Planting Sunflowers, Protecting Kalyna

To plant and protect - small interventions which blossom to create networks of connection and life. The aggregation of these small interventions - two meter additions to each apartment, frameworks for rebirth in damaged bays, and bunkers planted as seeds - produce a new vision of the urban condition in places of uncertainty.

Programs are solidified as they fragment. Family structures are upheld through a light touch on existing residential structures, while the addition of a continuous exterior balcony provides flexibility. Further, they create an “air-bag” for the building in the form of a blast curtain which takes and lessens the impact of air shock waves.  This blast curtain doubles as a performative facade, where an image of the building is printed onto its exterior to serve as camouflage, confusing enemy drone pilots through plays of trompe l-oeil. 
This idea is carried to the new construction, where a continuous balcony is framed through an exterior structural skeleton, creating an extremely flexible interior condition while retaining protection through a robust exterior system of structure and blast curtains.

The entirety of the site is animated through a series of bunkers. Covered by hard earth, they form a new figure in the tower-in-the-park typology, protecting their users through scale-specific decentralization and centralization. In times of peace, they are transformed into a variety of programs from theaters to sports centers to restaurants to parks. The not only re-use the ground, but the bunker structure is used in these community-centric programs.