Days of Architecture Sarajevo, in collaboration with ScanLAB Projects (UK) and Project V Architecture (UK/BiH) hosted a three day workshop in Sarajevo.  Curated and led by Project V Architecture and ScanLAB Projects the workshop involved 3D scanning historic sites of occupation and freedom in recent history with ten students of architecture selected by an open call from the former Yugoslavia region.

The theme, sites and narrative were developed by Project V Architecture as a component of their ongoing research project ‘Living Memorials’, which aims to inform public discourse and urban planning around new forms of memorialisation and conservation in Sarajevo.  ScanLAB Projects were invited as world leaders in the field of 3D scanning and supported through British Council's Biennale and Festivals grants scheme. Their work 'digitises the world, transforming temporary moments and spaces into compelling permanent experiences, images and film’ capturing ‘precisely measured, beautifully coloured digital replicas of buildings, landscapes, objects and events.’

The workshop involved architectural investigations of 10 historically contested sites related to The Siege of Sarajevo and its post-war legacy using 3D Scanning technologies.  These new digitalised perspectives of sites in the city could lead to opening up new types of forums for discussing history in Sarajevo. The collaboration, comes at a time of rapid unregulated urban development when Sarajevo struggles to record and preserve its heritage listed buildings, and evidence of war damage and occupation from The Siege, which are under threat of erasure. 

Participating students were given a unique hands-on opportunity to learn cutting edge digital scanning,architectural representation and animation techniques while working on specific sites of investigation.  Over the course of the three days, each student produced a short film that overlays the present day scanned data with iconic historic photographs, contextualising historic imagery into 3D digital space to spatially reconstruct their complex and multilayered histories. These films‘immortalised’each site into the digital world, placing the material evidence of the site into a ‘permanent’ digital realm. 

The workshop also provided a forum within which to present the aesthetic product and discuss its content in relation to the Siege of Sarajevo and the effects of its legacy on post-war memorialisation and the redevelopment of the city.

Concept and curation: Project V Architecture and ScanLAB Projects

Commissioned by: Days of Architecture Sarajevo

Participating students: Iva Carević, Dajana Čolić, Tamara Grujić, Almedina Hamzić, Selma Hasanović, Selma Mahmutović, Adisa Muratović, Kerim Silajdžić, Sofija Stojanoska, Emina Zukić.