Memorial for Ukrainian Scouts Nominated for European Architecture Award

The memorial honoring Ukrainian scouts has been nominated for the prestigious European Union award in contemporary architecture, the Mies van der Rohe Award. The sculpture was unveiled in June 2025. This was jointly announced by the co-author of the memorial, Nazar Bilyk, and Guess Line Architects.
In addition to the sculptor, architects Kateryna Ivashchuk, Mykhailo Kohut, Yegor Perepelyuk, Yaroslav Ivaskiv, and Andriy Lesiuk participated in the project.
The first part of the memorial to Ukrainian scouts was opened in Kyiv on the eve of the third anniversary of the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2025, with the entire sculpture being inaugurated on June 17.
“This award is indeed one of the most prestigious European honors in the field. If the Nobel Prize for architecture is the Pritzker Prize, then the second, as architects themselves say, is the Mies van der Rohe Award,” noted Bilyk.
According to the sculptor, the uniqueness of this nomination lies in the fact that typically, prestigious awards are contested by residential and public architecture, but memorials have not been nominated before.
“I have reviewed awards over the decades and they have mostly focused on innovations in residential and public architecture, with some cultural recognition as well. Now we have a memorial that demands not just functional depth but a more philosophical engagement to interpret the meanings it conveys. Therefore, I see this not just as an official recognition, but a personal creative joy, because memory and our history, which we discussed in the memorial, will now be more accessible to the European audience,” added sculptor Nazar Bilyk.
The Mies van der Rohe Award was established in 1987 in Barcelona by the Mies van der Rohe Foundation and is awarded every two years. The award emerged from a European Union program supporting the cultural and creative sectors, celebrating outstanding architectural projects in Europe.