Office for Future is converting a former school in Stavyshche, Ukraine, into housing for 42 families displaced by the war. Developed for the Charity Foundation Housing for IDP, the project, titled "Dvir – The Shared Courtyard," reuses the approximately 1,900-square-meter building to create 42 apartments and 200 square meters of shared indoor spaces. The intervention combines the existing structure with new timber elements, an energy retrofit, and the transformation of the former asphalt courtyard into a permeable green space.
The school has served as a local landmark for decades and previously accommodated generations of students. Rather than replacing the existing structure, the project retains and reorganizes it around a new residential program, introducing four apartment types ranging from studios to three-bedroom units, alongside fully accessible apartments for people with disabilities. Shared areas, children's play spaces, and meeting rooms are positioned alongside the private units, while some of the communal spaces are planned to accommodate cultural activities and events open to local residents.
The architectural intervention involves a series of targeted changes to the existing building. Strategic demolitions are used to reorganize the interior and improve spatial efficiency, while a freestanding timber walkway provides access to the apartments. A new timber roof is introduced above the existing structure, incorporating approximately 800 square meters of photovoltaic panels, while the building envelope is upgraded as part of the project's energy retrofit.
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The Ukrainian Pavilion Examines Displacement and Shared Space Through "Pool of Questions" at the 2027 Venice Architecture BiennaleThe former schoolyard is also substantially reconfigured. Approximately 850 square meters of existing asphalt will be removed through a process of desealing, allowing the courtyard to become a permeable landscaped area. Portions of the original paving are retained as pedestrian paths through the garden, creating a network of routes between the building and the shared outdoor space. The project is conceived as a residential micro-community that connects the new housing with the wider town. The courtyard and shared interior spaces provide areas for residents to meet, while their planned use for public activities maintains a connection between the former school and the local community.
"Dvir – The Shared Courtyard" is the third intervention in Ukraine promoted by the Charity Foundation Housing for IDP. Designed by the Florence- and Lausanne-based Office for Future, the project brings together adaptive reuse, new timber construction, energy upgrades, and landscape transformation within an existing structure. Its 42 apartments are intended to provide housing for displaced families while retaining the former school's role as a shared place within Stavyshche. For Office for Future, the building's existing presence and collective memory in Stavyshche are therefore part of the project's approach to its conversion.
Other recent projects and initiatives have also explored housing in response to displacement and affordability. At the 20th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Ukraine's pavilion, "Pool of Questions," is presented by CO-HATY, a volunteer initiative established in 2022 by METALAB and relocated members of Ukrainian Urban Curators, which restores abandoned buildings as housing for internally displaced people. The project asks not only where displaced people can live, but when they can begin to rebuild everyday life. In a different context, the 2026 OBEL Award recognized the Balearic Social Housing Model for its changes to social housing administration between 2019 and 2023, while OMA and Y.A. Studio's 730 Stanyan in San Francisco provides 160 permanently affordable homes for low-income and formerly unhoused households and Transitional Age Youth.
