Lviv Polytechnic, together with Austrian partners from the University of Innsbruck, organizes a new comprehensive educational program. At the end of this decade, they plan to train architects to master the latest technologies for using wooden structures in construction and design.
The implementation of the project is possible thanks to the cooperation of Lviv Polytechnic and the University of Innsbruck, which began in 2024. The idea was suggested at the conference, organized by Oresta Remeshylo-Rybchynska, Associate Professor at the Department of Design and Architecture Fundamentals, in 2016. Within the framework of this event, Ukrainian-Austrian cooperation on the reconstruction of the wooden church of the 18th century in Pidhirtsi, which was a monument of national importance and part of the Pidhoretskyi architectural ensemble (unfortunately, it was burned down in 2006) was discussed.
The modern Laboratory of wood project provides for the creation of a comprehensive educational program for the training of specialists-architects of structures made of wood, which will be implemented at the level of both higher education institutions and schools in close cooperation with business. The program will be implemented at three levels: university, school and business.
At the level of Lviv Polytechnic, it is planned to involve the Department of Design and Architecture Fundamentals (DAА) and the Department of Architectural Constructions (AС). To launch the project, meetings were held with Vice-Rector Nataliya Chukhray and Nataliia Hots, head of the Center for International Education, Svitlana Linda and Ihor Hnes, heads of the above-mentioned Departments. Cooperation between the Project Offices of two higher education institutions is necessary to develop a joint project within the Erasmus+ programme.
Austrian architect Gerhard Hauser, who personally arrived in Lviv, joined the first steps of organizing the ambitious project. It is not the first time that he cooperates with Ukraine. He is a participant in the discussion about post-war reconstruction, in particular Irpin, and modernization of our building standards.
Gerhard Hauser met with representatives of the Lviv Polytechnic administration. He also met Oresta Remeshylo-Rybchynska who they visited the Lviv Polytechnic Technopark with and, together with its director Andrii Stoianovskyi, inspected the free spaces of the University that can be used for this educational initiative.
The agreement on cooperation between universities, which provides for the mentioned directions, the first of which is educational, should be supported by private architectural bureaus of both countries. It can be Gerhard Hauser’s bureau and Mykola Rybenchuk’s Ukrainian Architectural Workshop «SYMETRIA». Private enterprises may also be interested in the implementation of the project as direct customers of the services of future specialists.
Currently, we are looking for partners and attracting financing for the project. This is an important educational initiative, since wood is the heart of the green economy. However, you still need to know how to work with wood. New specialists, graduates of the Institute of Architecture and Design, will be very needed in the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine, which will take place according to modern European environmental and technological standards.
