Climate Corridors, Sarajevo

Shaping water into public places of inclusion

How can we as designers radically reimagine place-making in Sarajevo by connecting the existing natural and built environment with local resources and digital infrastructures as models for sustainable living?

Sarajevo´s culture is as diverse as its rich architecture and history of urbanisation. Located on the Balkan Route, a crossroads between north and south, east and west, the city confronts us with one of the highest pollution levels of air, soil water, of any capital city in Europe. The watershed of the Miljacka River, wells, fountains, retention infrastructures, and flood plains are our point of departure. They have the potential to unlock socio-ecological systems, multifunctional corridors, and catalytic projects, that can transform fragmented neighborhoods, offering an integrated living system of public water-places for the inhabitants.

Students will develop integrated urban strategies and design a prototypical architecture project inside the CLIMATE – CORRIDORS. At the intersection of architecture, landscape, and public art, the studio envisions trans-scalar processes, addressing the city’s social and ecological crisis, supporting the Sarajevo Cantonal Planning Office, and responding to the urgent need for concrete projects and Climate Action.