Urban Design and Planning in a Cultural Heritage City: The Case of Lviv

Lviv is one of the few major cities in Europe, the architecture of which has survived practically undamaged all catastrophes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, so that much of its historic development can be read in its preserved structures of space and buildings and architectural objects stemming from the last six centuries.

Two characteristics, moreover, distunguish Lviv from some of the other cities, similarly well preserved: the special influence exerted on its cityscape by the fact that religions and cultures of a whole continent were meeting in it and a continuous urban development, which meant that – even after 1945 – what was new was usually added to what already existed, without, on the whole, replacing the latter.

The special responsibility of Lviv’s current urban design and architecture must be recognized: to preserve the city’s outstanding European heritage as well as the historic continuity of its cityscape.

This student workshop, a cooperation project of the Lviv Polytechnic, the Technische Universität Dresden, and the Center for Urban History in Lviv, seeks to support the skills needed to meet this challenge.

Credits

Сover Image: Mytna square. Project design by Urban Ideas