Urban room No. 4: Radiceva Street

Figure 78. Urban room No. 4: Radiceva Street aerial photos. Top: The view of the street towards the Festina Lente bridge and the Academy of Fine Arts, together with the adjacent building blocks and interior courtyards; Right: Focused view on the central segment of the street resembling the urban configuration of a plaza.

Overview

Radiceva street is a north-south oriented street in the centre of Sarajevo, connecting the Miljacka riverbank of Obala Kulina bana and the main urban route of Marsala Tita Street. With an urban form dating from 1935 (Bejtic, 1973), Radiceva Street is situated in the downtown area, near major institutional, public and commercial facilities. It is demarcated by

two large blocks, consisting mainly of residential buildings to the west, and judicial institutions to the east. Internal passages link this street with the interior courtyards of adjacent blocks. These courtyards are currently used as street-level parking areas and individual enclosed garages. Apart from the buildings on its corner blocks, the vertical enclosure of the street is defined by modernist facades from the pre- and post-WWII periods. The street profile consists of two traffic lanes, one parallel parking lane, and lateral green and pedestrian areas accompanied by cafe terraces. The positions of two recessed residential buildings increase the width of the central segment of the street, creating an area of 53 x 75 metres, in a plaza-like urban configuration. The distinctive visual feature of this urban area is its view towards the Festina Lente bridge, and the Academy of Fine Arts.

Site Assessment

Typologically, the assessed urban area is a fusion of civic public spaces, with a street, a plaza, and green areas. It can be regarded as an urban park, indirectly linked to the interior courtyards of adjacent buildings, which are communal spaces. Since its range does not exceed 100 metres, the site is categorised as a medium-sized public space. Its urban form of a disassembled block can be interpreted as semi-open, as opposed to the enclosed spaces of neighbouring interior courtyards. Onsite observations indicate that although Radiceva Street is continuously active and accessible, it is characterised by a relatively introverted urban atmosphere (Table 18).

Because of its low traffic frequency, north-south orientation and abundance of green infrastructure, this urban zone is a quiet urban oasis in Sarajevo’s downtown, only 100 metres from the city’s busiest streets and squares. The site’s existing functions and activities are mostly culturerelated, such as literature festivals and art events. These are accompanied by cafes and services, most of which act as third places. Radiceva Street is a particularly interesting case for the simulation of intervention tools and strategies that could enhance its potential and convert it into an urban room.

Table 18. Identification matrix: key attributes of the Radiceva Street area. Source: Autors

I. HISTORY

Medieval Ottoman Habsburg Early Yugoslav

Soc. Yugoslav Contemporary

II. ATTRIBUTES

Typology Scale Enclosure Activity Accessibility Atmosphere

Civic/Green/ Communal/ Transport Small Semienclosed Passive Accessible and cond. accessible Introverted

III. TRANSITIONS

Socialist–Capitalist Low–High-tech Formal–informal Global–Sitespecific Oriental–Western

Intervention strategy

The proposed intervention strategies aim to reinforce the site’s existing features, such as its identity and its culture-related program, and to preserve and amplify its prevailing vibrant yet intimate urban atmosphere. The proposed programmatic intervention strategy strives to attain a balance between existing and new functions, through the addition of art installations that reflect the site’s periodic artistic events and festivals. These functions could be reinforced with interactive games and smart urban tools that measure urban activity or reinforce sustainability, while simultaneously instigating social interaction. The site’s traffic could be reduced to service and transit vehicles at predetermined times of the day, making it a pedestrian street and bicycle lane outside those hours. The insertion of urban-interior elements such as urban furniture and

lighting accompanied by unifying pedestrian zones would reinforce the concept of an open and sociable urban room in Sarajevo’s downtown. Our assessment of the site’s existing conditions shows a high level of activity outside the street’s cafes, restaurants and bars. The central green area, while relatively undefined and inactive, echoes the fusion of an urban park and plaza. Further observations indicate the site’s general lack of clear visibility, legibility and accessibility, which could be amended by re-establishing the key urban design principles of design hierarchy and visual focal points. Additions to the site could include sustainably designed pop-up shops and cafes to enrich the main north-south axis and introduce transversal connections through the interior passages that lead to adjacent atria. These spaces are mostly used by the local community and can be regarded as communal spaces due to their higher degree of enclosure and intimacy. The interior courtyard to the west of Radiceva Street could be transformed into an underground parking facility that adds green infrastructure and a multipurpose sports court to the roof plane of the existing street-level parking. The atrium in the

Figure 79a. Radiceva street urban room illustration prior to interventions.

Figure 79b. Radiceva street urban room illustration in case of application the described intervention strategies.

eastern block could be enriched through the addition of green elements and a small playground on top of the existing garage. The intervention measures proposed for this site are subtle and minimal, and require a high level of design sensibility and close collaboration between the municipality (representing the public sector), commercial facilities and services (the private sector), artists and festival organisers, and local residents and other inhabitants of Sarajevo, the latter being the most important element of the site’s social infrastructure.