The Sulyk Architects office was founded in 2014 by Taras Sulyk and his father Roman. It is located in Lviv and embodies perfect solutions in the field of architecture, interior and landscape design in Ukraine and beyond. The bureau is constantly searching for an image of modern Ukrainian architecture, researching the peculiarities of geography, psychology and dynamic lifestyle of the young country, because in a world without borders it is extremely important to understand one’s identity.
Taras Sulyk is a graduate of Lviv Polytechnic, and now he is the head, partner and co-founder of the architecture bureau Sulyk Architects. On March 29, within the framework of an active program of involvement of Polytechnic graduates, Taras visited the university, talked with students and held a lecture for them, talking about his office and challenges he have faced in his career path.
The architect started the meeting by quoting an excerpt from the book «Four Walls and a Roof» by Reinier de Graaf, where the author tells the reader about the beginning of his career as an architect, about the lack of preparation for work and about retraining of students who are just starting to work. Taras often mentioned his projects, which are at various stages of implementation, drew parallels with the political situation in Ukraine, and used his example to demonstrate how events in the country affect the work of architects. The specialist talked about his successful and unsuccessful projects, what happened to them, as well as the nuances of construction and the difficulties faced by architects during the war. The story how Sulyk Architects received the commission from the city council to build an entire hub for housing IDPs in an incredibly short time arose special interest. There were many nuances that had to be taken into account in the bureau, one of them was the material – it had to be cheap and reliable at the same time, and the windows of the building had to be opaque in order to guarantee a comfortable stay and privacy for the displaced people. Taras Sulyk also shared the peculiarities of working in the bureau and reflected on the character traits of people, good for such a profession, which always must intersect with professional views and motivation for joint work.
The second part of the meeting, as it was planned, consisted of students’ questions and answers, which may help architects in the future. Taras answered quite a lot of questions, in particular, how to make money in conditions when big projects are not ready yet, and make the ends meet. The issues of presenting yourself to the customer at the facility due to the rather unpresentable conditions in which you have to work, the types of clothing and why it is important to have another pair of shoes with you were also covered. There were quite a lot of questions about the materials used to build models, which are needed in this craft. There were much more questions for Taras Sulyk than the time he could allocate for the meeting, so only the most active received their answers.
Photos by Halyna Kuchmanych
