Next Madrasa: Neighborhood of Active Knowledge: Urbanization/ Digitalization/ Ecologization

Abstract

Whilst cities contribute to the highest CO2 footprints, they also hold the potential to most effectively bend the carbon curve and take Climate Action in achieving the UN`S Sustainable Development Goals. Moving towards decarbonized ways of living and `Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe and resilient (SDG 11) will require behavioral and systems change in all sectors of life. Access to quality education (SDG 4), co-creating evolving frameworks for life-long learning, building capacity for transformative processes, strengthening and building new circular economies, making use of digital and analog tools, as well as how easy it is to access services in the city, are the foundation to design and maintain sustainable urban futures. Sarajevo`s many self-constructed hillside neighborhoods, are geographically close to the valley but display; due to a lack of services, social functions, and economic opportunities, characteristics of disconnected peripheral peri-urban living. The old Mahalas were centered around a mosque, and social building blocks such as the pekara (bakery), the kafana (coffee house), and the mekteb (school of theology) with strict building codes rooted in the cultural practices of communal living on the hill defining small centralities. The erosion of Sarajevo`s urban matrix, with a clear separation of living quarters, as well as hierarchies of connecting streets and business zones in the valley, are the result of Sarajevo`s transitions to European lifestyle over time, ethnic conflict, and the tumultuous past. The emergence of the `Socialist Mahala` 3), as ever sprawling ad-hoc construction of individual homes into the steep natural environment, lack legibility, public spaces, basic infrastructure, and easy access to the richness of socially and culturally infused life in the valley. Climate, seasonal and socio-economic challenges are exacerbated, challenging livelihood security, life expectancy, and good quality of life. The city of Sarajevo is now on a path to extend integrated mobility systems and social services to its hillside neighborhoods. This could reduce the adverse environmental impact of informal dwellings, particularly in terms of air quality, waste management, and landslide risk. In the frame of co-creating new systems of repair, care, the resourceful use of and innovation, Sarajevo has the potential re-imagine and re-build its Mahala`s as innovative spaces of sustainable living, participative learning, knowledge transfer, and economic development, aiding social cohesion and inclusion.