The objects together represent one landscape, not an innoscent landscape. They combine fiction, real and realistic facts. Shards of metal, coal and bullets are woven together to recreate the history, present and dreams of the site of the MH17 plane crash in The Eastern Ukraine.
Click here to read more about the project: https://lesiatopolnyk.com/prix-de-rome/
Year: 2022
Photos of objects: Midas van Boekel
«Border Control Point – elevator that goes nowhere pushes methane outwards», 2022;
Materials: coal, unique pieces of scrap metal (copper and aluminium), light;
Dimentions: 0,5m x 0,3m x 1,3m (excluding pedestal)
«The Cleaner Wheel – the returning polluted river», 2022
Materials: Unique pieces of scrap metal woven together; Dimentions: 1,5m x 1,5m x 3,5m
«Close the Sky / House of a Cloud – colonization of the air that crosses borders twice a day, releasing chemical rains on the other territory», 2022
Materials: Scrap metal, bullets, coal, light, sound
Dimentions: 0,7m x 0,7m x 1,5m (excluding pedestal)
«The Burrow – Illegal miner», 2022;
Materials: coal, unique pieces of scrap metal (copper and lead), light;
Dimensions: 0,8m x 0,8m x 0,5m (excluding pedestal)
«The Radar – truth detector (on the idea of objectivity)», 2022;
Materials: coal, unique pieces of scrap metal (copper, steel and aluminium), light;
Dimentions: 0,7m x 0,7m x 1,2m (excluding pedestal)
«The Florist – field of dreams that refuse to leave», 2022;
Materials: coal, unique pieces of scrap metal (copper and steel), light, recycled glass;
Dimentions: 1m x 0,5m x 0,2m (excluding pedestal)
«No Way Bridge – on the idea of the ideal in humanity», 2022; Materials: coal, unique pieces of scrap metal (copper and steel), light; Dimensions: 0,7m x 0,7m x 0,3m (excl. pedestal)
The Prix de Rome is the oldest and most prestigious Dutch award for visual artists and architects below the age of 35.
Lesia's work has been published in ArchDaily, E-Flux, STIRworld, NRC, Het Financieele Dagblad Persoonlijk, Metropolis, Mister Motley, Blauwe Kamer, AD, and more.
2024 - Residency at The Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art (SCCA) and Studio of Ibrahim Mahama (Red Clay), Ghana
2024 - Residency on Governors Island, New York
2023 - IABR Agent of Change
2023 - Financieele Dagblad Top 50 Talent 2023
2022 - Winner Prix de Rome, the Netherlands
2020 - Talent Grant, Creative Industries, Netherlands
2020 - Young Talent Architecture Award, nomination (by the Fundació Mies van der Rohe and the EU Commission)
2019 - Winner Archiprix Nederland
2019 - Winner Archiprix International
2019 - Winner Tamayouz International Award
2014 - AHK Talent Grant
2025 - Solo exhibition at MAGAZIN, Vienna, Austria (upcoming)
2025 - Lisbon Architecture Triennale, Portugal
2024 - Work presentation at RedClay (Studio of Ibrahim Mahama), Ghana
2024 - Mobile installation, exhibition, Governors Island - Lower Manhattan, New York
2024 - OMI, "Rotterdam Culture City", alongside significant works by OMA and West 8.
2024 - International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR)
2022 - Prix de Rome, NI, Rotterdam
2022 - Architecture Triennale, Lisbon
2022 - New European Bauhaus, Brussels
2021 - Dutch Design Week
2021 - Biennale, Venice
2020 - Dutch Design Week
2019 - Biennale, Santiago
2019 - Archiprix International
2019 - Archiprix Netherlands
Portrait for Prix de Rome 2022
Lesia Topolnyk is an architect who pushes the boundaries of her field, exploring architecture’s role beyond the act of building. Her goal is to foster a holistic perspective and stimulate systemic transformation. Rather than simply creating structures, she is deeply invested in the potential of architecture within our constructed reality—whether physical, social, or political. "It's about ideas that take shape during the research and design process, generating new typologies," she explains. For her, architecture is not a reactive discipline but a tool for reshaping the world by questioning its existing frameworks. "Architects are often seen as designers of spaces, but we also design relationships. Especially in these turbulent political times, it is crucial to examine how the world itself is designed to understand the larger forces at play. Sometimes, I reflect on major global issues; at other times, I focus on the space inside someone's mind.”
Lesia founded Studio Space Station to tackle urgent societal and planetary challenges beyond the traditional scope of architecture, bridging global and local perspectives. She uses spatial tools to shape ideas, uncover hidden narratives, and forge new relationships—whether through installations, interventions, architecture, or film. Rooted in deep research, each project uniquely responds to its context, provoking thought, stirring emotion, and sparking dialogue. Her approach to architecture, art, and design is fundamentally collaborative, drawing on diverse perspectives and expertise. She actively works across disciplines, believing that "you can learn from others, and they bring valuable insights and viewpoints.”
Lesia effortlessly navigates between different scales and realities, having studied art and holding master’s degrees in Architecture (NL), Urban Planning (PL), and Environmental Design (UA). She also has a decade of experience working at internationally renowned architecture practices. Her work has received numerous Dutch and international awards and has been exhibited and published worldwide. She also teaches and lectures in the Netherlands and abroad.
For her final project at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam, Topolnyk, who grew up in Ukraine, addressed the situation in Crimea, proposing a building that serves as a counterpart to the United Nations Headquarters—UnUnited Nations Headquarters—exploring architecture’s role in absorbing conflict within a divided society. For this work, Lesia received both the Archiprix Netherlands and Archiprix International awards.
Her Prix de Rome-winning project, No Innocent Landscape, expands on this vision, exploring how architecture can operate in politically contested territories, using spatial interventions to navigate instability and create new narratives. Through speculative research and design, she examines architecture’s role in decision-making and power structures, revealing the invisible forces that shape our built environment.
Lesia's current research, extending to sites in the Netherlands, Africa, and New York, focuses on the crises shaping our world, with a particular interest in how governance has historically been designed and how architecture has supported, symbolised, and shaped these systems. "It’s about how we can design change and how we can govern the world better together," she concludes. For her, architecture is not just about constructing spaces—it is about constructing possibilities.
Text: Vincent van Velsen