Red Dot Award: International Recognition of DNU Smart Shelter

The safe smart space CLUST SPACE DNIPRO, built at DNU, became the winner of the Red Dot Design Award 2025 in the Interior Architecture & Interior Design category. This is the first Ukrainian project to win the prestigious Red Dot award in the interior design nomination.

The jury of the international competition announced the victory back in the summer, but the award itself has just gone to the front-line Dnipro and our location.

CLUST SPACE DNIPRO is an innovative smart shelter created for DNU students and teachers. Opened in February 2025, it combines the functions of shelter and co-working, providing comfortable conditions for work, study and relaxation even during air raids.

The Dnipro shelter is designed for long-term stay in times of danger, simultaneously accommodating up to 350 people. The entire infrastructure of the space is built in the concept of a smart shelter, equipped with modern ventilation, sound insulation, furniture and equipment that meet the requirements of the State Emergency Service. Here, every square meter has its own function. On an area of 550 m², DNU students and employees have a large open space, an area for sports, computer games and relaxation, rooms for negotiations and practical classes in groups, capsules for video calls, rooms for independent work, a cafeteria, restrooms and showers.

This safe university shelter is distinguished, first of all, by its practicality and multifunctionality, high comfort and originality. It is these characteristics that were noted by the organizers of the design competition. The Red Dot Design Award is an international annual competition for product design and industrial design, brand and communication design, as well as design concepts, in which the winners are awarded the Red Dot quality mark. So from now on, this sign will clearly confirm the high level of innovation and perfect aesthetics inherent in the DNU shelter.

“CLUST SPACE DNIPRO is not just a shelter, but our innovative response to war”, – notes the ideological inspirer of the construction of smart shelters at Ukrainian universities Ruslan Tymofieiev, entrepreneur, investor, founder of the venture builder CLUST.

“CLUST SPACE DNIPRO is an example of architecture that serves society, where technology, care and humanism create a new quality of the educational environment even in times of war,” – says one of the authors of the object, architect Pavlo Peker.

Together with Mr. Pavlo from Peker & Partners, Anastasia Konotopenko and Olena Ovchar also worked on developing the idea of this charitable project in Dnipro within the framework of the corporate social responsibility of CLUST. To build the newest shelter at DNU, the CLUST team managed to gather a considerable pool of sponsoring organizations: Freedom Finance Corp., Usyk Foundation and Svichado Foundation - investments and financial support; Lenovo - technological support and assistance with equipment; as well as other construction teams-contractors related to the project.

Now, thanks to the Red Dot award, the innovative approach to shelter construction, which is developing in Ukraine, will be known abroad!

The team of Oles Honchar Dnipro National University expresses sincere gratitude to CLUST and all partners for the joint implementation of this ambitious, useful and extremely important project! Supporting and implementing such an innovative security solution in the field of education allows our university community to continue to work comfortably offline even during war. And this is a great investment in the sustainable development of our country now!

Інформаційно-аналітичне агентство
Дніпровського національного університету