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Distributed for Park Books

Mortal Cities and Forgotten Monuments

With Contributions by Arna Mačkić, Bogdan Bogdanović, Chris Keulemans, Thomas A.P. van Leeuwen, and Rosa te Velde

Distributed for Park Books

Mortal Cities and Forgotten Monuments

With Contributions by Arna Mačkić, Bogdan Bogdanović, Chris Keulemans, Thomas A.P. van Leeuwen, and Rosa te Velde
As a child, architect Arna Mačkić experienced firsthand the Bosnian civil war, and with her family she fled her native country for the Netherlands. In 1999, she was able to visit bosnia and the city of Mostar again for the first time to witness the utter devastation—the war had left seventy percent of the buildings destroyed. This experience inspired Mačkić’s research to explore the emotional effects of war damage on a city’s inhabitants and the possibilities for rebuilding collective and inclusive identities through architecture.

Mortal Cities and Forgotten Monuments tells a moving story of architecture and history. The first two parts of the book provide historical background on the war in Bosnia and its relationship to the built environment of the region. The final section demonstrates Mačkić’s ideas for architectural interventions, applying a new design language that goes beyond political religious, or cultural interpretations—an openness that allows it avoid tensions and claims of truth without ignoring or denying the past. Using this as a foundation, she proposes designs for urban and public space that are simultaneously rooted in ancient traditions while looking toward the future.
 

160 pages | 31 color plates, 123 halftones | 7 x 9 | © 2016

Architecture: European Architecture


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Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction by Chris Keulemans
The conqueror, the conquered, and the indestructible joy of life
The unwritten rules of the urban environment
Mostar and its heavenly rainbow
Mostar’s empty stare; 1566-1966-2016
Grad mojih prijatelja (The city of my friends)
By Bogdan Bogdanović
Invisible ruins
By Thomas A.P. van Leeuwen
The irreversible disappearance of a city
The art of reading the city
The art of writing the city
Jump
From Mostar to Amsterdam, Beirut, and Stockholm
By Rosa te Velde
Epilogue


 

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