On September 18, the autumn's main urban festival took place — September Fest 2025 by the DMNTR media group

The festival brought together architects, developers, urbanists, investors, cultural figures and city residents — more than 3,500 guests spent the day in discussions, networking, tours and the atmosphere of a big city celebration.

Highlights of the festival included:

◽️ Panel discussions in 4 halls — from investment in renovation and revitalization to the future of urban infrastructure;

◽️ Presentation of the new issue of DMNTR magazine;

◽️ Tours of properties by leading developers;

◽️ A gala evening with a performance by Yevhen Khmara and a jazz band with Oleksii Kohan.

Comments from participants:

Oleksii Baranov: how city spaces are relaunched

The festival's general sponsor was Oleksii Baranov, CEO of A Development. He took part in the professional interview “Restoration and revitalization as an act of relaunching a space” and gave partners and speakers an exclusive tour of the A-Station space.

Read the full interview with Oleksii Baranov – https://share.google/pILaOIoTySJK96KGE

“Concept and location are the two factors that drive real estate. We must create projects that change the face of the city and make Kyiv a modern European capital,” the developer stressed.

Pavlo Somov: restorative infrastructure is about people

Pavlo Somov, founder of EcoBud Building Group, took part in two key discussions at once:

“Reconstruction through a developer's eyes: is it profitable to invest in restoring the old city?”

“Restorative infrastructure: investing in restorative social infrastructure as a driver of sustainable urban development.”

“Restorative infrastructure begins with people. It is not only buildings or parks, but above all human potential, a society's ability to recover and create new spaces.”

Roman Ivanenko: architecture of trust instead of fences

The managing partner of Urban Development Group (UDG), Roman Ivanenko, presented the project “Architecture of trust: a park instead of a fence” and shared his experience of working on revitalization and new residential complexes.

“I want there to be no more fences around residential complexes in Kyiv. Fences do not provide safety; they separate. If we build a city with fences, it will no longer be a city.”

One of the festival's key topics: how has demand for new-build housing changed?

“Today the key criterion for customers is confidence in the developer and its ability to deliver projects on time. In times of turbulence, it is trust that becomes the decisive factor,” stressed Borys Tsomaia, marketing director of RIEL.

The festival brought together key ideas about the future of cities:

◽️ Renovation and revitalization are the main tools for creating new value in abandoned properties.

◽️ Veteran spaces are becoming a priority in recovery — from rehabilitation centers to venues for entrepreneurship and community.

◽️ The investment appeal of urban projects depends directly on partnership between business, communities and government.

◽️ Development and architecture must work for people, creating sustainable and inclusive solutions.

Panel discussion:  “Renovation. Revitalization: developers' investment strategies for the future of cities”

Main points:
◽️ A new approach to urban development — developers face difficulties because of limited mechanisms for interacting with the authorities, even when they have good ideas.
◽️ Revitalization “for the soul” — there are properties that are interesting to realize even without economic benefit.
◽️ Lack of an urban planning policy — developers are ready to build, rehabilitate and restore, but are waiting for proper rules of the game.
◽️ Investment mechanisms — traditional instruments are high-risk, and there is no infrastructure for asset tokenization. Legislative changes could significantly boost investment.
◽️ Cities after the war — the war may prompt the state to change its attitude toward urban planning.
◽️ An example of successful urban planning — Vinnytsia demonstrated effective cooperation between an architect, the municipality and the mayor.
◽️ A dream of a cultural project in Podil — the grain elevator could become a hotel and cultural center, like the Silo in Cape Town.

September Fest 2025 proved that Ukraine's new urbanism is born at the intersection of architecture, culture, economics and live dialogue.

Tel.: 044 461 91 28

www.ubc-ua.info/september-fest

Organizer: DMNTR

General sponsor: A | DEVELOPMENT

About us:

The DMNTR media group is a team with 25 years of experience in creating professional events for the architecture, construction and investment audience. Our key projects include: the Ukrainian Building Congress, Ukraine Investment Congress,

the all-Ukrainian competition “Interior of the Year”, Ukraine Urban Awards, the architecture and development award “Creator of the Year”.

We also publish the leading architecture and design magazine “DMNTR” and are actively developing our social media, where we post insights, news, reports and photo reports from all our events every day.

Link to the photo report – www.ubc-ua.info/september-fest

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Interfax-Ukraine – information partner