Hastahana Park is located at the crossroads of cultures and historical periods. Between the modern and historic Sarajevo, on top of the cultural layers of Ottomans and Habsburgs. It is especially important to recognize this transitional character of the site and address it.
The new park aspires to provide a place for everyone, a place for uniting and strengthening the local communities, and a place to celebrate their unique identity. Our team has carefully examined the results of Urban Lab’s analysis and stakeholder meeting to achieve a space that truly belongs to all.
Functions
The name of the park is Hastahana, which means a hospital in Turkish. The site hosted a healing function for a long period. To reflect this healing meaning of the park, our team divided the site into three parts: community zone, sports zone, and nature-contemplation zones. Each of them also has its trinity of functions. For instance, the sports zone is assembled by a skatepark, basketball court, and obstacle course/workout area. While the natural zone has an urban garden, contemplation zone, and a lawn for more
Identity
The modular and flexible furniture and canopies are inspired by the idea of three cultures and the symbolic meaning of the triangle for the country. Some of the canopies and furniture also reflect national patterns and colors. The palette is most vivid in the middle part of the park, reflecting the dynamism of sports. It is represented in the community area as well. However, for the natural zone, the color palette remains predominantly white or natural, so people could transition to a meditative state of mind.
There are walls left from the old Ottoman hospital in some parts of the park, that are proposed for keeping and used as seating (current use). It will serve as a spatial artifact and let people recall the history too to connect the present with the past. While keeping most of the existing functions, we also re-introduce the chess playground, which has been abandoned.
Greenery
The proposal saves all existing trees and densifies plantation rows on the west to provide more shade. Moreover, there are community and urban gardens, and orchards located on the west part of the site. Rain gardens and drainage systems will help to manage water levels. We also integrate greenery into the architectural elements.
Materiality
Regionally, Bosnia and Herzegovina are known as processed wood and furniture exporter. Our team proposes to use this as an advantage for creating a sustainable park: the furniture and architectural elements, and part of the flooring will be made of processed and treated wood.
Outdoor Lighting
Appropriate lighting levels are important for providing comfort for pedestrians and neighborhood inhabitants, both humans and animals. The lighting scale is larger for the sports activities area while declining closer to the calmer areas. The light temperature is also important, we propose using metal halide’s white light, as it is better for pedestrians’ visual comfort. Highlighting the canopies, some of the trees (for instance, the Mosque alley) are important to create visual interest.
Urban Heat Islands
Heat Islands happen in places where there is a disproportionately large amount of paved surfaces with low reflectivity levels. Therefore, we propose light-colored pavement to reflect the sunlight, as well as furniture that is brightly colored. Where possible, green areas are densified to shade the paved areas, For instance, both the sports area and the amphitheater have trees planted on the western side, where the solar radiation is highest.
Visual Coherence
A sense of unity is created by the use of color palettes and materials throughout the park. The same canopy structure and seating furniture models are repeated as well, in all parts of the park, creating visual clues.
