Between Ruin and Revival
Lejla Duran is an architect and researcher whose work explores the relation between architecture, culture and community. Born in the Netherlands, to Bosnian parents who fled the war, she grew up between two countries and cultural contexts. In 2005 her family returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Sarajevo she obtained her Bachelor's degree in Architecture, but with the ambition to continue her education internationally, she returned to the Netherlands to pursue a Master's degree in Architecture. Growing up between Bosnia and the Netherlands has shaped her perspective on architecture as more than the design of buildings, but in how spaces contribute to identity, belonging and social cohesion. In all her student projects but also at her work, people have a central role. During her youth in Sarajevo, she was actively involved in local cultural centres, where she attended various classes. When several of these centres gradually disappeared, she became increasingly aware of their social importance and of the fragility of public cultural infrastructure. This personal experience formed the basis of her graduation project, Dom Kulture Dobrinja, in which she researched the significance of the Ex-Yu Houses of Culture and proposed a new interpretation. Through fieldwork, archival research and interviews, she explored how the function and philosophy of the Houses of Culture could be applied to the community nowadays and form a setting for the future. Her current research, Between Ruin and Revival, expands this work from an architectural project to an international research initiative. By combining architectural history, community engagement and present-day cultural policy, she investigates how cultural centres can once again become places that adapt to the needs of the contemporary era and local population. Through this work, she aims to connect the architectural legacy of BiH with current European debates on neighbourhood-based cultural infrastructure and community resilience.
The project investigates what Houses of Culture and cultural centres can mean for communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina today. Many of these buildings were once central places for cultural emancipation, education, and social exchange. Following the collapse of Yugoslavia, many centres disappeared, changed functions or became commercialised. The original network was never replaced by a coherent contemporary model. The research will document the remaining buildings, their former and current uses, the memories connected to them and the needs of present-day communities. The aim is not to recreate the Yugoslav system, but to understand which spatial, social and educational principles remain valuable today and how they could inform a renewed cultural strategy for Sarajevo and, eventually, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The research also aims to develop practical guidance for those buildings that will help municipalities, local communities and cultural organisations protect the cultural and social function of these buildings and prevent their gradual commercialisation. It will combine architectural documentation, interviews, discussions with municipalities and comparative examples from other contexts. It will also offer adaptable tools, checklists and recommendations for both large municipal centres and small neighbourhood facilities. Its aim is to help each centre remain accessible and culturally meaningful, while becoming financially and operationally sustainable and flexible (in function and materialization) for the future. The guidance should demonstrate that cultural centres are essential public infrastructure for education, participation and community life, while involving residents in programming. The research asks how these buildings can once again support a complete educational and social environment—one in which family, institutional and diffuse education reinforce one another, and in which culture is understood not as a luxury, but as an essential public resource.