Norman Foster offers to rebuild Kharkiv

Norman Foster has offered to help rebuild the heavily bombed Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Lord Foster of Thames Bank held a video meeting with Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, on Monday, during which he presented a plan to reconstruct Ukraine’s second largest city. He said his team’s first step would be to draw up a masterplan for a “city of the future” in the ruins of a city once renowned for its art nouveau architecture. Foster promised to “assemble the best minds with the best planning, architectural, design and engineering skills in the world”, to start work immediately. This would “combine the most loved and revered heritage from the past with the most desirable and greenest elements of infrastructure and buildings”, the architect said. About a quarter of the buildings in Kharkiv have been destroyed since Russia invaded on 24 February. Terekhov replied: “I would like us to get a city centre that would become one of the highlights of Europe.” He added that it would need new hospitals, schools and kindergartens, as well as offices for its previously thriving IT sector, and that all large buildings should have bomb shelters. The Times (£)