Ukrainian Modern in Architecture. The style of Hutsul Secession.

Naddniprianshchyna (central Ukraine)
Modern style

Modernism has profoundly influenced the new architectural character of Ukrainian cities. Between the late 19th century and the outbreak of the First World War, Ukrainian cities were adorned with exceptionally opulent structures featuring elaborate ornamentation. These creations were the work of architects like Eduard Bradtman, Heinrich Hai, Volodymyr Bezsmertnyi, Vasyl Krychevskyi, Serhii Tymoshenko, Kostiantyn Zhukov, and others. They fearlessly combined stone, metal, cement, and glass to decorate facades with chimeras, gargoyles, mascarons, as well as a wide array of mystical and floral motifs. While Classicism often conveyed austerity and monumentality, the Modern style of architecture provided a canvas for the most audacious and sometimes unimaginable design concepts.

Vasyl Krychevskyi was a Ukrainian architect, artist, doctor of art history, professor, and one of the co-founders of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts.

Vasyl Krychevskyi was a pioneering figure in introducing the concept of the Ukrainian Modern style into architecture. He brought this vision to life by designing the Poltava Zemstvo building, which was constructed between 1903 and 1908.

Kostiantyn Zhukov is Russian by birth, but Ukrainian at heart. Once he entered the artistic environment of Kharkiv, he became one of the main ambassadors of Ukrainian modernism in architecture. His most famous work is the facade of the Kharkiv Art Institute, which now houses the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts (built in 1911-1913).

The architectural forms of this building are similar to Vasyl Krychevsky’s building of Poltava Zemstvo. Although Zhukov had to adapt to the predefined shape of the building, designed by another architect Mikhail Piskunov, he had managed to significantly strain the previous architectural forms and give the building an expressive, modernist sound.

After the successful implementation of the Kharkiv Art School project, the demand for a “new Ukrainian style” has increased significantly. Zhukov had then formulated 12 theses theoretically describing the concept of Ukrainian architectural modernism, which were published in the Rada newspaper in 1913.

Konstantin Zhukov considered Ukrainian architectural modernism a cultural rebirth. He also insisted that it has European roots and character; not Moscow’s. In 1935, Zhukov had published his book Ukrainian Modernism of the 20th Century and Its Stylistic Sources.

Volodymyr Khrinnykov was a Ukrainian landowner, entrepreneur, and patron of Ukrainian arts and culture. After graduating from the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology, Volodymyr traveled extensively to Europe and America, where he saw progressive artistic ideas. When he returned to his native Katerynoslav (now Dnipro), he became a board member of the local Prosvita (“Education”) association. He also attempted to publish the local Zaporizhzhie newspaper, which’s executive director was the famous Ukrainian historian and ethnographer Dmytro Yavornytskyi. However, due to the radical anti-Ukrainian policy of the Russian empire, the newspaper was closed immediately after the first issue was published, and the entire circulation was confiscated by the police.

Khrinnykov is the author of the architectural project of the locally famous residential building in Dnipro (built in 1910-1913), also known as Ukrainian house and Khrinnykov’s house. Locals considered it the most beautiful building in the city of Katerynoslav.

The angular facade of the building resembles the shapes of the wooden Cossack architecture. The roof was multi-tiered, covered with red tiles, and crowned with 5 towers. The dome of the central tower was made in a traditional Baroque pear-shaped form, which is stylistically different from Russian onion-shaped domes. The same tower was also decorated with the image of a сossack fighting a nobleman. The upper windows were decorated with cartouches, picturing the emblems of the Army of Zaporizhzhia. Adorned with bright Cossack ornaments on the majolica panels, trapezoidal windows, and weathercocks with Cossack heraldic symbols, this building was a whole architectural hymn to the Ukrainian Cossacks.

Unfortunately, Khrinnykov’s house was burned down during the Second World War and partially rebuilt in the 1950s, which led to some loss of the original artistic solution. Instead of five towers, only one has remained. The roof is now decorated with three baroque pediments, with a clock on the central one. Despite undergoing these changes, the building, now serving as Grand Hotel Ukraine, still remains an important architectural site of the modern Dnipro city.

Serhiy Tymoshenko was not only a bright architect, but also an active social and political figure in Ukraine. While studying at the St. Petersburg Institute of Civil Engineers, he joined Ukrainian underground groups promoting the study of Ukrainian architecture. After his graduation, Tymoshenko returned to Ukraine and began developing architectural projects in the Ukrainian Modernist style. During the revolt against Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi, he was appointed as a provincial commissioner of the Kharkiv region. In April 1918 Tymoshenko became a member of the Central Rada, and later the Minister of Railways.

Serhiy Tymoshenko is a designer of more than 400 train stations, churches, and residential buildings. He preferred functionalism over aesthetics, but his architectural form was still inspired by the Ukrainian Modern Style. Through decorative details of his buildings, he expressed the ideas related to Ukraine’s cultural and political independence. For example, when designing the pilasters, he used wooden pillars, as in traditional Ukrainian churches.

