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Paper short abstract

Built in the 1960s–1980s, Kharkiv’s mass housing estates integrated extensive green spaces. Since the full-scale invasion, they have suffered destruction and environmental change. This paper examines how urban nature and commemorative practices respond to war within these Anthropocene landscapes.

Paper long abstract

Planned and built between the 1960s and 1980s, Kharkiv’s post-Soviet mass housing estates followed the modernist microdistrict model, which emphasised generous green courtyards, tree-lined pathways, and landscaped buffers as key elements of urban life. Since the full-scale Russian invasion, these residential areas have been under constant shelling, resulting in destruction, loss, and profound environmental change. This presentation examines how urban nature—both designed and spontaneous—appears in visual and textual narratives of Kharkiv’s damaged housing estates and how commemorative practices engage with the changing natural environment. Drawing on urban planning documents, contemporary media, and grassroots initiatives, the paper situates these housing estates within the broader Anthropocene framework to analyse how warfare transforms material and symbolic relations between people, nature, and the built environment. It also highlights the environmental effects of war—erosion of planned greenery, emergence of unregulated wild growth, and memorial uses of green space—linking post-Soviet mass housing to wider debates on urban heritage, environmental change, and the politics of commemoration.