Re-Razvitak

Abstract

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country that has endured many wars, through many different rules. The Yugoslav wars from 1991-1996 still linger in Mostar today, as we find a ‘divided city’, which is mostly enforced through institutions that ethnically divide public buildings. At the same time, citizens find this unnecessary and consider Mostar as ‘one’, as they move all over the city. Fountains in public places, particularly the ones with drinking water, used to be a major inclusive quality as a common good that were able to be used by anyone. Currently these are left neglected from a lack of responsibility to take care of these. Using these places as a spatial method to analyze the city, their inclusive qualities are utilized into creating an inclusive place where people can encounter each other, exchange and share knowledge, collaborate and essentially can reclaim public space. 'Inclusive' in this project refers to accessibility and a sense of ownership, where people are able to add a piece of themselves in the program. An existing ruin that used to be a popular department store called Razvitak, resides between two popular streets and through that holds potential to connect a new inclusive place to an existing social tissue. Razvitak plays the role to be unlocked as a common resource, in order to counteract divisional narratives and reconnect the city socially(and aquatically). The project gives this ruin its third life as a social centre, where the inclusivity is shaped through an experience from public to private, encountering different intimacies along the way that shape diverse spaces of encounter, to which the programme relates, while making use of the structure’s existing qualities.