The goal of this lecture is to explore mass housing in the cities of post-socialist Europe and its impacts on the environment. The lecture focuses on the scale of post-socialist mass housing, its inhabitants as users of the living environment, and the challenges of urban renewal, which are increasing the environmental impacts on cities. The presentation will analyze these environmental changes, which began in the cities of post-socialist Europe after 1989 and the post-Soviet urban environment after 1991. The challenges of inhabitants’ participation and urban renewal strategies have slowed urban development. Professor Chabanyuk argues that during the last three decades of post-socialist transition, the living environment of prefabricated mass housing has faced redevelopment challenges due to socio-political and economic change. This question requires efficient and sustainable responses in order to consider the environmental impacts in future urban change.

Oksana Chabanyuk is an associate professor of architecture at Kharkiv National University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Ukraine. For the 2019-20 academic year she is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the University of Michigan. Her research at CREES and the Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia focuses on the contribution of American specialists to the development of industry and cities in 1920-30s Eastern Ukraine. Dr. Chabanyuk’s academic interests include standardization and early industrialization in the USSR, influence of foreign specialists, prefabrication in industry and housing, post-socialist housing, social housing, and regeneration of residential areas. She is an architect and received her bachelor’s degree in architecture, MA in urban planning (2000), and PhD at the National University Lviv Polytechnic, Ukraine (2004). Her dissertation was entitled “Regeneration of the Residential Environment of High-rise Housing Areas of the 1970-80s (Lviv Case Study).” She has participated in various international competitions, programs, and workshops including: exchange study at Coventry University, UK (1996); Visiting Teachers Program at the AA School of Architecture, London (2010); visiting researcher at the University of Lisbon, Portugal (2014-15); visiting staff at the Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland (2015); and Lublin University of Technology, Poland (2016-18). Professor Chabanyuk has also participated at international conferences, roundtables and seminars in Germany, Portugal, Austria, Poland, UK, USA, and Ukraine.

This lecture is part of the WCEE environment series.

If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation to attend this event, please reach out to crees@umich.edu at least 2 weeks in advance of this event. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.