Exhibition “Mykola Kholostenko. Architect, restorer, architectural historian”

On the occasion of the World Architecture Day on October 1, 2022, the National Conservation Area “St. Sophia of Kyiv” presents the exhibition “Mykola Kholostenko. Architect, restorer, architectural historian.” In the exhibition halls of Bakery architectural graphics, photographs and documents are presented, which will reveal to visitors the multifaceted creativity of one of the most prominent Kyiv architects who worked during the Soviet Union, a champion of typical design, an ardent supporter of “new architecture” – Mykola Kholostenko. He is one of the authors of the projects of the National Botanical Garden named after M. Hryshko of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the author of the Darnytsia Sotsmisto, the residential building of the “Siaivo” cooperative, the House of Specialists, the residential building at Kudriavska Street, 2 in Kyiv, etc. Initially, Kholostenko was a determined follower of the new functional style of architecture. He developed the projects of the residential building of the “Siaivo” cooperative, a two-screen cinema, a factory club, a residential complex of the “Physicist-Chemist” plant, and an international airport. His works were published in the avant-garde magazine “New Generation”. Mykola Kholostenko was also one of the founders of the Association of Modern Architects of Ukraine. However, a few years later, the authorities of that time condemned functionalism as a formalistic whim and called on architects to master the classical heritage, and in fact, the eclecticism that prevailed in the architecture of post-Soviet Ukraine until the mid-1950s. During this period, Mykola Kholostenko became one of the leading architects of Kyiv, developed a number of large-scale projects, most of which, however, remained unrealized.

Mykola Kholostenko is known not only as a talented architect. After the Second World War, under his leadership, the reconstruction and restoration of the pearls of ancient Rus architecture – Borysohlibskyi and Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Cathedrals, Piatnytska Church in Chernihiv – were carried out. Emergency work was also carried out in St. Cyril’s Church in Kyiv, and the remains of civil buildings of the Princely era at Chernihiv citadel were investigated.

We invite you to visit the exhibition and discover the figure of Mykola Kholostenko through the prism of his works!

You can visit the exhibition by purchasing an entrance ticket to Bakery at the ticket office of the National Conservation Area “St. Sophia of Kyiv”.