Platform of Action: development of the “SUN Territory”

Funding: European Union
Partners: NGO PLAI, SUN Territory, City Marketing and Tourism Department, Spatial Development Agency, Urban Development Institute, “TOWER” Information Portal
Duration: February 2024 – June 2024
Coordinators: Yuliia Alenina, Sofiia Levchenkova
Contact: office@insha-osvita.org

Platform of Action: development of the “SUN Territory” is a project implemented by NGO PLAI in cooperation with Insha Osvita. The goal of the project is to create a platform for cross-sectoral cooperation, research, exchange of experience and finding solutions based on the revitalization of the urban space, the territory of the former Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky Children’s sanatorium (“SUN Territory”) in Vinnytsia.

In order to create an effective platform in Vinnytsia for the interaction of professionals from various fields (ecology, landscape, architecture, urbanism, creative industries), a three-part residency program was planned. Each of them is dedicated to the reinterpretation of abandoned Soviet spaces, using the example of the revitalization project of the Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky Children’s sanatorium. The results of the residency participants’ work will help the public sector team and the city government to launch a useful space in Vinnytsia, which will become a new point on the tourist map of the city and unite the local community of artists, activists and workers in the cultural and creative industries sector.

The Insha Osvita team was engaged in the formation of the residency program and the involvement of external experts. All residencies lasted 3 days and took place from April to May 2024 in Vinnytsia.

The first residency on the topic “Tourism and Cultural Creative Industries” took place in April under the curatorship of Marjana Kuzemska — cultural manager and researcher, senior expert on community participation and development at the Cedos Analytical Center. Together with Maryana and other experts in the field, the participants got to know Vinnytsia and talked about the importance of strategic documents of the urban space revitalization project, the prospects of the territory and the relationship with the requests from the local community of artists, managers and veterans, and about formal and informal connections between them.

The second residency on the topic “Ecology and Landscape” under the curatorship of Nina Dyrenko was held in May. Nina researches and designs landscapes, curates an educational program on urban ecosystems at XAWWI34, and is working on an educational course for children about protecting nature in wartime. During the residency, participants studied the residents of the SUN territory, worked on issues of the ecosystem and approaches to its use, analyzed reservoirs and their prospects for the territory.

The third residency “Revitalization and Urbanism” was held in May under the curatorship of Konstantin Kuchabskyi, co-founder of the Ostriv platform and Formography architectural studio. During it, the involved experts, together with the participants, searched for the optimal development scenario of the territory, which takes into account its spatial features, and also engaged in the inventory of buildings on the SUN territory.ʼ

The project ended with the “SUN Territory: Restoration” festival held at the end of June. At the festival, a presentation of the development concept of the SUN Territory was held, which was developed as a result of the residences of the project.

The Platform of Action: development of the “SUN Territory” project was created by the NGO PLAI with the support of EU4CULTURE, financed by the European Union, and implemented by the German cultural center “Goethe Institute in Ukraine” at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Ukraine.