Rapid Urban Re-Innovation to Accelerate Sustainable Reconstruction in Ukraine
ILG and Ro3kvit will now start a training programme for Ukrainian architects
Photo: Yanny Mishchuk
About this project
Rapid Urban Re-Innovation (RURI): Strategic Analysis and Participatory Urban Design Methods for Ukrainian Architects to Accelerate Sustainable Reconstruction
Ukraine is in immediate need of urban recovery. The overall aim of the project is re-skilling a first cohort of architects into urban designers able to support and guide municipalities in participatory urban rebuilding, thus accelerating a sustainable recovery. The training will focus on urban recovery design methods that are evidence-based, multisectoral and collaborative. Training will take place in Ukraine and Sweden in hybrid format. The project is led by Innovation Leadership Group and its Ukrainian partner Ro3kvit, and has been awarded funding from the Swedish Institute’s Ukraine Cooperation Programme. It will run from early 2025 to mid 2026. This project is funded by the Swedish Institute.
Rebuild Ukraine Roundtable – Stockholm, 7 november 2025
I förra veckan hade vi besök av 30 yrkesverksamma ukrainska arkitekter som deltar i utbildningsprogrammet Rapid Urban Re‑Innovation (RURI). Det var helt fantastiskt att få träffa och dela erfarenheter med våra ukrainska vänner. tillsammans utforskade vi svenska hållbara angreppssätt inom stadsplanering genom olika stadsdelar och koncept: från Stockholms första trädgårdsstad, Gamla Enskede, till Hammarby Sjöstad, som markerade ett paradigmskifte i svensk stadsplanering och Rinkeby och Tensta.
Besöket avslutades på fredagen med ett rundabordssamtal på Norrsken i Stockholm. Jan Rydén Bonmot, som är programansvarig för RURI, inledde med att konstatera att det är tydligt att Sverige har mycket att lära av Ukrainas förmåga att agera snabbt, tänka kreativt och utveckla lösningar under utsatta förhållanden:
“Vi måste omdefiniera begreppet resiliens inom urban design. I Sverige tar vi åtta år på oss att planera för att kunna hantera ett oväntat skyfall. Med klimatkris och krig inpå oss har vi inte råd att tänka så linjärt, stelt och långsamt. Vi måste utveckla innovativa metoder för att planera och agera samtidigt. Där kan vi lära av Ukraina.”
De två paneldiskussionerna som följde fokuserade på praktiska steg för att stödja Ukrainas återuppbyggnad och identifiera områden där svensk kunskap kan skapa värde.
Viktiga insikter:
Stadsbyggnad, urban design, är nyckelkompetensen som knyter samman satsningar på infrastruktur, energi, bostäder och offentliga tjänster. Därför är en utbildning som RURI viktig både för ukrainska städer och kommuner, och för svenska och ukrainska urbana projekt i Ukraina.
Stadsbyggnad kopplar ihop akut återuppbyggnad med långsiktig resiliens.
Ukrainska städer driver redan gröna och hållbara projekt inom energi, bostäder och klimatanpassning, med stöd från internationella partners.
Samarbete mellan kommuner, givare och experter påskyndar framsteg. Gemensamma metoder, flexibla planeringsverktyg och pilotprojekt stärker återhämtningsarbetet.
Ukrainas återuppbyggnad sker här och nu. Det skapar akuta behov, tydliga prioriteringar och nya möjligheter för internationellt samarbete.
Vi på Innovation Leadership Group vill tacka alla som deltog och bidrog under förra veckans studiebesök och fredagens event! Vi är stolta över att få vara en del av denna viktiga resa och ser fram emot att fortsätta arbeta med detta projekt.
Tack till Karin Ahlzén, Stockholms stad, Per Franson, KTH Arkitekturskolan, Björn Ekelund, Warm in the Winter, Jörgen Lööf, Electricity, Klara Palmberg Broryd, SSE Center for Security and Resilience, Counsellor Olena Koval, Ukrainska ambassaden, Anastasiia Borodiienko, RURI, Ryan Knox, MD, Salar International, Forever Sustainable, Ulrik Tideström, Special Envoy for Ukraine, Andreas Giallourakis (Business Sweden Trade Commissioner Ukraine), Johann Andersson (Solkompaniet/Solelskolan), Magdalena Ellfors, Svenska institutet, Anna Hessle Sweco, Fredrik Larsson, Nefco, and Peter Davidson, Swedish Pavilion at ReBuild Ukraine, Ulrika Liiv and Tommy Borglund from Forever Sustainable.
RURI driver vi tillsammans med den ukrainska partnern Ro3kvit Urban Coalition for Ukraine och projektet finansieras av Svenska institutet (SI).
New Training Programme for Architects in Ukraine
Innovation Leadership Group is a proud partner in RURI, an international collaboration with Ro3kvit Urban Coalition and leading European researchers and practitioners.
