Architecture During Wartime

For Slava Balbek, the founder and CEO of Kyiv-based Balbek Bureau, there are two distinct chapters in his firm’s history. “We are divided into before and after February 24th,” he says, a reference to the date earlier this year when Russia invaded his nation. “Before, we were like an ordinary architectural bureau — we had done 13 years of work on restaurants, commercial projects and residences, and we had about 75 employees.”

And after? How does the studio behind Kyiv’s central food market and other vibrant gathering spots respond when the city has suddenly transformed into a battlefield?

“We took some time to regroup — just to understand what was really happening,” says Balbek. “We usually have weekly meetings on Mondays at 10 o’clock, and on the 25th, we just sent a message to everyone instead: Please, take care of yourself, and take as long as you need to get to a safe place.”

Within a few weeks of the war’s onset, Balbek mobilized a team to lead a food drive program, Kyiv Volunteer, that has since worked with local restaurants to serve hundreds of thousands of meals to defense