The development of cities as well as collective memory is not a linear process, but one strongly related to the ever-changing dynamics of time and space. The manner in which urban tissue evolves through anticipated events, or is disrupted by unforeseen, often chaotic happenings, comes together in a myriad of networks that generate different levels of socio-spatial complexity. In a city like Sarajevo, whose fate has been determined by numerous historic events, the built fabric is a mirror image of fragmented memory elements that continue in space through mosaics of events. Chronologically arrayed, historical layers of the city stand in sharp contrast, strikingly opposing but beautifully coexisting. In its linear progression, it unapologetically narrates the tale of its changing architectural and cultural identity, comprehensible in its disarray. However, architecture of the post-war city in transition, imposes questions of visual identity and character of the inheritance in the making. In specific, contemporary additions, congest the dense urban fabric of Sarajevo, with ambiguous visual expression and persistent disregard to the complex built setting, as the city and the society are imprisoned by the opposing collective memory discourse.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/archandurb.2020.54.3-4.2
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