Rapid Urban Re-Innovation is an advanced, continuous professional development programme that aims to reskill Ukrainian architects and urbanists in strategic and inclusive urban design for Ukraine’s recovery.
Using a case-study learning approach, the programme seeks to equip participants with strategic and inclusive urban design tools and methods to support hromadas in sustainable urban transformation, strengthen their resilience, and accelerate local development while aligning it with Ukraine’s EU integration path.
Funded by the Swedish Institute, the programme focuses on integrated urban design, community engagement and spatial analytics, skills organisers say are critical for rebuilding resilient, climate‑smart and socially inclusive neighbourhoods.
As part of RURI’s effort to strengthen resilience in crisis‑affected areas, a six‑month professional training programme is now open to architects and urbanists in Ukraine. The course will equip participants with practical tools for designing innovative, people‑centred solutions in cities facing severe challenges.
Innovation Leadership Group is honoured to support this important initiative. Follow the project for insights, tools and the first pilot results during 2025.
Learn more and apply: ro3kvit.com/news/2025-05-08-ruri-open-call
Rapid Urban Re-Innovation to Accelerate Sustainable Reconstruction in Ukraine
Press release 2025-01-16
Ukraine needs a sustainable reconstruction of cities and infrastructure destroyed by war. ILG and Ro3kvit will now start a training programme for Ukrainian architects. The overall aim of the project is re-skilling a first cohort of architects into urban designers able to support and guide municipalities in participatory urban rebuilding, thus accelerating a sustainable recovery. Our focus is to teach urban design methods that are evidence-based, multisectoral and collaborative, exchanging knowledge between Ukrainian and Swedish professionals.
We are pleased to announce that our project Rapid Urban Re-Innovation (RURI), led by Innovation Leadership Group and its Ukrainian partner Ro3kvit, has been awarded funding from the Swedish Institute’s call SI Ukraine Cooperation Programme.
The project is a training programme where a first cohort of 30 professional Ukrainian architects will be re-skilled and trained in sustainable urban design and recovery planning methods by Ukrainian and Swedish instructors.
The full project title is Rapid Urban Re-Innovation (RURI): Strategic Analysis and Participatory Urban Design Methods for Ukrainian Architects to Accelerate Sustainable Reconstruction. RURI starts in early 2025 and will run for 18 months until mid 2026. The training programme’s Ukrainian partner is Ro3kvit Urban Coalition for Ukraine.
Ukraine is in immediate need of urban recovery. The main challenge that RURI is trying to address is the lack of Ukrainian urban designers skilled in methods that are evidence-based, multisectoral and collaborative. Hromadas (local communities) require professional counterparts to work with strategic spatial documents and integrated participatory design. At the same time a lot of architects are underemployed because of the war. Our training programme will re-skill architects to help the hromadas with urban recovery.
– The “re-innovation” in the project title is about building back better. The word “rapid” in the title implies the need for citizens’ seeing some immediate results of urban recovery, to restore faith in the social contract, says Jan Rydén Bonmot, senior advisor at Innovation Leadership Group (ILG), who will lead the project. Architect Elin Strand Ruin, an expert on participatory methods, will also be part of the team from ILG, co-creating the training programme together with the team from Ro3kvit.
The training will focus on urban recovery design methods that are evidence-based, multisectoral and collaborative. The aim is to accelerate a recovery that is sustainable.
Training will take place in Ukraine, in hybrid format online and in Nizhyn Hromada, as well as in Stockholm, which the group of architects will visit in November 2025.
– Sweden has a lot to learn from the Ukrainian experience when it comes to rapidly adapting to changing circumstances and being innovative in times of need. This project strengthens ILG’s competence in taking on complex societal challenges and co-creating solutions across nations and sectors, says Klara Adolphson, CEO of Innovation Leadership group.
If the RURI training programme proves successful, the idea is to seek additional funding to scale up the programme in the future.
Partners: Innovation Leadership Group AB, Ro3kvit Urban Coalition for Ukraine
Advisory board and stakeholders (non-partners): Nizhyn Municipality, Pehr Mikael Sällström, Biobo, Ryan Knox, SALAR International, Ulrika Liiv, Forever Sustainable, Björn Ekelund, Arkitekturinstitutet
Contact: Jan Rydén Bonmot, project manager, Senior advisor, ILG jan@innovationleadershipgroup.se
Contact Ro3kvit: Margo Didichenko, margo.didichenko@ro3kvit.com
Innovation Leadership Group (ILG) is an innovation agency established in 2021. ILG helps organisations co-create innovative solutions to complex problems. We are strategic advisors in innovation leadership and capability, we manage research projects, and we educate professionals.
Ro3kvit Urban Coalition for Ukraine NGO Ro3kvit is a coalition of over 100 professionals from Ukraine and beyond who unite to create knowledge and methodologies for rebuilding Ukraine’s urban and rural areas and infrastructure.