REBUILD THE WONDERFUL is an initiative that promotes human-centric transformations of the socialist inheritance (leftovers). Collecting atlas of cases of transformation projects in Central and Eastern European countries, spreading the hopeful message in Ukraine and analysing the environment through research of memory and research of interests.

What if our homes and neighborhoods were not soulless?

What if all our kindergartens taught us about the comfort and coziness that space can bring?
The features of modern architecture and socialist ideology formed segregation and loneliness among people. The common spaces such as corridors, halls were not programmed to bring people together and did not urge an unintentional encounter. Consequently, the natural connection among people was deleted.

What if many of our streets were full of life?
The observations of daily life forced us to think about the environment we are living in. Our old cities like Kiev (Ukraine), Vilnius (Lithuania) or Iasi (Romania), have wonderful urban roots. They have grown from handy and practical human architecture which formed everyday habits we admire. However, in the historical process we have inherited either the soviet modernistic formal and anti-human approach which made an impact on our today’s rules, standards, our “normal”.
The focus on the standard typologies
Obviously, most of our time is spent at home, averagely 8 hours a day depending on the age are spent at work, school or kindergarten and the time in between we are commuting or enjoying leisure time in the public spaces. Undoubtedly, these environments form the way we live, act and feel in a space.

^ Spaces where the day is usually spent

^ Spaces in Lithuania created during soviet occupation period
As a fact, around 50 percent of the whole population in Lithuania lives in blocks of flats from the soviet period. Around 95 percent of the streets and infrastructure were planned in the 2nd half of the last century too. This period in the world’s history is related to the dominance of the Soviet Union, socialist ideology and their desire to equalize all the people. Their propaganda used all possible means to keep a person in the “programmatic” field for as long as possible including architecture. The standard projects were built all over the USSR territory, without any attention to the context and surroundings. Socialist architecture reflects the ideology that forced people to separation, loneliness and dehumanization. Unfortunately, we are still living in this environment without even thinking about its impact on social generosity.
The scope of initiative
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 born in Lithuania is open to everyone. It already unites various architects, urbanists, politicians and other activists. We are collecting knowledge & insights to change the existing status-quo. We want to improve our daily lives not only in Lithuania and the Baltic States, but also in Ukraine and Eastern Europe.
Team
We, architects from Lithuania Gilma Teodora Gylytė, Laura Kairienė, Vadim Babij, Eglė Kliučinskaitė and Edgar Vladimirenko, were raised and grown up in the soviet spaces, which forces us to rethink the environment we are living in. Thus, we have started an independent research on soviet heritage and its influence to one’s social generosity.

Gilma Teodora Gylytė
Founder
believes in common gathering spaces as catalysing spaces for open society

Eglė Kliučinskaitė
Coordinator
believes that raising self-awareness of the environment we are living in will contribute to social generosity

Karolis Žukauskas
Communication
believes that the power of words can change people’s habits, cities, and countries

Laura Kairienė
Consulting
believes that only by sharing experience and knowledge we become united

Vadim Babij
Researcher
believes in importance of sharing the voices of local Ukrainians fighting for change

Edgar Vladimirenko
Researcher
believes that the exchange of professional knowledge can be a powerful tool for (mental) transformation
We are prone to discuss and exchange information – let us know what we don’t know.
You can reach us info@rebuildwonderful.com
Collaborators

Gilma Teodora Gylytė
DO ARCHITECTS

Vadim Babij
DO ARCHITECTS

Csaba Nagy
ARCHIKON

Siiri Vallner
kavakava
The initiative born in Lithuania is open to everyone. It already unites various architects, urbanists, politicians and other activists. We are collecting knowledge & insights to change the existing status-quo. We want to improve our daily lives not only in Lithuania and the Baltic States, but also in Ukraine and Eastern Europe.