In this interview with the Post, Jones East 8 head Philip Hudson said that city developers in Ukraine are repeating mistakes made in Europe 50 years ago.
Philip Hudson is a Kyiv-based chartered architect and has headed Jones East 8, a licensed multidisciplinary partnership
specializing in consultancy, design, construction and real estate, since its founding in 1993.The company’s architectural works include projects in Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and the UK. Hudson’s projects and views have been published in numerousmagazines and newspapers, including The Financial Times,The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Architectural Journal, Building Design and The Daily Telegraph.
According to Hudson, among the well-known projects in Jones East 8’s portfolio include the supervision of construction of the 23,000-square-meter Radisson SAS, the design of Ukraine’s first wholly Western-owned supermarket, the 4,500-square-meter Billa in Kharkiv, and the development of Ukraine’s first wholly Western-owned building of 1,600 square meters for Raiffeisen Bank.
In this interview with the Post, Hudson said that city developers in Ukraine have unfortunately been repeating some of the mistakes made by their counterparts in Western Europe some 20 to 50 years ago.
KP: Please outline the major tendencies currently in the Ukrainian design and architectural sector. Has the number of architectural projects and companies been growing?
A model of a plant in London designed by Ukrainian architects working for Jones East 8 in Ukraine. (Courtesy photo)
PH: Kyiv undoubtedly is experiencing a comprehensive construction boom, but not an architectural renaissance.There is a tendency to follow the mistakes Western Europe made some 20 to 50 years ago and especially from the boom periods. For example, the anonymous mass-housing developments on Kyiv’s left bank and the out-of-scale developments in Kyiv’s remarkably intact city center. Architects blindly follow their masters to develop the embankment (Naberezhne shosse street, Dnipro River’s right bank) without regard to the unique quality of the area.Other examples – in Kyiv tram tracks are being ripped out, trees chopped and parking schemes developed, while in Western Europe trams are being reintroduced and parking reduced to reduce congestion.
KP: How is the current boom in the construction and real estate sectors affecting companies providing architectural services?
PH: It’s becoming more and more difficult to get and retain good professional staff.The technical knowledge of architects tends to be poor, but more disturbing is the lack of will to learn on account of the booming times and a wish to be “building artists.”
KP: Please say a few words about your most recent and most successful projects? Describe your clients: Are these local companies or mainly international ones?
PH: We export our architectural services from Ukraine to the UK for the Olympics in 2012.We have developed the concept design and now supervise a 3,500-square-meter state-of-the-art production factory, office, gourmet shop and canal restaurant with a 400-meter canal front in inner London.
Our clients are almost entirely Western companies.Our fees tend tobe higher than those of local architects and there is not a great appreciation of the added value we can provide.A well-designed building can not only look better but cost less, produce better returns and have a higher capital value.
KP: What obstacles now exist for the companies offering architectural services? What factors are holding back the expansion of this sector?
PH: The bureaucracy of local authorities on the one hand and clients’ lack of understanding on the other.There is a failure to understand commercial constraints by clients and architects alike.Sadly, an architect here is considered a “building artist” unconstrained by technical and legal concerns or the need to balance cost and value.
KP: Overall, is the investment climate in this sector favorable? What are the major risks?
PH: It is favorable in the “high risk, high return” sense.There is no doubt that there are good commercial returns on investments in Ukraine, but as is usual with high returns, there are high risks.Perhaps the chief risk is the law or, more particularly, law enforcement procedures.For example, the executive branches of government regularly delay, interpret the law and in effect blackmail investors.Normally there would be recourse to the courts, but sadly the courts are biddable.
KP: What is your forecast as to the further development of the architectural business in Ukraine, meaning the nearest future?
PH: There are signs of an increase of design and commercial understanding, but sadly the examples are few and far between.It will come in time, but Kyiv looks set to suffer from the learning curve.
I suspect it will take a recession in the real estate sector for architects and the city in general to reflect on their mistakes, so when boom times return, at least the quality of design should improve.Now in the rush for fees and fame there is little self-critical capacity.If the architects know no better, what hope is there for their clients to make good judgments.
