Inclusion and physical accessibility are crucial elements in creating environments that cater to the diverse needs of individuals, fostering equality, and promoting social justice. Here’s why they are important:

Equal Opportunity: Inclusion ensures that everyone, regardless of their physical abilities or differences, has equal opportunities to participate in various aspects of society, such as education, employment, recreation, and social activities. Physical accessibility removes barriers that might prevent people with disabilities from accessing these opportunities, thus promoting fairness and equity.

Dignity and Respect: Ensuring inclusion and physical accessibility demonstrates respect for the dignity of all individuals. It acknowledges their inherent worth and affirms their right to participate fully in society without facing discrimination or marginalization based on their abilities or differences.

Social Cohesion: Inclusive environments foster a sense of belonging and community among people from diverse backgrounds and abilities. When everyone feels valued and included, it creates stronger social bonds and enhances cooperation, empathy, and understanding among community members.

Innovation and Creativity: Diversity, including diverse abilities, leads to different perspectives, experiences, and ideas. Inclusive environments that accommodate physical accessibility encourage the exchange of these perspectives, sparking innovation and creativity. When people with diverse abilities are included, they bring unique insights that can lead to the development of more inclusive products, services, and solutions.

Legal and Ethical Imperatives: Many countries have laws and regulations that mandate inclusion and accessibility, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the United States or the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) in Ontario, Canada. Ensuring compliance with these laws is not only a legal requirement but also an ethical obligation to promote equality and prevent discrimination.

Customer and Employee Satisfaction: Inclusive businesses and organizations are better equipped to meet the needs of diverse customers and employees. By ensuring physical accessibility and fostering inclusive practices, businesses can enhance customer satisfaction, employee morale, and productivity. This can also lead to positive reputational benefits and increased loyalty from both customers and employees.

Health and Well-being: Physical accessibility promotes better health and well-being for everyone, not just those with disabilities. Accessible environments reduce the risk of accidents and injuries and promote independence and autonomy. Moreover, inclusive communities that value diversity and support everyone’s participation contribute to positive mental health outcomes for individuals.

About New European Bauhaus
I would like to explain something about the project that is being developed for Izyum. But for a better understanding, we need to start with the general processes that are taking place before our eyes.
There is a war going on between two opposing worldviews – democratic and totalitarian. Who will win? The democratic world, for which the highest value is the individual and his or her well- being, is opposed to countries that look to the past and idealise totalitarianism with its destructive policies towards the creative individual. The war that is currently taking place on the territory of Ukraine is about this. And we cannot lose in this battle, because losing will mean years and decades of regression, and possibly the death of the entire modern European civilisation, because humanity has little time left to solve such crucial problems as global warming and its consequences, wars and poverty for the majority of the world’s population.
Europe now has sufficient resources to overcome the challenges of climate change, sustainable development and improved living, working and communication conditions. The goal of the European Green Deal programme, which was proposed in 2020, is not only to reduce carbon emissions on the continent, but also to gradually shift from energy imports to energy production using renewable resources, which should create millions of new jobs. And this is primarily about welfare and quality of life.

In 2020, Ursula von der Leyen, then the new President of the European Commission, emphasised that the EU had all the capabilities to do so. Most likely, it still does, because no one has put this green energy programme on the back burner, even despite the war in Ukraine. It exists and is being gradually implemented, even in the face of new challenges.
What is green energy? A simple explanation is that it is the use of renewable natural resources to produce electricity and heat without unnecessary carbon emissions. For example, coal, oil and gas are non-renewable resources because their reserves are limited. In addition, their use increases CO2 emissions and, as a result, worsens the state of the environment. In contrast, the sun, water, wind and biological waste can be used continuously and create a closed loop, both at the industrial level and at the level of individual consumers. This energy has almost no harmful effects, which is why it is called “green”.
Ukraine, which seeks to integrate into European energy systems and get rid of its dependence on the gas and oil “branches”, does not stand aside from these processes. In partnership with the European Commission, the Ukrainian direction is presented by RoZkvit, ReThink, the Covenant of Mayors East initiative, and the Union of European Architects. By the way, Izyum has already signed the Covenant of Mayors. And this is a very good sign.

“The European Green Deal is not just about changing the climate for the better and introducing new technologies and a closed resource cycle. It is also a long-term project that aims to create new ideas for people about how to live, how to communicate and how to ultimately achieve stability and sustainable development. According to Ursula von der Leyen, this is not just an environmental and economic project: it is a cultural programme for the whole of Europe. All systemic changes will have their own attractive aesthetics to ensure that the style is in line with the principles of sustainable development. That is why, when she took office as President of the European Commission, she presented the project of the New European Bauhaus – a co-creation space where architects, artists, engineers and designers work together to create a new environment for people to live and communicate. This project is integrated into the European Green Deal and is part of it. The most important task of this project is to involve local communities in the implementation of ideas. Why is it so important? Everyone can see how society in our country (and not only) communicates. Constant quarrels, categorical rejection of even reasoned statements and ideas. People have lost the ability to communicate fruitfully with each other when an important decision is preceded by discussion.
The previous years, first of the Soviet authorities and then of their followers, sowed enmity and distrust between people and did not help to unite them at all. Therefore, one of the most important aspects of the European pilot projects and our Izyum Recovery project is the involvement of the community and its direct participation in solving important problems to improve their living conditions. This is exactly what European partners emphasise when they offer support, first and foremost, to local communities. And local communities are residents of individual villages, towns, and neighbourhoods in cities and towns.
Why did the name “New European Bauhaus” (NEB) come about?
At one time, fostering community through art was the main idea of the Bauhaus school, which was created in the 1920s in the German city of Dessau by the prominent architect Walter Groppius. The ideas of this school were first picked up and spread in Europe, and then migrated to America. If you take an interest in the architectural projects, industrial design, and works of art of the Bauhaus school, you will be most impressed by their modern look. And in the 20s of the last century, the emergence of such art was a real revolution, because before that, art and architecture took into account the needs of individual customers, not the new demands of society as a whole. What was the appeal of the ideas of the Bauhaus Dessau school? Everything created there was made for people, not elites. The housing offered was simple but comfortable, and most importantly, mass-produced, the design was also understandable to most users, and it also involved artistic creativity. It was there that the ideas of democracy, i.e. respect for the needs of each person, were introduced as a new aesthetic of life. The ideas of the Bauhaus School are still relevant today. Therefore, it is logical that the new project was named “New European Bauhaus” because the goal remains to create an environmentally friendly, aesthetically pleasing, comfortable, inexpensive, and socially comfortable space for people. From now on, the abbreviation NEB will be used in the text.

