Constructing Housing During Crisis: Ukraine

Speakers:

• Anna Dobrova, co-curator of METALAB and co-founder of NGO MistoDiya

  

  Anna Dobrova is a co-founder of Metalab NGO, an urban laboratory located in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine. She is also a co-initiator of the Charitable Foundation "CO-HATY," which is an affordable housing program initiated by Metalab to serve internally displaced people. In this role, she leads long-term housing projects in collaboration with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Since 2022, Anna has been living in Basel and is a co-founder of the Swiss Network with Ukraine at ETH, Switzerland’s Federal School of Technology. Additionally, she is an active member of the NGO Re-Win, which promotes the reuse of building materials. Anna is also a co-founder of the NGO MistoDiya, which focuses on urban interventions, research, and curatorial practices. Her work centers on the institutional development of grassroots organizations that support communities in creating inclusive, sustainable, and comfortable living environments. Anna received her architectural education at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Kyiv and the Technical University of Vienna, and she has worked with various architectural and urban planning firms in both Ukraine and Austria. 

• Ashley Bigham, Curator, Constructing Hope: Ukraine; Assistant Professor, Knowlton School of Architecture, The Ohio State University

  

  Ashley Bigham is an Associate Professor at the Knowlton School of Architecture and co-director of Outpost Office. She has been a Fulbright Fellow in Ukraine, a MacDowell Fellow, and a Walter B. Sanders Fellow at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. At The Ohio State University, she is an affiliate faculty member of the Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies. In addition, she is a collaborative partner and visiting faculty at the Kharkiv School of Architecture in Ukraine. 

  Ashley’s creative work and writing engage architecture through a study of consumption and domesticity, focusing on architecture’s entanglement with the production and fulfillment of consumer desire. She is the editor of Fulfilled: Architecture, Excess, and Desire (Applied Research + Design, 2022). Her writing and work has appeared in publications such as MAS Context, Dialectic, The Architect’s Newspaper, Metropolis, Mark, CLOG, and Surface.  

  The design work of Outpost Office has been exhibited at the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Milwaukee Art Museum, the Tallinn Architecture Biennale, Roca London Gallery, Wedge Gallery, Yale School of Architecture, Princeton School of Architecture, Harvard GSD, and The Cooper Union. 

  Ashley holds a Master of Architecture from Yale University and a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Tennessee, where she was awarded the Tau Sigma Delta Bronze Medal for best graduating project. Prior to co-founding Outpost Office, Ashley practiced at MOS and Gray Organschi Architecture in New Haven, CT. 

  
  

• Sasha Topolnytska, Curator, Constructing Hope: Ukraine; Professor, Spitzer School of Architecture, City College of New York

  

  Sasha Topolnytska is an American-Ukrainian architectural designer and educator in Brooklyn, NY. She is a founder of FARMMM – a design studio exploring architecture beyond buildings and working at different scales of objects, installations, exhibitions, research, public realm projects, and more. Sasha’s work is driven by a strong interest in the social and cultural values of architecture and design. She often collaborates and works with other architects, creatives, communities, and advocates whose perspectives and values allow her to always have a critical understanding of the built environment to create spaces and experiences that are inclusive and joyful for others. 

  Sasha's design work has been awarded the NYCxDesign award, and her collaborative projects have received support from the Center for Architecture AIA in NYC, the New York State Council of the Arts, and the Design Trust for Public Space. She holds a Master of Architecture degree from Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning at the University of Michigan and a Bachelor's in Architecture from Lawrence Technological University. Sasha teaches architecture undergraduate and graduate studios at the Spitzer School of Architecture at City College and Interior Design courses at the New School. She has previously taught at Pratt. She has previously worked for award-winning architecture and design offices such as TenBerke, Architecture+Information, and JG Neukomm Architecture.