A striking example of Tymoshenko’s architecture is the house on 101 Saksahanskoho Street in Kyiv, where famous Ukrainian writers Olena Bdzhilka and Lesya Ukrainka had resided. It was built in 1909 in a functional style. Nonetheless, the trapezoidal portals, triangular gables, and Ukrainian ornaments in the decor distinguish this building’s style as Ukrainian Art Nouveau. 

Perhaps the best example of Tymoshenko’s church architecture is the Pokrovska Church in the village of Bronnyky, Rivne region (1923-1928), also built in Ukrainian Modern style. It is a three-log Orthodox church with a narthex and a bell tower above it, a central nave, and an altar with a polygonal apse along its main axis. Except for the bell tower, Tymoshenko drew each of the building’s elements as square shapes, which created a special visual rhythm.

The Ukrainian Modern style of the church is distinguished by three octagonal domes, built in a traditional Ukrainian shape. This architectural form is not traditional for Volyn historical region where this church is located. Tymoshenko brought Ukrainian architectural modernism, as well as Cossack baroque architecture of the 18th century, from the Central and Eastern regions of Ukraine where it has originated.

Mykola Shekhonin is a Ukrainian architect from Kyiv, who is mostly known for working in neoclassicism, empire and constructivism. However, for some time Shekhonin had worked under the direction of Serhiy Tymoshenko, which affected his project of a house at 8 Pankivska Street in Kyiv, commissioned by Ukrainian doctor and public figure Yosyp Yurkevych. Tymoshenko’s influence here was evident in the functional form of the building and decorative elements of Ukrainian Modern style.

Unfortunately, the current appearance of this building is far from what it was in the early 20th century. Initially, the facade of the house was completed by a roof with a slope and decorated with Ukrainian ornaments, resembling a traditional Ukrainian house. During the renovation in 1974, these elements of the building were lost.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Lviv region was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so it is not surprising that Lviv architects were influenced by the Vienna Secession movement. While the architects of the Naddniprianshchyna region were creating Ukrainian Modern style based on the Cossack architecture, Lviv architects were inspired by the wooden Carpathian architecture, in particular Hutsul, which is why this version of the style is called Hutsul Secession. This style is distinguished by complex roof outlines with large slopes, sometimes decorated with a tower akin to the bell tower of a Hutsul church. The plastic configuration of windows and doorways together with expressive volumes also resemble traditional Carpathian houses.

Ivan Levynskyi was a remarkable architect of the Habsburg Lviv, as well as one of the largest entrepreneurs and employers in Galicia region. He had built numerous houses throughout Galicia and was the owner of a factory producing building materials and ceramic products: tiles, night sets, tableware, decorative vases, etc. In the Lviv of the early 20th century, Levynskyi’s factory was supplying almost the entire city with these products. The advantage of his company was that they could provide all the necessary work from the architectural design to the smallest details of the decor. To provide this kind of work, Levynskyi hired a lot of architects to work for his bureau.

One of Ivan Levynskyi‘s firm employees was architect Tadeusz Obminskyi, who designed a masterpiece of the Hutsul Secession — the building of the Dnister Insurance Company.

In addition to being an amazing architect, Obminskyi was an excellent artist, which allowed him to draw masterful sketches from the details of Hutsul wooden architecture during his Carpathian expeditions. In 1908, on the basis of these sketches, Obminskyi defended his thesis on “The Genesis and Development of Wooden Construction as a Contribution to the History of Slavic Culture.”

The first thing that catches one’s eye in the building of the Dnister Insurance Company is the roof with sharp slopes and a tent-like end with a spire that resembles the bell tower of a Hutsul church. The facade of the building is richly decorated with colorful majolica, depicting stylized red poppies in green leaves, made at Ivan Levynskyi’s ceramic factory. In addition to that, the building is decorated with wide variety of traditional Carpathian geometric patterns reminiscent of Hutsul wooden carvings, stylized sunflowers, irises, and ears of grain. All these symbols posses a special national meaning. Together with the building, they form a remarkably harmonious composition, emphasizing the beauty of Ukrainian unique architectural style.

Oleksandr Lushpynsky was another prominent architect who worked for Levynskyi’s bureau. He is the author and co-author of numerous projects developed by the factory, although in many cases, it is difficult to estimate the extent of Lushpynsky’s involvement in a project because architects usually did not leave signatures if the work was done by a bureau.

Lushpynsky, in collaboration with Obminskyi, embarked on expeditions to study the wooden architecture of Galicia and the eastern Carpathians. Later, by blending Ukrainian folk elements with the architectural concepts of Otto Wagner from the Vienna Secession movement, he created exquisite masterpieces of the Ukrainian version of Secession. His distinctive style is evident in notable buildings such as Soletsky’s clinic on Lychakivska Street in Lviv and the People’s House in Kamianka-Buzka.