Research Projects

The research project Lviv. Architecture and City: 100 Landmark Buildings includes a scientific examination of the historical and contemporary architectural and urban history of the city of Lviv. The aim of the project was to draw a distinctive city portrait based on significant architectural objects, urban ensemble as well as parks and monuments.

The selection of buildings reflects the extraordinary historical diversity of the city caused by its chequered history. The selection includes the main building of the medieval town center as well as buildings of the 19th century, built under the influence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Outstanding but sometimes dilapidated buildings of the functionalism of the interwar period under Polish influence make up another focal point. These are complemented by the most significant monuments of the Soviet period as well as those from the independent Ukraine after 1991.

Each building is documented with its individual characteristics. This includes a short portrait of its building process, a documentation with current pictures as well as plan views. For this purpose, all plan documents were excavated in Lviv archives, scientifically processed and displayed graphically in an updated form. This also includes unpublished material of previously little-known projects. The output is a complex picture of the architecture development in Lviv. In addition to the title as the "City of Art Nouveau" especially the architecture of the interwar period undergoes a reevaluation. 

Lviv. Architecture and City: 100 Landmark Buildings was written by a research team of the Vienna University of Technology and the L’vivska Polytechnic within this academic cooperation project. The joint work and discourse were informed by local expertise as well as critically distanced contemplation. Accordingly, the structure of the research project as well as the selection of projects - based on several methodological steps (workshops, discussions and research stays) - has been set.

The research result was published in September 2012 in book form (german/english, LIT publisher Vienna). The publication „Lemberg Lviv: Architektur und Stadt / Architecture and City. 100 Bedeutende Bauwerke / 100 Landmark Buildings“  is the first architecture manual of a Ukrainian city.