VI. CONCLUSIONS

“I am not asking for miracles or visions but strength to get through the day. Give me the wit to understand at the right moment who and what really matter to me. Help me to choose how I portion out my time.

Give me the sense of what is essential and what

comes second. I ask for strength, self-discipline and moderation so that I don’t get swept up in life but can order my day wisely.

Help me to face up to the immediate as best I can and to recognize the present hour as the most important. Let me recognize that life is accompanied by difficulties and setbacks, which are chances to grow and mature.

Make of me a man capable of joining those who have gone below. Give me not what I want but what I need. Teach me the art of small steps.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

VI. CONCLUSIONS

TRANSITIONS

This research embarked on a historical inquiry into how recurrent transitions have affected socio-cultural identity and public spaces in Sarajevo. The impact of the periodic socio-political changes on the mind-sets of citizens is clearly legible in the character of the city’s public spaces. Historical exploration of the early East-West political and cultural transition revealed that the Ottoman period favoured intimacy of private life over the collectivity of public life. Conversely, the Habsburg era featured representative civic buildings and expansive urban development in the Western style. A major architectural paradigm shift occurred in the Early Yugoslav period, which yielded the first progressive modernist buildings in Sarajevo. Though the following transition was equally radical (both were triggered by world wars), the Socialist Yugoslav regime introduced novelty in the public realm. Its new spaces epitomised the socialist-modernist urban utopia and national unity, which simultaneously enabled the system to supervise socio-cultural life in Yugoslavian cities. Half a century later, Sarajevo was struck by the 1990s war, urbicide and a three-year state of dystopia, and as a result the city endured a prolonged post-socialist, post-conflict and postmodern transition. All these events accustomed its citizens to transiency, which has resonated in their sense of the collective spirit and their attitude towards shared values. A collective identity crisis is noticeably embodied in Sarajevo’s public spaces, which, like its socio-cultural identity, are in a permanent state of in-betweenness: a condition between before and after, here and

there, public and private, and us and them. The transitory character of the socio-cultural context is projected in the transitory character of public spaces. On one hand, these circumstances contribute to a powerful and unique cultural image of Sarajevo on a global level. The historical timeline of the city’s evolution is clearly legible in its urban-morphological alignment, where public architectural typologies of various socio-cultural provenience stand side-by-side. On the other hand, these radical shifts have created spatio-physical and mental thresholds, gaps and greyareas, which result in a lack of cultural and urban continuity.

URBAN MAPPING

After researching the genesis of public spaces in Sarajevo, the study concentrated on their contemporary status and identity. Mapping was used to determine the distribution logic of public spaces within the city, while indicating six socio-spatial attributes: typology, scale, enclosure, accessibility and urban atmosphere. The superimposition of maps revealed a particular category of small- to medium-sized public spaces that correspond to the general definition of urban voids. These spaces have vaguely defined or undefined functions and a typically semiopen and semi-enclosed configuration. They are seasonally active and conditionally accessible, semi-private and semi-public spaces, at the threshold of interior and exterior space. The sense of in-betweenness inherent in these urban voids was an intriguing and stimulating research and design topic in the context of the urban regeneration of public spaces in Sarajevo.

IN-BETWEENNESS

The topic of transiency, or the state of in-betweenness, as a spatial, sociocultural and temporal condition of public spaces in Sarajevo was further pursued to determine whether this condition was solely an obstacle, or whether it could be an opportunity for future development. The study of good practice and successful urban transformation projects has shown that even radical cases of socio-economic and technological transitions and polarised approaches (such as formal vs informal, global vs sitespecific and East vs West) can yield new values and instigate progress. The translation of these principles to public spaces in Sarajevo could contribute to a paradigm shift in the perception of their status of inbetweenness, from accepting the status-quo to launching an integrative, inclusive and transformative force.

URBAN VOIDS

The urban voids of Sarajevo were designated as the principal research and design intervention target. Looking beyond their most common features – their inherent emptiness, instability, confusion and indeterminacy – the focus of the research was instead their promise, possibilities and expectations (de Sola Morales, 2003), and the potential role of urban voids to trigger wider urban transformation and development. Similar to the Aikido principle of using the force of the attack to neutralise the attacker, it is the ambiguity, transiency and in-betweenness of urban voids that are key to their potential transformative force.

URBAN ROOMS

Our acquired awareness of the ambiguities of interior and exterior, private and public, and domesticity and collectivity as opportunities for the transformation of urban voids allowed us to formulate our theory of urban rooms. The subsequent research revolved around the subject of the transformation of urban voids into urban rooms. In summary:

Urban rooms are spatially contained urban spaces, comparable in certain features to interior spaces;

Urban rooms are simultaneously private and public. Because of their private-public ambiguity, they simultaneously support both the individualism and collective identities;

An urban room can be a square or street that feels like a room. It is a space that evokes a sense of domesticity, and incites social cohesion between the members of a community, similar to the cohesion of family members in a home;

Urban rooms are the desired outcome of the transformation of urban

voids, and are a model of reactivated, vibrant public spaces.

INTERVENTION STRATEGIES

Urban voids in the city of Sarajevo (our research and intervention target) require an alternative approach to traditional top-down urban planning methods. Our proposed methodological hybrid of strategies includes low-cost, small-scale, permanent or temporary interventions, such as urban acupuncture, place-making, urban recycling and other collaborative models. These micro-interventions can create a ripple

effect of transformations in the wider urban area, depending on the interconnections between the selected urban voids. Additionally, the conversion of Sarajevo’s urban voids into urban rooms should be underpinned by the idea of recreating the meaning or notion of a locality while considering its memory, and the physical, cultural, and social identities that define it.

INTERVENTION SIMULATIONS

Our research methodology combined top-down and bottom-up approaches. The former encompassed an overall study of public spaces in Sarajevo, in the form of a historical overview, urban mapping and an analysis. Once the intervention targets (urban voids) were identified, they were subjected to bottom-up scrutiny. Five case studies were selected: urban voids in the city of Sarajevo with the potential to become urban rooms. Each site was assessed according to the methodological structure provided in previous chapters, and the proposed interventions were structured in three levels: scope, strategy and tools. These simulations highlight the synergetic link between the programme and formal identity of urban rooms, achieved by urban design principles. They represent the translation of the program into tangible objects, but still adhere to essential design values, such as site-specificity and urban resilience, to reach a solution through collaboration between the community and public and private sectors. One of the key intervention tools proposed for the conversion of urban voids into urban rooms is a new dualistic

approach, based on a synergy of the disciplines of urban planning and interior design. This approach encompasses urban-interior elements, principles and methods, with the objective of creating an interior urban atmosphere: an urban room.