Design Guidelines

To ensure that the renovation and modernization of public spaces and buildings are appropriate to cultural heritage and conform to professional standards, the project supported the City of Lviv in drawing up a set of Design Guidelines or rules for works in the historical old city.

The problems:

1. Most of the buildings in the historical old town have suffered from neglect for many decades

2. Renovations or other works that have been carried out are frequently inappropriate, for example, the installation of plastic windows

3. A lack of maintenance, for example, of roofs or balconies, has led to considerable and often irreversible damage to historic structures.

4. The use of inappropriate materials and poor detailing deface individual buildings and have a negative impact on the historical townscape.

5. Because there are unclear responsibilities and a lack of communication between the different owners of a building, necessary maintenance and repairs (of for example, the roof, the stairwell, hallways, etc.) that affect the whole building are not carried out or carried out in makeshift ways.

6. Renovations or modernizations are often more concerned with visual enhancements than with needed structural repair.

The Design Guidelines are for:

1. The residents, owners and tenants of historical buildings in Lviv,
2. Municipal authorities and institutions,
3. Construction companies and craftspeople.

The way the Design Guidelines are organized

The Design Guidelines are organized according to individual types of building element and consist of separate chapters on: Facades, Balconies, Roofs, Windows, Doors, Stairs, Courtyards, Shop Windows and Advertisements.

Each of these chapters has the same structure, and includes photos of good and bad treatments of the respective element. The chapters contain:

 1. A glossary of terms

The technical terms used for the different parts of the building element being discussed in the chapter are shown on a drawing

2. History

The way the design of the building element has changed over time is described along with photos showing examples of existing elements built in different historical periods.

 3. Problems and recommendations

The challenges of dealing with the problems the building element is prone to are identified, and recommendation on how to deal with these problems are described. The recommendations take into account existing regulations (Ukrainian State Building Codes (DBN), Lviv City Council resolutions, etc.), and conform to international standards on the conservation of historical buildings as defined by the Venice Charter and other agreements and guidelines concerned with cultural heritage.

 4. Unacceptable practises

In each chapter, there is an easy-to-read list of things that should not be done in the historical old city, many of which are unlawful and might be investigated by the authorities. If severe damage is caused to an officially recognized architectural monument, which most of the buildings in the historical old city are, it may even lead to legal proceedings.