Marvel Hill, a condominium development under construction in Lviv, Ukraine, has won the 2026 BIP Global Architecture Award in the Residential category and Condominiums subcategory for integrating residential design with the engineering required to build across a site with an approximately 40-metre change in level.
Lviv-based architecture bureau ARKHO Group designed the 40,000m² complex for Ukrainian property developer Marvel Development. Its five buildings occupy a steep site on Kytaiska Street beside Vynnykivskyi Regional Landscape Park, with the tallest rising to nine storeys. The gradients and absence of road access had long made the land difficult to develop.
ARKHO Group placed the buildings at successive elevations and oriented their terraces towards the forest. Beneath them, a substructure accommodates parking and civil-protection facilities while helping retain and stabilise the hillside. The jury recognised ARKHO Group’s coordination of stepped housing, slope engineering and pedestrian space.
Stepped massing unifies the five-building Marvel Hill complex
The five buildings occupy staggered positions down the hillside. Their heights respond to changes in level, while repeated horizontal terrace lines allow the five blocks to read as one complex.
Each building meets the hillside at a different elevation, affecting the position of its entrance and its connection with the rest of the development. The architects coordinated the blocks with adjoining pedestrian routes so residents can move between the buildings and communal areas across the slope.
They also used high-precision 3D landscape modelling to calculate slope loads and coordinate engineering networks across the terrain.
Changes in level remain legible in the varying building heights and the terraces running across their façades. Retaining structures are absorbed into the stepped plan and remain visually subordinate to the residential massing.
Terracing improves daylight, privacy and forest views
The deep terraces provide private outdoor space and open the apartments towards Vynnykivskyi Regional Landscape Park. They also give the façades their strong horizontal expression.
The spacing, orientation and different elevations of the blocks increase separation and privacy between neighbouring apartments.
The wooded setting and changes in level create complex daylight conditions. The architects adjusted the position of the blocks and the angle of the terraces to bring natural light into apartments across the development.
Concrete, timber window systems and ceramic blocks form a restrained material palette, allowing the terraces, glazing and stepped profiles to define the elevations. The materials are produced at the developer’s facilities or sourced from manufacturers near the site, while excavated material is being reused during construction.
Underground infrastructure preserves pedestrian space
Marvel Development built new road infrastructure to reach the site. Inside the complex, vehicles are directed underground, keeping parking away from the main spaces between the residential buildings.
The architects designed the substructure to accommodate parking and civil-protection facilities while retaining and stabilising the hillside.
Placing parking underground leaves more of the ground plane available for pedestrian routes, planting and shared outdoor facilities. The site plan includes an observation deck, amphitheatre, children’s playgrounds and a sports ground. A spa, swimming pool and gym are also planned.
Together with the outdoor recreational spaces and access to the forest park, these facilities support Marvel Hill’s city-resort residential concept.
Lifts, ramps and barrier-free paths connect the buildings and communal facilities across the changing levels, with pedestrian routes continuing towards the surrounding parkland. Entrances, playgrounds and rest spaces are planned without thresholds, providing access for residents with limited mobility.
The civil-protection facilities address the conditions under which new housing is being planned in Ukraine. Residents can reach the shelters through the underground levels, which also contain parking and help retain the slope.
The jury recognised Marvel Hill because ARKHO Group used the hillside engineering demands to shape the residential plan. The stepped buildings provide terraces, daylight, privacy and forest views, while the substructure combines slope stabilisation, parking and civil protection, leaving the principal shared spaces to pedestrians. Integrating these demands across an approximately 40-metre change in level gave the project its architectural distinction.
About ARKHO Group
ARKHO Group is a Lviv-based architecture bureau specialising in complex residential developments, high-rise buildings, and urban projects. The studio works with a design philosophy called functional aesthetics, where architectural form emerges directly from function, engineering logic, and human-centred planning. Buildings are conceived as integrated systems in which spatial efficiency, structural clarity, and user experience define the architecture.
This approach results in a recognisable architectural language based on clear geometry, rational planning, and restrained contemporary expression.
ARKHO Group operates with a full-cycle design approach, from concept and master planning to architectural design and implementation support. Experience gained through designing projects in Ukraine during wartime has also shaped the bureau’s expertise in resilient architecture and safety-integrated design.
Images: © ARKHO Group
