Architecture of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The most beautiful and well preserved are: Sarajevo, Srebrenik, Blagaj, Jajce, Travnik, Tešanj, Počitelj, Doboj, Vranduk, Bobovac, Stolac, Maglaj, Gradačac, Ljubuški, Sokol, Ključ, Bihać, Bosanska Krupa, Oštrovica, Velika Kladuša, Višegrad, and Zvornik.
They addressed the need to develop urban areas and cities, bringing imperial Islamic architecture to the region, partly mixed with local customs (one of them being the use of squinches instead of triangular pendentives found in Turkey).
[2] Juraj Neidhardt, another theoretician, described a typical Bosnian city in one of his books as follows:[3] What is the charm of the Orient that starts in Sarajevo and that Westerners can't resist?
All roofs and doors of these houses are almost the same, we could call them homes for anyone, all of them [houses] in the human scale, all almost grown out of the land, all the decoration brought from their construction and structure - architecture built of the natural and the local.Hence foundations were built out of stone, ground floor out of clay, unburnt brick and wooden ties, first floor out of wooden frame and roof almost always out of wood.
[7] Organizationally, a typical Bosnian residence from the 17th century consisted of five main elements: a fence that faced and defined the street and clearly differentiated private from public, a courtyard usually built of pebble or flat stone pattern for easier maintenance, an outdoor fountain (Šadrvan) for hygienic purposes, a lower level "semi-public" private space called the Hajat where the family would gather, and the Divanhan, an upper-level semi-private/private space used for relaxation and enjoyment.
In 1878 Bosnia and Herzegovina fell under Austro-Hungarian rule which in 40 years had an immense influence in future urban planning and architecture.
The aim was to promote Bosnian national identity while avoiding its association with either the Ottoman Empire or the growing pan-Slavic movement by creating an "Islamic architecture of European fantasy".
This caused immigration of skilled labor from Central Europe that further doubled and diversified the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina which in the turn stimulated the economy.
The post office in Sarajevo for example follows distinct formal characteristics of design like clarity of form, symmetry, and proportion while the interior followed the same doctrine.
The National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo is an example of Orientalist architectural language using Moorish-Mamluk decoration and pointed arches while still integrating other formal elements into the design.
During its reign, the Austro-Hungarian authorities sought to impose and build architecture of European styles in Bosnia and Herzegovina and thus to show the meaning of their mission in the occupied country.
Confronted with the multinational population structure in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the government realized that it was necessary to have a political ear when choosing one of the historical styles.
[11] Bosnia and Herzegovina joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918, whose official architecture became more and more dictated by an increasingly concentrated national authority which sought to establish a unified state identity.
Reuf Kadić's main work, 1939 House Kopčić, reinterprets traditional elements (courtyard, facade erkers, eaves, hipped roof) in line with new modern conceptions.
[18][19] Within the limits imposed by the socio-economic conditions, the Vakuf institution had become a powerful investor, and thanks to these architects, Vakuf buildings are usually utilitarian and constructivist in concept: Juraj Neidhardt came to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1937 from Le Corbusier's studio, and together with the theorist of architecture Dušan Grabrijan he worked on the synthesis of the universal and the local.
His most notable achievements were the Philosophy Faculty Building (1955–59), the Institute of Physics and Chemistry (1959–1964) and the urban planning for the Marindvor Center.
Immediately following the Second World War, Yugoslavia's brief association with the Eastern Bloc ushered in a short period of socialist realism.
In the following years, modernist architecture came to symbolize the nation's break from the USSR (a notion that later diminished with growing acceptability of modernism in the Eastern Bloc).
Architects increasingly focused on building with reference to the architectural heritage of their individual socialist republics in the form of critical regionalism.
[27] Political currents in Yugoslavia favored industrialization that required an emphasis on development of public housing to serve migration of population from rural to urban areas.
There was insufficiency of infrastructure, electricity, water and central heating to sustain new public housing development due to poor planning while residential skyscrapers inappropriately intermingled with existing architectural context.
It is the duplex residential house where one follows the oriental architectural vocabulary while the other has rather western European philosophy of the façade organization while they share a common entrance.
The UNIS Twin Towers, designed by architect Ivan Straus, were almost totally destroyed in the war, but have been renovated completely.
The new owners of the Holiday Inn Hotel in Sarajevo, also designed by architect Ivan Straus, announced that as of 2005[update] they will start construction on a new 22 story tower.
It's located in Marin Dvor, Sarajevo's business district which has recently been totally renovated with the plans for the Unitic 3 and Grand Media Center.
[29] The Bosnian Parliament building (from architect Juraj Neidhart) is under re-construction, and the Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo's Marin Dvor area is totally renovated.
