Living Memorials
Tunnel of Hope Museum
‘Living Memorials’ is an architectural and research project, which was initiated as part of developing the concept proposal for one of the most significant urban-architectural competitions in Sarajevo since the Siege of Sarajevo (1992-1995) - the memorialisation of the ‘Tunnel of Hope’ complex; an 800m long survival infrastructure built underneath the UN controlled airport in 1993 to re-connect neighbourhoods Dobrinja, in besieged Sarajevo, with Butmir and the outside world. Today, the war-damaged urban fabric and architectural figures, such as Kolar House scarred by shrapnel marks on facades and ‘Sarajevo Roses’ in gardens, serve as physical witnesses and material evidence of the occupation of the city, while original parts of the Tunnel reveal an authentic insight into the cities structures of survival. Living Memorials proposes an architectural process, research framework and 3-Phased urban strategy; which would enable the interdependent development of the program, collection and conservation components of the project with the curatorial strategy and architecture of the memorial museum. In the first phase, live on-site and off-site forensic urban-architectural investigations and excavations of Heritage Listed structures are turned into temporary and permanent conservation projects and entrances into a new underground museum. Phase two extends the useable length of the Tunnel with a series of public walkable galleries and laboratories, which enables the expansion of the collection with a chronological multi-media timeline reconstruction of the diary of the life of the Tunnel, Airport Runway and Siege (1992-1995). The third phase reconnects Tunnel routes D and B, to allow passage through the whole length of the Tunnel, which would invite Sarajevo International Airport to co-operation in the construction of a new Memorial Terminal that would be linked to the Tunnel of Hope. The forensic process would actively engage the community, some of whom built or used the tunnel, to become participants in the archaeological discoveries, and provide witness testimonies about the site during the research, design and construction process. The Memorial Complex would become a Living Memorial; respectively a centre for live collaborative research and a laboratory for reconstructing and memorialising the authentic story of the Tunnel of Hope and the Sarajevo Siege. This project has as the further objective to create a collaborative research network between cultural institutions, citizens and experts; ultimately influencing the direction of the broader project of planning the memorialisation of the Siege, and the sustainable reconstruction and cultural revitalisation of the city.
COMPETITION TEAM \ Vernes Causevic, Lucy Dinnen
PROJECT \ Living Memorials; Tunnel of Hope Memorial Museum TYPE \ Urbanism-Architecture, Competition YEAR \ 2016 LOCATION \ Sarajevo, BiH STATUS \ Awarded Special Mention, exhibited PUBLICATIONS \ AABH ORGANISERS \ AABH (Association of Architects BiH), Fond Memorijala