Conversations on Architecture is a book by architect Bohdan Volynskyi written as a result of a series of meetings with architect Oleh Drozdov. These meetings took place several years ago in Kharkiv, and the book was to be released in February 2022.
Under the yellow cover resembling the light outline of the window, Drozdov talks about a house with a garden and urban space, terrain and light, sacred and profane, flesh and weather, market, politics and architectural competitions, professional community and education. The issues discussed by the two summarize the first twenty years of Drozdov's architectural practice. This is also an attempt to talk about topics that are gaining importance in the architects' practices and architecture as it is today.
As Oleh Drozdov says: "Work on this book began a long time ago due to a desire to sum up the intermediate results. We wanted to cumulate different opinions and different paths that I and my colleagues followed in architecture during the first active twenty years. Bohdan Volynskyi was interested in undertaking such a project, and the whole agenda of the book belongs entirely to him. The conversation moved according to a plan and often focused on related topics. For me, this book is an opportunity to think about the future much more systematically."
In his turn, Bohdan Volynskyi explains his motivation: "I created this book because I love architecture and I want to share this love. This text seems important to me for two reasons. First, it is the story of one of the main characters on the modern Ukrainian architectural scene. It has not been told before and even more so recorded. Secondly, the list of topics is so wide that the book will serve as an excellent guide to the world of architecture for those who are unfamiliar with it. And for those who are well-acquainted, this book will be a great checklist for reviewing their experience."
Bohdan Volynskyi is an architect and the founder of the dash! design school. In 2014, he started his architectural practice and cofounded the NGO Critical Thinking, which also addresses professional issues. During the same year, he created the Children's School of Architecture (now the dash! design school). From 2015 to 2018, he worked on the launching of the Kharkiv School of Architecture. He has also worked as a carpenter, graphic designer, tutor for student workshops, artist, and author of texts and articles on architecture and poetry.
Oleh Drozdov is a co-founder, chief architect, and tutor at Drozdov & Partners, Kharkiv School of Architecture, and Paragraph. In 1997, he founded the architectural bureau Drozdov and Partners. The bureau operates in a wide international field (Korea, France, Switzerland, USA, Spain, Kuwait) and espouses critical artistic pragmatism. He curated Ukrainian projects at the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam: the Flood in 2005 (the "Monisto" project, which explores the development of the Odesa coast), and the Moscow Biennale of Architecture in 2012 (the "Circumstances" project, which traces the fate of some bureau projects). He also supervised the art project "Terralogia" (Kyiv, Kharkiv, 2015) and the project "Pathology" (Kyiv, Kharkiv, 2007), dedicated to the issue of the house with a courtyard. In 2011, he became a co-author and critic at the semester project at Columbia University GSAPP. In 2017, he founded the Kharkiv School of Architecture, the first private school of its kind in independent Ukraine. He is a key lecturer at the Department of Engineering and Technology, and is focused on finding a new understanding of tectonics. Expert of the EU mies award.
