The first element of the memorial to scouts was unveiled in Kyiv on 24 February 2025, on the eve of the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion. The memorial was officially opened on 17 June 2025. The authors of the idea were architect Andriy Lesyuk and sculptor Nazar Bilyk, known for his other memorial works (in particular, the Heavenly Hundred Heroes Memorial in Lviv).
‘This award is truly one of the most prestigious European awards in the field. If the “Nobel Prize” of architecture is the Pritzker Prize, then the second, as architects themselves say, is the Mies van der Rohe Award (The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture — Mies van der Rohe Award),’ says sculptor Nazar Bilyk.
The award was established in 1988 in Barcelona by the Mies van der Rohe Foundation and the European Union's programme to support the cultural and creative sectors. It is an annual award that recognises outstanding achievements in architectural projects in Europe (Architecture and Emerging categories), as well as the diploma projects of recent architecture graduates (Young Talent category). It is awarded every two years. The EUmies Awards are recognised worldwide as the most important and prestigious architectural award in Europe. It is one of the European Union's cultural awards, supported by the Creative Europe programme, and it recognises outstanding architectural works across Europe, highlighting the contribution of quality architecture to sustainable development and the well-being of citizens.
The award defines the concept of ‘excellence’ in a holistic sense: it assesses how architectural objects integrate natural, artificial and human environments, improving the quality of the places where we live. It not only identifies the best examples of architecture, but also actively disseminates their stories, contributing to the shaping of European architectural policy, which began about 20 years ago. This policy is based on two pillars: on the one hand, there are political documents adopted by the Council of the EU, which called on the Commission and Member States to promote the development of quality architecture; on the other hand, it is the EUmies Awards that play a key role in highlighting the best architectural practices and achievements in Europe.
'This year, among the nominees was not only an architectural object, namely a memorial. It combines both sculpture and architecture. The meanings we put into the memorial to the scouts can now become part of a larger European context. I looked through the awards over the decades, and they mainly focused on innovations in residential and public architecture, as well as culture. And now there is a memorial that requires not so much functional immersion as a more philosophical effort to read the meanings that are revealed. Therefore, I see this not only as an official award, but also as a personal creative joy, because the memory and our history, which we talked about in the memorial, will now be more accessible to European viewers. It is a bridge that we are building while living in Ukraine and being evaluated in Europe,' 'And this year, among the nominees was not only an architectural object, but a memorial. It combines both sculpture and architecture. The meanings we put into the memorial to the scouts can now become part of a larger European context. I looked through the awards over the decades, and they mainly focused on innovations in residential and public architecture, as well as culture. And now there is a memorial that requires not so much functional immersion as a more philosophical effort to read the meanings that are revealed. Therefore, I see this not only as an official award, but also as personal creative joy, because the memory and our history, which we talked about in the memorial, will now be more accessible to European viewers. It is a bridge that we are building while living in Ukraine and being evaluated in Europe,' continues the co-creator of the memorial.
Nazar also emphasises that this award is not just an architectural competition where designers can showcase their projects, but an opportunity to become part of a shared European cultural field.
"The monument to explorers is not about monumentality or functionality, but rather about attentiveness, a philosophical outlook, and inner vision. It has a wide range of references: Peter Zumthor's concepts with his minimalism and Jean Nouvel's working principles (both Pritzker Prize winners), so we are conducting this dialogue with European architects and developing this experience. For us, this nomination is a sign of maturity and that the memory of this war is acquiring not only national but also universal, global, or at least pan-European significance. And it is gratifying that it is precisely sculpture, which is created personally, but at the same time becomes collective, concrete and abstract, which recreates our experience of war and becomes understandable to any European.