kyiv
Program: Restaurant
Status: Completed
Area: 70 sq.m
Year: 2016
Zigzag is a city cafe located on one of Kyiv’s most fashionable streets, which became popular among the local creative community. Zigzag is a symbol, which is widely represented in Ukrainian avant-garde poetry and art.
VOGUE pop-up gift shop
Program: Pop-up
Status: Completed
Area: 6 sq.m
Year: 2024
Before the Future. Arsenale. The pavilion of Ukraine at 18th International Architecture Exhibition–La Biennale di Venezia
Ukraine is participating in the 18th International Architecture Exhibition curated by Lesley Lokko (20 May – 26 November 2023), with a Pavilion at the Arsenale (Sale d’Armi) and an installation in the Spazio Esedra at the Giardini. Before the Future is the title of the participation, organized by the commissioner Mariana Oleskiv, and curated by Iryna Miroshnykova, Oleksii Petrov and Borys Filonenko. Ukraine had not participated in the Biennale Architettura since 2014.
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P13: Pavilion of Culture
Program: Culture, Museum, Event hall, Gallery
Area: 2 500 sq.m
Status: Ongoing
Year: 2020
The most significant cultural projects of modern Ukraine are initiated by independent researchers, curators, and artists. The potential of these independent creators, intellectual and artistic level of their work is much more ahead of the existing institutional capacity. There is a lack of institutions in Ukraine, that could provide a decent level of support and development of cultural initiatives. This absence of institutional sustainability led to the idea of creating the Pavilion of Culture – an institution that will provide the audience, space, and opportunities for the realization of the leading cultural creators.
Guilty Wine Bar
Program: Bar
Area: 25 sq.m
Year: 2018
Guilty wine bar was conceived as a place to start the evening, and the exhibition program, curated by Maria Lanko and Liza German, extended this conception into the context of art. Drafts and sketches by local artists, such as Lucia Ivanova and Ksenia Hnylytska, gave an alternative view on the idea of the origin and preparation.
JOMO
Program: Restaurant, Furniture
Area: 140 sq.m.
Status: Completed
Year: 2018
JOMO is an abbreviation of “joy of missing out”, which could be interpreted as the concept of abandoning the internet and technology without compunction. The JOMO burger cafe seems to be ironic about its surroundings and context: space is located in a bustling area, full of office workers and students. Rejecting the trivial representation of burger cafes, ФОРМА created a holistic clean space, disposed of unnecessary decoration.
“Our Years, Our Words, Our Losses, Our Searches, Our Us”
Program: Exhibition design
Curators: Kateryna Iakovlenko, Natalia Matsenko, Borys Filonenko
Status: Completed
Year: 2023
The exhibition “Our Years, Our Words, Our Losses, Our Searches, Our Us” is accompany the opening of the Jam Factory Art Cente on November 18, 2023 and will be the first large-scale exhibition in the history of the art center. The exhibition present the works of Ukrainian artists from 2022-2023 and a longer chronology – from the 19th century to the present.
Promprylad.Renovation
Program: Mixed-use
Area: 36 200 sq m
Year: 2018 – Ongoing
Promprylad.Renovation is an investment center on the territory of a revitalized former factory in Ivano-Frankivsk. The project embodies the idea of impact-investment and combines the advantages of commercial and socially significant enterprises. Based on the intersection of four different directions, which are new economics, urbanism, contemporary art, and non-formal education, Promprylad aims to become the center of the creative potential of the city and thus influence the development of the region.
Advent exhibition "Star Rises"
Ukraine pavilion at the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2022
Program: Pavilion, Exhibition
Partners: Gres Todorchuk PR
Status: Completed
Year: 2022
The United Nations' Climate Change Conference (COP27) will be held at Sharm EL Sheikh International Convention Center in Egypt from 6 to 18 November 2022. Ukraine, which had previously participated in the event for many years, will be represented by its own pavilion for the first time. The Ukraine pavilion consists of 3 sense blocks. In its center is an installation in the form of a shell funnel. Fertile Ukrainian lands are now dotted with them. Inside the funnel visitors will find more than 500 cubes with 16 types of Ukrainian soil — a reminder of Ukraine's enormous potential and its importance for global food stability. Thematically, the pavilion is divided into 2 blocks - the consequences of the war for the climate and the vision of the future of Ukraine, as one of the guarantors and participants of the climate goals of the UN.
Stage 13
Program: Scenography
Status: Completed
Partners: Cultural Platform, pavilion of culture
Area: 500 sq.m
Year: 2024
We adapted the 60s glass modernist pavilion into a space for electroacoustic performances. Scene 13 is series of music concerts that features academic multichannel electronic music and held on the 17-18th of August by the Pavilion of Culture in collaboration with the Cultural Platform.
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Pavlo Makov. MAPPA MUNDI
Program: Exhibition
Collaborators: Custom objects
Area: 2000
Status: Completed
Year: 2021
M82: The development strategy of the former "Tetrapak" factory
Program: Research, Strategy, Retail, Leisure
Site area: 13 200 sq.m.
Building area: 17 000 sq.m.
Year: 2018
ФОРМА was invited by 'goodwine' to develop a strategy for the renovation of buildings and the territory of the former Tetrapak factory.
Prom.Coworking
Program: Coworking, Offices
Status: Completed
Area: 1500 sq.m.
Year: 2024
The important stage in the implementation of a major renovation project of the Promprylad factory in Ivano-Frankivsk. As part of an ecosystem, the space of interaction and cooperation promotes a new culture of innovation. It facilitates the creation of projects and supports those who change the rules of the game.
Promprylad.Renovation: Study Models
Program: Exhibition
Area: 500 sq.m
Year: 2019
In recent years, the rethinking of the purpose of industrial architecture has become a representative practice in which possibilities are determined by research. Architects are facing the situation, where the proposal must justify a certain set of functions and goals of the object. The architectural design of Promprylad. Renovation can be considered as a proper example to explore.
Create! for UNICEF and Cultural Platform Zakarpattya
Program: Education, Exhibition, Pavilion
Area: 300 sq.m.
Year: 2024
YES Brainstorming
Program: Culture, Scenography, Furniture
Area: 660 sq.m
Collaborators: Oleksandr Burlaka
Status: Completed
Year: 2021
Yalta European Strategy (YES) is a leading forum for discussing Ukraine’s European future and global context. YES fosters new ideas. It connects Ukraine to international partners, supports forces for change in the country, and builds networks of supporters for a new Ukraine worldwide.
Together with an architect Oleksander Burlaka, ФОРМА developed the project for the main pavilion.
"Skystone" Immersive pavilion
Program: Cinema, Conference
Site area: 0,65 ha
Building area: 950 sq.m.
Collaborators: Front Pictures
Year: 2011
"Skystone" is a new type of prefabricated building with a 360º screen projection system presented at the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Beijing."Skystone" is a self-sufficient prefabricated building in a hall with 250 seats with interactive technology. The building is closed from outside and looks monolithic. It will let people get an immersive experience in understanding the universe
Lighthouse. Masha Reva for UNICEF
Program: Pavilion, Exhibition
Artist: Masha Reva
Area: 254 sq.m.
Status: Completed
Year: 2024
Kosatka Pop-up Bar
Program: Bar, Furniture
Area: 100 sq.m.
Status: Completed
Year: 2017
Program: Food production, Retail, Offices, Leisure
Collaborators: Interstore Schweizer, MW
Area: 22 000 sq.m
Year: 2020
Program: Offices
Building area: 49000 sq.m.
Year: 2020