Kyiv Architecture Institute

Kyiv Architecture Institute (Київський архітектурний інститут; Kyivskyi arkhitekturnyi instytut) also known as the Ukrainian Architecture Institute. First higher educational institution in Ukraine specializing in architecture. Founded in 1918, it set the goal of training ‘an architect-artist-designer-construction organizer.’ Its founder and first rector was architect Dmytro Diachenko, head of the Society of Ukrainian Architects (1918–20). In the midst of revolution, civil war, economic hardship, and famine, Diachenko successfully organized the educational process and brought leading architects, artists, and art historians into the institute. Among the organizers and teachers working there were well-known figures of science, technology, and culture of Ukraine: Pavlo Aloshyn, Oleksander Verbytsky, Mykola Damilovsky (vice-rector), Svitozar Drahomanov, Fotii Krasytsky, Pavlo Klepatsky, Vasyl H. Krychevsky, Mykola O. Makarenko, Ippolit Morgilevsky, Valerian Rykov, Danylo Shcherbakivsky, Fedir Shmit, and others. Rector Diachenko secured funding from successive local governments and cooperative organizations. He believed the school should train professionals dedicated to shaping the architecture of a new Ukrainian state. His ideological stance, however, proved incompatible with Soviet authorities, leading to his dismissal in 1922.

In 1924, Kyiv Architecture Institute and Kyiv Institute of Plastic Arts were merged into one post-secondary art school: the Kyiv State Art Institute (now National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture).

Serhiy Bilenky

[This article was written in 2026.]