Ukraine’s “DAKH: Vernacular Hardcore” to Showcase Resilience at Venice Biennale
Ukraine’s national pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia will present DAKH: Vernacular Hardcore — a raw and radical reflection on rebuilding in the shadow of war, The Gaze reports citing Suspilne Media.
Curated by Bohdana Kosmina, Michal Murawski, and Kateryna Rusetska, the exhibition explores the intersection between traditional rural construction and spontaneous wartime self-repair.
The exhibition takes the roof — one of the simplest yet most essential architectural elements — and reimagines it in the wartime Ukrainian context, where the sky has become a battlefield.
“Ukraine is suffering irreparable losses as a result of Russian aggression, but it is also recovering very dynamically and stimulating innovative approaches to creating a new living environment,” said Commissioner of the pavilion, Tetiana Filevska. “This year’s Ukrainian project is dedicated to the most fundamental element of a building — the roof, which often becomes synonymous with the concept of home.”
“DAKH reveals the ambivalent boundary between wartime and post-war reconstruction,” the curators write. “The process of recovery is always ongoing, even though destruction and insecurity continue.” They draw attention to the resilience found in immediate vernacular — the ad hoc, community-driven construction that springs from necessity, not blueprints.
The concept of “hardcore” takes on layered meaning here. “We consider the word ‘hardcore’ in its original meaning, which comes from the vocabulary of vernacular construction, and means various fragments, scrap, fragments of bricks that together form the basis, the foundation,” said curators Kosmina, Murawski, and Rusetska.
Biennale Architettura is an international architecture exhibition that takes place every 2 years in Venice. Within its framework, the participating countries have the opportunity to arrange their own pavilions and present their architectural vision.
The main goal of the exhibition is to demonstrate architectural solutions that would provide answers to modern social, technological and cultural challenges.
The nineteenth International Architecture Exhibition will run from May 10 to November 23, 2025 (preliminary opening on May 8 and 9).
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