Urban Evolution: Analyzing Architectural and Functional Transformations in Railway Station Complexes for Postwar Reconstruction in Ukraine

The increase of exchange processes between cities based on the development of external transport is an essential factor in ensuring their sustainable development. The peculiarity of the role in this process is played by railway transport, including its nodal elements, i.e., railway station complexes (RSCs). World experience shows that these areas and adjacent areas of urban space are objects of significant changes in terms of their functional, structural planning, and compositional aspects. In Ukraine, new architectural and urban planning trends in forming RSCs were caused by socioeconomic transformations in the last few decades. The intent of this chapter is to determine the main characteristics and directions of architectural and urban development of RSCs in the context of their impact on sustainable development of the city. The architectural and city planning specifics of RSCs are explored—highlighting their general trends from a developed countries’ perspective. The analysis of preconditions of RSC cities in Ukraine in terms of sustainable development is also conducted. The features of architectural and city planning development of RSCs and the conditions of social and economic transformations are defined. The chapter shows that the impact of RSCs on the sustainable development of territories occurs at two hierarchical levels: internal (i.e., urban development) and external (i.e., via agglomeration and regional connections). Based on the study, the main directions of architectural and urban development of RSCs in Ukraine is to contribute to the postwar reconstruction process by adopting sustainable development and enhancing transport efficiency. These two aspects are expected to hold immense significance throughout this period.