REBUILD the WONDERFUL
Rebuild the Wonderful is an initiative that promotes human-centric transformations of the socialist inheritance in Central and Eastern Europe. The initiative unites architects, urban planners, and sociologists who aim to change the current environment based on human values. The goal of the initiative is to promote human-centric transformations of the socialist inheritance and to redesign public buildings and spaces of former socialist states.
Without physical transformation projects, RtW aims to educate and raise awareness in society through researches, articles, social & cultural initiatives. Rebuild the Wonderful focuses on positive transformation in three key areas: revitalizing streets, redesigning homes, and modernizing educational institutions. By addressing these aspects, the initiative aims to create more humane, functional, and inspiring environments for communities.
The initiative Rebuild the Wonderful focuses on the post-socialist countries, where same standard living conditions were generated. The scope of research includes: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, East Germany, Estonia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Moldova, North Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine. In response to today’s war in Ukraine, the Russian Federation and Belarus were excluded from our research scope.
The initiative is led by Lithuanian born architect Gilma Teodora Gylytė.
Research areas
“It is a captivating idea that the built environment shapes society”
- says Nial Ferguison,
British-American historian, Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University.
“It's seldom that someone can communicate so much passion, inspiration, humanity and common sense at the same time.<...> The subject really touched me - and the idea of reimagining and repairing modernist planned areas, not just what they look like but changing what they actually do - is relevant beyond the former Soviet Union.”
- shared David Simm,
Creative Director at Gehl, author of the best selling book Soft Cities after G.T.Gylyte lecture in Lviv Urban Forum 2023.
“By realising the massivness we can build the bridges between the cities and countries, sharing positive changes and kind solutions”
- says M. Federov,
vice prime minister of Ukraine.
Pelėdžiukas kindergarten conversion
Ambassadors & Mecenates
LT: Maksim Milta, Ambassador of Ukraine in Lithuania, Laura Kairien
UA: BCL, Balbek Bureau, Oleg Drozdov, Kharkiv school of Architecture, Lviv Urban Forum, Lviv Mayor
EU: Jahn Gehl, Winny Mass, Taba Rasi, Deyan Sudij, Allexandro Aravena,
USA: Bill Fisher
Friends & Colleagues
LT: Maksim Milta, Ambassador of Ukraine in Lithuania, Laura Kairien
UA: BCL, Balbek Bureau, Oleg Drozdov, Kharkiv school of Architecture, Lviv Urban Forum, Lviv Mayor
EU: Jahn Gehl, Winny Mass, Taba Rasi, Deyan Sudij, Allexandro Aravena,
USA: Bill Fisher
People
Gilma Teodora Gylytė, Eglė Kliučinskaitė, Rūta Marija Slavinskaitė, Vadim Babij, Eglė Konstancija Ramanauskienė, Justina Zibolytė, Laura Kairienė, Karolis Žukauskas