Reconstruction in Ukraine is one of the greatest challenges of our time. In view of the massive destruction of buildings and infrastructure, the world’s attention is focussed on the question of how a sustainable and efficient new beginning can be achieved. However, while numerous initiatives and projects have already been launched, a fundamental problem has become apparent: reconstruction measures are far too often conceived and implemented as isolated individual projects. They may help locally, but they do not create structures that are sustainable beyond the individual case.
In a country that is facing similar challenges in many regions, a different approach is needed. What is missing is an overarching platform – a modular, scalable system that can be used wherever development work is required with just a few adjustments. This is the only way to utilise synergies, pool resources and share experience. The current patchwork of individual measures not only threatens to waste valuable time and resources, but also to squander the opportunity to utilise reconstruction as a driver of innovation and sustainable development.
It is time to rethink reconstruction aid: away from individual projects and towards a broadly applicable, flexible platform that takes regional characteristics into account and can still serve as a foundation for a new start across the country.
Reconstruction and Architecture
The focus will be on the destruction from an architectural point of view. On the one hand, the destruction of the buildings and, on the other, the destruction of the city as a functioning organism. Urban structures and how they function in the affected regions must also be addressed.
The problems following the destruction are often of the same magnitude as natural events of the most massive kind. The planning and construction of cities and small towns must be considered from ‘zero’.
Anthropocene
The Anthropocene is understood to be the human age. The term ‘geology of mankind’ first appeared in 2000 and 2002 in publications by the Nobel Prize winner for chemistry, Prof Paul Crutzen. The term describes the fact that human intervention in the natural environment has now reached such an extent that it has the character of a geological age of its own. This means that not only war can be seen as a man-made disaster, but also natural disasters as a society-induced disaster.
Reconstruction is therefore a drastic and long-term intervention that should be well planned and even better executed.
Ukraine – Current extent of the destruction
According to current estimates, around 13% of the entire housing stock was damaged or destroyed, affecting more than 2.5 million households. In addition, numerous infrastructure facilities such as roads, energy plants, schools and hospitals were severely damaged.
The costs for the reconstruction and recovery of Ukraine are estimated at around 524 billion US dollars (around 506 billion euros) over the next ten years.
According to a current estimate, the greatest damage is concentrated in the regions of Donetsk, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson as well as the capital Kyiv. In total, more than 250,000 residential units were destroyed or damaged, including over 222,000 private houses and 27,000 apartment blocks.
Based on an analysis of satellite images (as of November 2024), the Russian army has destroyed 210,000 buildings in Ukraine. These include 900 schools, hospitals and other institutions. Towns like Bakhmut or Avdiivka no longer exist. They are just ruins.
Reconstruction as an opportunity
Reconstruction should be used to make destroyed places better and more resilient than before. This will help to motivate many refugees to return to their country, especially in areas destroyed by war, in order to provide valuable and urgently needed reconstruction aid and strengthen the economy.
The reconstruction of Ukraine offers significant opportunities to make the country ecologically, economically and socially sustainable.
Key potentials and benefits for people, the environment and energy would be:
For the people
▪ Improve quality of life: New, modern housing estates with better infrastructure, green spaces, schools and healthcare facilities improve living conditions in the long term. ▪ Creating jobs: Reconstruction will create millions of jobs in construction, trade, logistics, energy and services – and not just in the short term.
▪ Education & Digitalisation: The reorganisation of schools and universities allows the integration of modern educational concepts, including digital learning platforms. ▪ Social Cohesion: Joint reconstruction strengthens national identity, civil society and trust in institutions. This promotes democracy.
For the environment
▪ Green cities, green building & sustainable architecture: Switching to environmentally friendly building materials, energy-efficient buildings (passive, zero-, plus-energy buildings, timber construction), urban greening.
▪ Renaturalisation & reforestation: Many destroyed landscapes can be ecologically restored – including protected areas, soils and biodiversity.
▪ Waste & recycling infrastructure: Establishment of a modern circular economy system, especially when dealing with construction waste, plastics and electronics.
▪ Environmental remediation: Opportunity to remove former industrial waste and improve air and water quality.
For the energy supply
▪ Green New Start: Ukraine can drastically reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and become a pioneer for renewable energies in Eastern Europe.
▪ Decentralised Energy Sources: The construction of solar plants, wind farms and biogas plants – especially in rural areas – makes the country more resilient.
▪ Modernisation of the Electricity Grid: Development of a ‘smart grid’ with storage solutions and better protection against attacks on the civil energy supply.
▪ Export Potential: Ukraine can position itself as an export country for green hydrogen and clean energy products.
Additional Structural Opportunities
▪ EU rapprochement & pressure for reforms: The reconstruction process is closely linked to EU integration – many reforms in the areas of rule of law, administration and anti-corruption are being accelerated.
▪ Promotion of Innovation: Investments in research, start-ups and new technologies (e.g. agritech, AI, circular economy).
▪ Decentralisation & Participation: Municipalities get more responsibility; citizens get more say in planning & reconstruction.
