Visitors’ Favourite Innovation award from the New European Bauhaus Festival 2026

Repost of the original post of Kateryna Kukharenko - Rebuild Green 2030 Program Grant Coordinator.

"In my hands — the Visitors’ Favourite Innovation award from the New European Bauhaus Festival 2026 💙💛

Our programme Rebuild Green 2030, together with our colleagues from ReThink, was recognised for visionary thinking and a strong innovation-driven approach.

Standing on that stage and holding this award, I felt very clearly: this recognition is not only about the projects we presented at our booth.

It is about Ukraine.

Because Ukraine today is a place where innovation is born in real time. A place where visionary thinking, new approaches and the ability to act fast can create not only urgent, but also sustainable results.

We do have the ability to move faster than many other countries, partly thanks to relatively lighter bureaucratic processes. But at the same time, we do not have the luxury of waiting. The challenges we face require action now.

And this is exactly the moment not just to rebuild what was lost.

This is the moment to rethink.

What kind of country do we want to build?

What should we embed into reconstruction today, so that tomorrow our children and grandchildren will want to live in this country?

How can we rethink processes, decisions, approaches, cities, communities and public spaces so that millions of Ukrainians around the world return home not because they have no other choice, but because they choose Ukraine?

For me, this award is about exactly that.

So let’s roll up our sleeves and continue the work.

There is still so much to be done.

Proud of us: Kateryna Pylypchuk 🇺🇦, Alissa Bankovska, Olha Dmytruk, Žilvinas Bitinas, Nicolas Ziesel — and everyone who invests their experience, belief, energy and heart into Rebuild Green 2030 💚"