Re-imagining Damaged Spaces of Mostar: A Visual Study of Radical Urban Restoration

Wars and violent conflicts expedite buildings’ decay, leaving unoccupiable ruins as shadows of what used to exist. Damaged spaces remain in societies that experienced violent conflicts as the most visible reminders of the painful past because restoration and re-inhabitance are often long and challenging. This thesis is focused on the ruins of Mostar, a city in Bosnia and Herzegovina that has experienced severe armed conflicts from 1992 to 1994 and has since been on a long journey to restoration. The thesis explores 4 sites throughout the city of Mostar, all of which are currently unoccupiable because of severe damage caused by neglect, violence, and decay. The sites include a former library, a shopping center, a train station, and a former coal mine.

This thesis argues that damaged spaces have the potential to be drastically re-thought where architects have the power to re-invent the ways such spaces are occupied. The proposed designs are not definitive answers to the reconstruction question of the analysed sites, but rather a glimpse into potential design and programmatic use of these spaces through a series of sketches, diagrammatic plans and diagrams and collages. The initial steps of the design included visiting all the sites and taking photographs of the damaged buildings. Throughout the research the following principles were developed and used as a guide for the design: to continue, to mirror, to  weave, to shell, and to  parallel.

Space to Tell Stories is a radical restoration proposal for the Razvitak Shopping Center which uses the principle ‘To Weave’ as its main architectural approach. The former shopping mall gets a new programmatic use as a flexible space for active ‘telling stories’ through performance and passive through the exhibition. The design of the addition enhances and celebrates the original brutalist design.

Space to Learn is a radical restoration of the Mostar Library which uses the principle to Shell as its main guide. The Space to Learn is an interplay between old and new, outside and inside, natural and artificial. The subtraction from the original structure was gentle as the new design removes only parts of the original facade necessary for the addition of the new volumes.

Space to Kill Time is a radical restoration of the Old Train Station building that uses the principle ‘To Mirror’. As train station is a place where visitors typically spend time waiting for the train to arrive, this essence was transformed into a new, less defined programmatic use. The old train station became a Space to Kill Time subdivided into smaller programmatic units such as coffee shops and restaurants. As the original ruin was demolished just days after taking the pictures for this thesis, the design completely eliminates the old structure and replaces it with a new one which makes subtle references to the old design.

Space to Experience is a radical restoration of the Rudnik Coal Mine building which uses the principle ‘To Continue’ as its main architectural approach. The design proposes a drastic subtraction from the old structure and addition of a new observation tower. The observation tower was added to the design to allow visitors to experience the other sites through view.