The reconstruction of Ukraine is therefore more than just replacing what has been destroyed – it offers the opportunity for an ecological, fair and digital reorganisation of the country. With smart planning and international support, it can become a model for sustainable post-war development – with a positive impact beyond Ukraine.
Reconstruction Ukraine – key factors:
▪ Encouraging a holistic view of increasingly necessary problem solutions. ▪ Up to now, everyone has been doing their own thing instead of developing a comprehensive overall solution.
▪ Speed to help, coupled with predictable costs.
▪ It must be possible to provide help in an uncomplicated yet structured and coordinated manner (as far as possible).
▪ Creating value, especially in the affected regions/countries (which is a trump to act with the respective state authorisation).
▪ Set up aid funds to which both private individuals and companies can contribute (CSR – corporate social responsibility)
With modular intelligence – faster, greener, better
Relevant components include modular generated residential and commercial space (economical and ecological construction), scalable, sustainable, cost-efficient, decentralised energy supply, local resources, consideration of healthy living and working, vertical farming, value creation also in Ukraine (jobs, SMEs, taxes), energy independence.
A very important background to this: 38% of anthropogenic greenhouse gases worldwide are directly attributable to the construction sector. If reconstruction in Ukraine is carried out conventionally, this will contribute to an extreme increase in CO₂, which would have a fatal impact on global climate change.
To illustrate this aspect, Prof Dr Werner Sobek, German architect and civil engineer and an authority on sustainable engineering and design, commented on the CO₂ aspect: “The construction and operation of our buildings generate around 35-40% of all climate-damaging emissions. This corresponds to around 12 billion tonnes of CO₂ per year. Or 380 tonnes of CO₂ per second.”
Interaction Architecture & Energy
1. Green Building – Progressive, sustainable urban development
New developments:
▪ Cradle-to-Cradle-Concepts: Buildings as material depots whose components can be recycled at the end of their useful life. Keyword: sustainable circular economy. *
▪ Low Carbon Concrete & Carbon Capture Materials: Concrete with a reduced CO₂ footprint, often made from industrial waste.
▪ Modular Construction & 3D-Print: Faster, cost-efficient construction – ideal for reconstruction in crisis regions.
▪ BIM (Building Information Modeling): Digital planning, material savings and efficiency right from the planning process.
* The construction industry accounts for around 60% of global resource consumption. We have to build with much less material. And we have to build in such a way that all building materials can be reused later. Nothing must be lost, nothing must be destroyed. (Prof Dr Werner Sobek)
Use in reconstruction:
▪ Rapid housing supply with modular, energy-efficient buildings.
▪ Resilient public buildings (schools, clinics), built according to the latest environmental standards.
▪ Integration of green spaces, water management (sponge city principle) and fresh air corridors directly into urban planning.
2. Passive Solar architecture – Buildings that heat & cool themselves
New developments:
▪ Automated shading systems: Control of blinds/slats depending on the position of the sun & room temperature.
▪ High-performance insulation materials (aerogel, vacuum insulation panels): Thin, but very effective.
▪ Thermal storage surfaces: Concrete or clay masses inside the building store solar heat for hours.
▪ Solar-orientated urban planning: Optimisation of entire streets for sunlight incidence.
Use in reconstruction:
▪ Energy self-sufficiency through construction: Less heating required in winter seasons, passive cooling in summer.
▪ Little need for technology = Less maintenance and risk of failure – ideal in regions weakened by war or crisis.
▪ Cost-efficiency in the long term thanks to low operating costs.
3. Decentralised renewable energies – Generating energy locally
New developments:
▪ Small PV & micro-solar systems: Favourable solutions for individual households and apartment blocks.
▪ Combi-systems: Solar + electricity storage + heat pump in one integrated system. ▪ Peer-to-Peer energy trading via blockchain: Users sell surplus electricity to neighbours without a central supplier.
▪ Micro-grids: Local grids that can operate independently of the national grid.
Use in reconstruction:
▪ Independence from the grid – crucial in regions with damaged infrastructure. ▪ Energy for critical infrastructures such as hospitals, schools, water supply. ▪ Scalability – from individual houses to entire villages.
4. Synergy potential in reconstruction
▪ Combination of these technologies (e.g. passive house with solar energy & storage) creates almost energy self-sufficient buildings.
▪ „Build Back Better“ instead of just ‘repairing’– modern, climate-neutral cities can be created that are better prepared for future crises.
▪ Education of local specialists (e.g. in Ukraine) for planning & installation ensures long-term expertise and jobs.
The integration of modular systems and modern green technologies into the reconstruction process is not an utopian dream, but offers a real opportunity for a climate-friendly, resilient and worthwhile future – especially for war-torn countries such as Ukraine. Strategic planning, political support and long-term investment are crucial.
The better future has to begin – now
Perhaps now is precisely the time to see the heap of ruins not just as a warning, but as raw material for a new narrative. Ukraine faces the opportunity to transform every brick, every module, and every idea into an urban laboratory of the future. Where there are still construction sites today, blueprints for resilient, livable cities could emerge tomorrow – faster, greener, and smarter than ever before. Reconstruction does not stop at the façade, but begins with the courage to think of the future as a building kit and to shape it together. Those who plan modularly now are not just building walls, but opportunities.
