StadtBauwelt 7.2026
From Narva to Odesa

From Narva to Odesa
States of Uncertainty

We gave this issue of StadtBauwelt the title “From Narva to Odesa” with the English subtitle “States of Uncertainty,” even though we generally avoid bilingual titles. If not entirely in German, we believe a title should normally remain in one language. In this case, however, the exception seemed justified, because only the English phrase could convey the ambiguity we wanted to capture.

“States of Uncertainty” can be understood in geopolitical terms: as a reference to fragile states and a region under pressure. In the context of a journey through Eastern Europe along Russia’s border, at a time when Russia continues to wage war against Ukraine, this interpretation is almost inevitable. But the phrase can also be read more broadly, referring to a condition, a phase, or a state of uncertainty. In that sense, it describes not only the countries featured in this issue, but also a new uncertainty that has come to define Europe—and perhaps much of the world. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, uncertainty has become a defining political reality.

Nadin Heinich, the guest editor of this issue, travelled the route in several stages: from the Baltic states, where what once seemed like an abstract threat has become increasingly tangible, through Poland, whose position as the EU’s largest eastern member state gives it a particular responsibility, and finally to Ukraine. She visited Odesa several times, most recently in mid-December, when Russia intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and drone and missile strikes around the city increased dramatically. During those weeks, the war briefly returned to the forefront of international attention after fading from Western headlines, only to be overshadowed once again by other global crises.

Nadin Heinich set out to understand how cities and the people living closest to the war—or already directly affected by it—are coping with this new reality of uncertainty. This issue of StadtBauwelt therefore takes the form of a series of interviews. It brings together conversations with, among others, the mayor and the city architect of Narva, the director of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the cultural affairs representative of the Odesa City Council responsible for protecting the UNESCO-listed historic centre, the curator of the Odesa Museum of Fine Arts, whose collection has largely been evacuated, a military analyst, a member of a mobile drone defence unit, and young architects from Kyiv.

Most of the photographs in this issue were taken by Heinrich Völkel, a photographer with the Ostkreuz agency, who accompanied Nadin Heinich to the Baltic states and to Odesa. Journalist Igor Ishchuk from Odesa contributed photographs documenting the city during nighttime power outages as well as a mobile drone defence unit. The photographs from Kyiv, including images of the Maidan protests in 2014, were taken by Robin Hinsch, who has worked in Ukraine for many years and recently published many of these images in his book Lonely Are All The Bridges. The issue also includes a perspective from the front line, with photographs by Johanna-Maria Fritz, also of Ostkreuz, who has repeatedly travelled to contested and partially occupied areas in eastern Ukraine to document the war.

Text: Jan Friedrich, Berlin