Red Arch partners with Lviv Polytechnic

Dover, New Hampshire: Red Arch Cultural Heritage Law & Policy Research today announced the contribution of a high-tech laser scanner, software, and workstation to the department of Architecture and Conservation, Lviv Polytechnic National University, Ukraine. This milestone enables Red Arch, a US-based 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit, to assist Ukrainian scholars with the documentation of wooden religious architecture under threat by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The project is made possible by funding from the Knights of Columbus.

“Architectural heritage is an important feature of cultural identity, and we must help Ukraine protect it,” says Carolyn Guile, Executive Director of Red Arch. “High-resolution scanning is a form of preservation, as it provides a detailed documentation and a structural record of a building. Scans of this type provide digital images of important historical buildings, facilitate scientific study, and assist in the production of archives.”

Mykola Bevz, who heads the Department of Architecture and Restoration at Lviv Polytechnic National University, said, “Although there are current Russian pseudo-theories as to the nonexistence of the Ukrainian nation, the wooden churches of Ukraine demonstrate the great difference in traditions between Ukrainians and Russians — they are completely different cultures. In light of that, Ukrainian wooden churches have to be protected.”

“This equipment will make it possible to very accurately record the architectural facades of wooden churches that are still undocumented,” notes Yuri Yanchyshyn, a well-known professional conservator in New York, formerly at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who contributed to this project.”

Included in the equipment package was a laser scanner and related hardware and software needed to obtain architectural scans. Red Arch delivered the equipment to the Ukrainian partners, who will deploy it to document architectural heritage in conflict zones around the country.

This donation marks the culmination of the first phase of a fundraising initiative aimed at assisting Ukrainian scholars and heritage preservation specialists in their work to protect Ukrainian cultural heritage from damage and destruction. The overall objectives of the initiative include:

• Fundraising, acquisition, and delivery of hardware and software exclusively for documentation of architectural heritage
• Supporting trained experts in documentation and analysis
• Contributing to a broader awareness of the need to protect vulnerable architectural heritage