First Year MA NE students returned from their field trip to Sarajevo last week with compelling research and concepts targeting seven areas of unique physical, economic, cultural and social assets of the city.
They were tasked with developing new narratives or identities for the Sarajevo, enabling it to carve a more significant place on the world stage.
Sarajevo is the capital and largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its economic and cultural centre.
The country is divided into two entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (10 cantons) and the Republic of Srpska, as well as District of Brčko and the dividing line runs through Sarajevo.
Although the marks of wars that tore former Yugoslavia apart between 1991-1999 are still visible in the city’s topography, the new country is now established and visiting students were tasked with imagining new, forward looking narratives for Sarajevo, rather than those stemming from the tragedies of war.
Students researched and developed concepts addressing the following scenarios:
- ‘Music of Sarajevo’ imagines an incubator for new musical talent through a project that modernises Sevdah, the haunting traditional music of Bosnia, whilst supporting local talent and bringing communities together.
- ‘Women of Sarajevo’ envisions new and different lifestyle for women in Sarajevo based on feminist art, writing, craft or design.
- ‘Sarajevo: European Centre for Hiking and Hashing’ transforms the city into Europe’s top new hiking and wellbeing destination.
- ‘Looking for Common Ground’ explores ways to support local groups to re-open and grow the old Museum of the Revolution aka the History Museum into a community asset.
- ‘Sarajevo: Europe’s Most Biodiverse City’ investigates both parasitic and symbiotic relationships between plants, animals and humans in the urban environment.
- ‘Slow Sarajevo’ takes the city down a speed, conceptualising an intentionally slow city with less traffic, less noise and less pollution.
- #grammablecity explores the implications of what it means to realise and harness the power of social media in relation to city positioning, imagining the effects of social media on the design of cities.
