Ravenna Westerhout
Explore Lab
Mountainscapes: towards another interpretation of design
Complex locations like Sarajevo and its mountain, its bobsleigh-track, with a particular geological, political, social and cultural history, demand analysis and design approaches that consider the experience on the ground, the lived space, the different layers and meanings of a site.
Through the use of film as a method, I open up possibilities for a new reading of the void, beyond the existing interpretation, a new understanding of the bobsleigh-track as open space. Open space as space for opportunity, imagination, un-programmed and free for uses not yet conceived, accepting changes in the mode of life.
The space is to be shaped by the users. Forms emerge spontaneously as an effect of human activity and are not defined beforehand in its manifestation. Within this open construct, the bobsleigh-track is accessible and interpretable in various ways, thus preserving the void, and positioning it in the larger urban landscape.
More than simply leading to a final representation, this could be used to develop an architectural strategy as a structure in which time has room to breathe, to let aging, growth and even decay unfold.