Evgenij Sviatchenko

Who is Evgenij Sviatchenko?

Evgenij Adrianovich Sviatchenko was born in 1924 in Kharkiv, Ukraine. In 1951, he graduated from the architecture department of the Institute of engineering and architecture in Kharkiv.

He belongs to the generation of Ukrainian teachers and architects, trained in the tradition of the Ukrainian architecture school. From teachers at the university and from artists he learned to be loyal to the realistic tradition in architecture and art.

He took part in the Second World War and fought in the Red Army from Kharkiv to Budapest in Hungary.

Kharkiv was hit hard by the war and from 1951 the young architect took part in the rebuilding and reconstruction of the city.

Examples of this are the gate to the huge recreational area in the city: The Gorkij Park, the memorial for Maksim Gorkij and the sports arena Spartak.

Together with the architect B.G.Klejn he reconstructed the Shevchenko Theatre in Kharkiv, and he took part in the reconstruction of road monuments, residential areas and new housing projects.

In 1955, his scientific and educational career at the Kharkiv Institute for city planning began. He started as assistant in the department projecting and ended as professor.

In 1962, he defended his Ph.D. with the paper “The characteristics of element building”. Through the years he published more than 65 articles on architecture and city planning, and a number of books for students in architecture and city planning.