Studio Resilient Futures 22/23
From Besieged Sarajevo to Europe 2050
This Studio comes at a pressing time of political instability in Europe. We face a multitude of planetary crises from which we are approaching a ‘point of no return’.
The War in Ukraine is a reminder that in a continent with over 40 separatist movements, we cannot take Peace for granted. Architects must learn to operate with urgency and appropriate the ‘State of Emergency’ as the rule, and not the exception.
Sarajevo is our starting point; learning from the extraordinary civilian-lead resistance during The Siege (1992-1996). We will investigate how ordinary civilians and architects overcame scarcity by inventing and up-cycling resourceful, transient, covert and often surreal tools, architectural interventions and urban infrastructures for survival.
We explore Sarajevo’s Centre and Periphery.
We worked with our friends and collaborators from the Global Free Unit in a 2-Week workshop on site, working in a fast paced urban environment to research, design, test, and prototype ‘resilient devices’ - small-scale spatial and architectural interventions that tackle current and near-future crises facing the city. These include: the climate emergency, climate migration, air pollution, water supply, political corruption, energy supply and the rise of popular nationalism.
These prototypes were installed around the city and form the basis of design manifestos for larger architectural projects in Sarajevo.
We learn experimental mapping, drawing and modelling techniques, and from our scenario drawing game methodology; to investigate, provoke, create and imagine architectures of resilience against the local and global crises facing Sarajevo today, as well as predicting future crises and trends. This year we were joined by students from Europe and Bosnia and our Studio friends and teachers from the Global Free Unit.
Collectively, the Studio is an ’Exquisite Corpse’ of possible resilient futures.
With special thanks to our Studio Friends
Prof. Robert Mull (Global Free Unit), UMEA University School of Architecture Sweden, Kharkiv School of Architecture, Ukraine, Global Free Unit, Richard Lovby (UMEA), Maria Suprun (KSA), Dr. Paul Lowe (UAL), History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Stanislava Pinchuk (Artist - Ukraine, Melbourne, Sarajevo), Ennis Cehic (Writer - Sarajevo).
TYPE / MArch Design Studio YEAR / 2020- Continued LOCATION / University of Sheffield