Zoran Doršner, Bosnian architect, wartime studies of restructured housing units. 1994
Zoran Doršner
Balconies during winter served as refrigerators. Since food supplies ran out soon after the war started, many persons exchanged valuable personal belongings for food. People made gardens in their south- facing rooms, they planted food in the flower pots on their balconies and exchanged produce for something else they needed. 8 Balconies were also used as escape routes when there were fires caused by shelling. Sheets would be tied to the rail and one would climb down to balconies of unaffected apartments. Shelling shattered the windows in all the buildings early on in the conflict. As a result, most windows had glued and hammered UNHCR1 plastic foil covering the bare openings, along with stacks of books, sandbags, mattresses and cupboards. This completely altered the acoustic properties of the interiors, which rendered all the exterior sounds very audible. Homes also lacked utilities. Heating was fuelled by books, clothes and furniture, while chimneys had to be improvised by each household. Craftsmen came up with simple but efficient metal furnaces that could be fuelled by gas (when there was any), or coal, wood or any other available flammable materials. Because of their central position, staircases of residential buildings became places of everyday social interaction; it was where tenants met, talked, hung out, played cards or chess, and exchanged supplies. Besides assuring safety and communal interaction, they were routes for emergency evacuations towards basements and shelters. Apartment buildings’ basements, used as bomb shelters, were where people most often socialised.
adapting the everyday Through the 44 weeks of the siege, not only were the public spaces affected, but the daily rhythm of residential life of the half-million citizens of Sarajevo was transfixed and overturned. Of the 71,000 homes in Sarajevo, 24,000 were completely demolished, 35,000 heavily damaged, while only 12,000 were somewhat spared. 6 Adapting and re-designing homes to protect themselves, repairing damage and maximising the usability and liveability of spaces, citizens were suddenly forced to be architects of improvisation. 7 Bosnian architect, Zoran Dorsner did a set of wartime studies which contain texts, articles and overlapping sketches of the changes and adaptations that occurred within residential units. He pointed out the distinctive functional zones of a prewar Sarajevo apartment: the living area, kitchen, dining room, and a balcony linked to sleeping rooms and the bathroom by a corridor. The wartime siege-adapted plan showed the living area storing bicycles, trolleys, water and firewood, while actual daily activities were all condensed in a pulled- back corner of the apartment. ˇ
6 Ibid 7 Zoran Dorsner. 'Kad Gradove Ubijaju'. Oslobo ð enje, 1994.
8 Armina Pilav. 'Before the War, War, After the War: Urban Imageries for Urban Resilience'. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science 3, no. 1, 2012. p23–3
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on site review 41 :: infrastructure
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