Mala Rohan, village in Kharkiv Oblast 49°56’42.7”N 36°30’07.2”E : Abandoned farmland site of the military helicopter crush © Anna Pomazanna, Mykhailo Shevchenko for Experimental Fellowship at Bauhaus Earth
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GRUNT – investigating war-related soil pollution in Ukraine
Date
4/6/2025
Read time
0
minutes
While rethinking earth as a local material for climate-conscious reconstruction, our current Fellowship Project Grunt bridges two critical concerns arising from post-war zones: the environmental consequences of warfare and the urgent need for reconstruction aligned with climate goals. Hence amplifying the critical question of benchmarks for harm and thus health—soil and human—in our built environments.
Since November, Anna and Mykhailo have been conducting targeted soil sampling in the Kharkiv region since November 2024, focusing on sites affected by military activity but located far enough from urban areas to isolate contamination sources.
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Soil Types in Ukraine © Anna Pomazanna, Mykhailo Shevchenko, Rosa Hanhausen for Experimental Fellowship at Bauhaus Earth
The colloquium in April 25 took place at the BHROX Pavilion at Ernst Reuter Platz (which is actually built on rubble from WW2) in Berlin. It included Prof. Regine Leibinger, Chrissie Muhr ( Experimental), Prof. Dr. Philipp Misselwitz and Rosa Hanhausen (Bauhaus Earth) as well as external advisors Prof. Dr. Antoine Vialle (CUE – Chair of Urban Ecosystems in Transition at TU Berlin), Adrienne Goehler (Initiative HOPE HOME - НАДІЯ) and Dr. Julia von Werder (Senior Researcher at BAM).
Grunt could critically present and discuss two different strategies: The "Encapsulation Strategy" focuses on designing and building elements that securely contain materials contaminated with heavy metals, preventing the spread of pollutants and ensuring user safety. A key example is a filter house prototype, encircled by a rain garden with a subsurface system that slowly filters contaminants from its exterior walls. In contrast, the "Dilution Strategy" blends polluted soil with cleaner secondary raw materials, like washed sand from treatment facilities, to balance structural integrity with safe contamination levels.
This raises further questions: How do different countries define acceptable contamination, and what does that mean for rebuilding?
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