Sarajevo Youth Centre

Almost 25 years after the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo is still visibly suffering from the consequences. The ruins of a destroyed nursing home are a reminder of its tragic past. As the slowly recovering city grows, a desire for space to develop together is now emerging, especially among Sarajevo's youth.

In a workshop with Bosnian students, we would like to develop design approaches for a new youth centre to form the cornerstone of a social centre in the new town of Sarajevo on the site of the former nursing home. With a student dormitory in the direct neighbourhood, rooms for studying, workshops and exhibitions are to be created here. For this purpose, 2 block events are offered, one week in Sarajevo and one week in Stuttgart. Due to the current situation, no fixed excursion dates can be given yet, but probably during the semester break in September.

Within the framework of the course, mixed groups of at least one Bosnian and one German student will create sketchy first designs for new forms of youth lounges and student work spaces on the outskirts of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian capital. In addition, each participant will give a presentation on design relevant topics.
The seminar will be supervised by staff from the Universities of Sarajevo and Stuttgart. The participation in both block events in Stuttgart and Sarajevo is a prerequisite.

About the online teaching:

The aim of the annual Sarajevo workshop is to spend a week sitting together around a table in each of the two cities and to develop quick designs in internationally mixed groups. The teaching programme is supplemented in both weeks with various excursions on relevant topics. Originally, dates in May and June were planned, but due to the current crisis situation these international excursions have now become very difficult. We hope that the situation will have calmed down by the end of September at the latest and that we will still be able to complete the excursion to Sarajevo and the visit of our Bosnian colleagues as planned with a postponed date. If the international exchange is still not possible until October, a postponement of the excursion to the next semester or other alternatives will be discussed.

For the presentation of the prepared topics and for organizational meetings with a regular update of the situation there will be online conferences via Web-Ex. In this way, everyone in the group can exchange information in advance and presentations can be shown to the rest of the group using the "share screen" function. The students will receive an invitation to the Web-Ex conferences by email.

It is advisable to download the app from this link beforehand, but participation via internet browser only is also possible with a few small restrictions. Files will be exchanged via Ilias. Exact dates for the conferences will be announced.