The Exhibition “Polis: 7 Lessons from the European Prize for Urban Public Space” was inaugurated in the Port River building on Friday 17 May, as part of the CANactions International Architecture Festival.

The city is its people and its quality is measured by their ability to listen to each other, to find things in common or, in other words, to create community. Hence, the Twelfth CANactions International Architecture Festival was presented in such a way as to reinforce its vocation as an urban laboratory in a context of economic and political uncertainty, but also in a setting marked by the vitality presently characterising a Ukraine in transition.

This year’s concept was “Hromada”, a Ukrainian term for community, rooted in local cultural codes and with a utopian component which, defined by overcoming inequalities on every scale, from the family and the street to the city and the country, could become a lesson when responding to the needs of a plural society.

PUBLIC SPACE / POLIS Exhibition, Kiev from CCCB on Vimeo.

Besides presenting the “Polis” exhibition and the key ideas of the European Prize for Urban Public Space, David Bravo , secretary of the Prize,   participated in the debate “Architect’s Success: Between Personal and Common Values”, together with Victor Zotov and Yevgen Poltavtcev. He  also was a Architour speakers, together with Klaus Overmeyer, in a more informal debate that took place in a boat trip along the Dnipro River.

The director of CANactions is Viktor Zotov, who has been a member of the Committee of Experts of the Prize since 2016.