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 a licensed architect and recipient of numerous Dutch and international awards for design and research — including the Prix de Rome and Archiprix. Named an agent of change by the International Architecture Biannale Rotterdam for her work on energy transition and places that require a new vision, she brings more than ten years of experience working at internationally acclaimed Dutch practices. Her projects span the Netherlands, New York, North Africa, and her native Ukraine.
Her practice operates across two registers: spatial design — buildings, interventions, interiors — and strategic research consultancy for municipalities, developers, and NGOs engaged with transition themes including energy, landscape, and heritage. The two are not separate disciplines but a single sensibility applied at different scales and in different forms of collaboration. Her work does not stop at the building — it contributes to the shaping of the spaces and systems we inhabit.
