Project
Project
The city of Lviv has been at the cultural crossroads of East Central Europe for many centuries. Its still largely intact old town is of great historical importance, and in 1998, the medieval inner city was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In order to preserve this inheritance, a range of challenges have to be met:
- Many of the surviving historical buildings have been neglected for decades and are in a very bad state of repair;
- Prevailing attitudes and regulatory conditions are not conducive to historically sensitive renovation and maintenance of buildings in historical districts;
- Owners and occupants of historical buildings rarely have access to the technical or financial resources needed to carry out renovations and modernizations that would improve their living conditions;
- Most local architects, craftspeople and building companies are unfamiliar with historically sensitive renovation work;
- A lack of awareness and a shortage of knowledge of correct building techniques are usually bigger problems than the raising of funds.
The Ukrainian-German cooperation project, “Municipal Development and Rehabilitation of the Old City of Lviv”, is helping to overcome these difficulties. The project is implemented by the City of Lviv represented by the city’s Heritage Department, and the German international cooperation organization, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The project’s main focus areas:
- Supporting renovation measures
- Developing instruments for urban renewal
- Training and vocational education
- Public relations, awareness raising and participation
The project benefits:
Owners and occupants of historical buildings –The project encourages residents of the old town quarters to become actively involved in the urban renewal process. Citizens are offered opportunities to participate in the making of decisions, for example in the design and use of public open spaces.
The project provides owners of historical buildings with cost free technical advice on how to carry out renovations, and can help with the financing through its support programme.
Building professionals –
The project offers local architects and craftspeople vocational training courses on the skills needed for historical renovation work in order that they become better equipped to provide building owners and residents with technical, financial and regulatory advice and services.
The town administration –
The project helps the municipal departments to improve their administrative, legal, institutional and financial operations. For example, an action plan was made for the rehabilitation of the historical inner city which identifies priorities and integrates the various different aspects of urban development that need to be taken into account. In drawing up the plan, emphasis was given to the importance of cooperation between each of the relevant administrative departments, which showed the potentials of inter-departmental cooperation and increased the chances of this way of working becoming a standard practise.
Citizens of Lviv in general –
The project organizes meetings, workshops and seminars on rehabilitation processes and the preservation of the city’s heritage, and arranges lectures, mounts exhibitions and gives film screenings on urban topics, all of which are open to the public. The purpose of these events and the project’s other public relations efforts is to increase understanding and raise citizen’s awareness of the importance of urban development.
For more information about the project, see flyer