Berlin Fellowship 2023 — Architecture

Vita

Anna Dobrova has an architectural background, which she acquired at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Kyiv, the Technical University of Vienna, and at multiple architectural and urban planning bureaus such as ФОРМА, Feld72, and bogner-cc. While living in Vienna, Anna became more interested in socially oriented architecture which she  practices through curatorial practice, educational workshops, art and urban interventions, and participatory action research. In 2015, Anna co-founded the NGO MistoDiya for urban interventions, research, and curatorial practices, and in 2018 she co-founded and curated Metalab.if – an urban laboratory in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine. Anna has been living in Basel since 2022 and is an active member of Swiss Network with Ukraine at ETH and the NGO Re-Win.

Residency

During this residency, our primary focus will be on comprehensive documentation of the ongoing METALAB project known as CO-HATY. Launched in March 2022, the CO-HATY initiative aims to provide housing for internally displaced individuals in response to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, which forced approximately 12 million Ukrainians to flee their homes. Of these, 6.5 million sought refuge in Western Ukraine.

The CO-HATY project integrates architectural and urban expertise, collaboration with local authorities and property owners, fundraising for repair and furnishing efforts, construction management, and designing furniture for retrofitted spaces. Over the course of one and a half years, CO-HATY has gained recognition within art, architectural, and humanitarian circles, serving as a subject of research, exhibitions, and publications worldwide. Our team now aims to distil this wealth of experience into a dedicated website and publication, while also strategizing for the project's future endeavours.