What does collective planning, designing, and building really mean? When implementing new urban projects, architects face the challenge of visualizing planned changes for citizens. While diagrams, drawings, and renderings are standard, they often fail to communicate the physical reality of a project. The Urban Transformation Project Sarajevo (UTPS) addresses this by testing the Swiss Bauprofile in Sarajevo.
The Swiss Bauprofile as a Tool for Democracy
The Swiss Bauprofile are everyday objects for many living in Switzerland, though they may appear alien to those from abroad. These temporary, thin, vertical structures are used to mark the exact position and height of a planned building before construction begins. The UTPS was inspired by this typical Swiss phenomenon.
Since the work of the Chair of Architecture and Urban Design operates at the intersection of urban design, policymaking, and habitat-building, the Bauprofile in Sarajevo represents more than a 1:1 visualization. Unlike the ones in Switzerland, citizens themselves built the structures and chose their height, location, and distribution. They function as a grassroots democratic tool intended to strengthen civic participation in urban planning decisions. By indicating the planned volume on-site, they allow for transparent communication between the project and the public, building urban imaginaries for the city.
Building Collectively
The project supports the modernization of urban planning in the Canton of Sarajevo. In collaboration with the Sarajevo Canton Institute of Development and Planning and the Municipality of Novo Sarajevo, it proposes a future large-scale Urban Plan for Sarajevo. Part of that plan is the Urban Climate Corridor, a transversal infrastructure system designed to connect the valley with remote hillside settlements.
A specific component of this proposal is a small-scale intervention intended to serve as the catalyst project for the Urban Climate Corridor, representing innovation and a new approach to materiality in Sarajevo. In June 2025, architecture students from the University of Sarajevo and citizen, working alongside the UTPS team, constructed the first Bosnian Bauprofile to test the size and site of the intervention and to gauge public reaction before permanent construction is set to begin (expected late summer 2026).
The workshop was a collaboration with the University of Sarajevo Faculty of Architecture (Nedim Mutevelic, Adnan Pasic, and Senka Ibrisimbegovic), the Faculty of Agriculture, and the Ars Aevi Museum of Contemporary Art. Since then, the Bauprofile have been included in the Ars Aevi Museum of Contemporary Art collection as a transnational public art project.
Through the act of building together, the attendees created the tools for participatory processes. The project translates architectural theory into collective practice, marking a shift toward more inclusive urban development in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Collective construction process of the Bauprofile opening the campus to the City © ETH Zürich, chair Hubert Klumpner, Hannah Szechenyi, Dr. Michael Walczak
Dr. Michael Walczak graduated in 2021 from the University of Applied Arts Vienna. In his work, he has bridged with the ETH Zurich Institutes Klumpner Chair of Architecture and Urban Design, Laboratory for Energy Conversion, and the ISTP Urbanization Research Incubator. His doctoral dissertation, «Digital Urban Imaginaries: Digital models transforming citizen-centred design processes,» resulted in the co-development of the commercialised software Enerpol for large-scale urban simulations. Michael Walczak is currently a postdoctoral researcher leading the Urban Transformation Project Sarajevo and is co-directing urbanthinktank_next in Vienna and Sarajevo.
Hannah Szechenyi is an architect and researcher focusing on urban and rural development, architecture, and the visual representation of information. In 2022, she graduated from the University of Innsbruck; her Master’s thesis, „Sanftes Siedeln in erschöpften Landschaften„, explores how architectural work integrates sustainability and social responsibility through community involvement. As a recipient of the Curator in Residence Fellowship Sarajevo 2024 (awarded by the Tyrolean Provincial Government and the BMEIA), she investigated the role of social acceptance in architectural identity through her project, „BOB“ Since 2025, she has served as a Scientific Research Assistant for the Urban Transformation Project Sarajevo (UTPS).
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