Social Housing in Sarajevo

July 10, 2007
streets | Sarajevo | houses of faith

Continuing from the previous web page about streets: large amounts of high-rise public housing were built in New Sarajevo along the main boulevard. This picture is taken along the same wide street as shown on the previous page.

I think American planners would object to all of this housing, because the high-rise public housing we built in the U.S. was such an amazing failure. Here, I have mixed feelings. This housing is better-built than U.S. public housing, and enough of it was built to really make a difference to the housing shortage in Sarajevo. It also wasn't built in relentless, identical "slabs" as Americans had done. I think most of this was built in the 1980s, so Yugoslavian architects may have learned from the mistakes of both the West and the USSR. But it is very gray, with the color of concrete dominating the design. I think it is often cloudy in Sarajevo, so I would think brighter colors would be better.

A major challenge is: what happens at the ground level? There seems to be enough space for cars at the moment, because Sarajevans do not seem to own as many cars/capita as Western Europeans do. But the space around the base of these towers must be carefully managed into the future to balance open-space and livability needs against economic growth.

Already New Sarajevo is changing dramatically. The two apartment towers on the right, in the distance, were privatley built. And the advertising in the foreground indicates the shift to capitalism by its size, location, and content!

New commercial buildings are also being built in the area between the housing towers and the main boulevard.

This is older housing, closer to the center of the city. It was badly damaged by artillery-fire during the siege, and it has been repaired with brick. By the way, the towers are not leaning; that is caused by the wide-angle lens on my camera.

streets | Sarajevo | houses of faith