In her keynote speech, Ursula von der Leyen emphasised that this programme is an opportunity to launch changes based on the plan of smart people, not as a result of a disaster or dictates of other people in the world. In order to become stronger, we need to create opportunities for the world of the future, not be hostage to unforeseen circumstances. When she presented the NEB project, the world was rocked by the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has reminded us of many things we took for granted, including the European Union’s single market and interconnected economies, as a huge opportunity to implement and create the most ambitious programmes of our time.
Even now, when Europeans have barely recovered from Covid and are facing a new and greater challenge – the biggest war since the Second World War – the EU has proved to be able to withstand it. We can see this in the unprecedented assistance provided to our refugees abroad, to public sector workers in Ukraine, and most importantly to our Armed Forces. That is why grants are now being offered for Ukraine’s recovery projects related to the implementation of the European Green Deal. Our company Portal-21 LLC received such a grant to create a project for the adaptation of a separate residential neighbourhood in Izyum, the city of Kharkiv region, which has suffered the most from Russian aggression and occupation.
The team of our company is from Kharkiv. Therefore, this project is very close to us, and everything that is happening in Izyum and Kharkiv is painful.
The speech in Brussels in 2020 by the new president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was entitled “Build a world you want to live in.” Recent events – Covid-19 and Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine (and in fact, against all civilized humanity) have shown him that it needs significant changes, because our planet is too fragile.
Therefore, Europe has the goal of becoming the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. It is realistic to reduce emissions by 55% by 2030. This goal is ambitious, achievable and economically beneficial. Europe has done a lot in this direction in the last four years.
And we need to join the pan-European processes as soon as possible, because the one who “jumps” into this train sooner will get there sooner. The role of the community in these projects is one of the most important, because the future of the residents, their quality of life and fruitful communication will depend on the implementation of the projects. We ourselves must build the world in which we want to live, and not give it to thieves and the indifferent. It will no longer be possible to be an observer.

I’m currently reading Walter Gropius’s book The Circle of Total Architecture, which was written almost a hundred years ago.
A little bit about the author. Walter Gropius is one of the founders of the German Bauhaus school of architecture, which revolutionised design, industrial design, artistic creativity, etc. The avant-garde artists completely revolutionised people’s ideas of what residential and public buildings, household items, and other objects should look like. This movement marked the end of an era of styles, including Baroque, Classicism, Art Nouveau, and others, each offering their own vision of architecture and art.
Walter Gropius, a prominent figure of the avant-garde movement, also authored several books. Once again, I am convinced that individuals who revolutionised architecture, science, art, and social life were visionaries who saw beyond their own time.

At least once in our lives, we all face an important problem: buying a home. This raises a question that concerns almost everyone: why are apartments and houses so expensive? Walter Gropius studied this question many years ago. The author’s conclusions are current as they propose the use of individual blocks that are moisture-resistant and have inherent insulation properties. They also suggest the use of synthetic wood and other existing materials that have been proven successful.

Walter Gropius’ main idea for reducing the cost of housing is to produce it in workshops, similar to cars, making it more affordable for many people. Gropius’ solution is to use a more efficient and cost-effective method of production. This approach is based on the fact that products manufactured in workshops with a well-established technological process are always much cheaper than those made by hand. However, modern housing construction is mostly manual work and a long technological process, which makes it expensive. Housing construction is a well-known process.   

However, the use of individual, factory-made capsules could significantly increase the speed of construction. In the 1960s, the renowned Japanese architect Kise Kurokawa designed a residential building composed of such capsules, which were produced at a factory and attached to the building’s frame like shelves. These capsules were equipped with all necessary amenities, including a transforming workroom, a toilet with a shower, and a built-in kitchen. Of course, these capsules cannot be considered full-fledged dwellings due to their small size. However, they do provide a roof over your head that is warm and comfortable.

In the circumstances where many people have been left homeless due to russia’s military aggression, the option of using modern
and environmentally friendly houses made of straw and hemp blocks should be considered. Ukraine is now assembling these panels using modern technology develo

ped by Ukrainians. Fire-resistant, durable, warm, and non-toxic, these materials are also rodent-resistant! 🙂

Let’s collaborate on designing future housing. Join the discussion and share your ideas.
Attached are photo illustrations.