Ukraine

“Dakh” means “roof” in Ukrainian. The most basic form of architecture. It provides shelter from the elements and cocoons the routines of everyday life. But under full-scale war — fought in large part in the skies, by drones and missiles — the roof is also the first point of impact for hostile projectiles. DAKH: Vernacular Hardcore juxtaposes the “heritage vernacular” of traditional Ukrainian village housing with the “emergency vernacular” of self-organised reconstruction work during wartime. We understand “hardcore” in its original sense as a builders’ term: the assorted bits of debris and clinker crunched together to form a building foundation. We appeal for an ethics — and politics — of rebuilding, rooted in the fragile but unyielding hardcore of the Ukrainian (and planetary) commons. Which makes manifest the structures of care, repair, solidarity— and resistance — that sustain it.
The core element in the exhibit is DAKH — a dynamic pre-image of a vernacular Ukrainian roof, conceived by architect and artist Bogdana Kosmina. The form, structure, materiality and spirit of DAKH emerge from The Atlas of Ukrainian Traditional Architecture, a 50-year monumental research project carried out by three generations of women architects: Tamara, Oksana and Bogdana Kosmina.