Actors of Urban Change

To activate the space located in the urban area between the residential buildings of Nugle neighborhood, creating a recreation space by actively involving the citizens to participate in the design and construction process, thus raising the feeling of collective ownership.

Bugojno’s Nugle district was built in the socialist period using a top-down approach. The settlement consists of several residential buildings (about 500 households), and there are several open public areas between the buildings. Certain parts of these public areas are actively used as children’s playgrounds, parking spaces, and just open unused space. The shopping center that was initially planned was never finished, so some areas remain unused.

Privatization and commercialization of public space, lack of citizen participation, and lack of quality public infrastructure are the main challenges facing the municipality of Bugojno and its 34,000 residents. After a difficult period of postwar transition, Bugojno’s current situation in the area of public land management is very precarious and requires immediate action.

Team Bugojno is involving the residents of Nugle in the process of developing project documentation for the landscaping of public spaces located between the buildings of the settlement. Much of this can be done through a bottom-up approach, through workshops with locals to find out what they want and what their needs are.

Through their Actors of Urban Change project, Team Bugojno hopes to activate the space located in the area between the residential buildings of Nugle neighborhood, thus creating a safe, comfortable, pleasant, and enjoyable space for all the residents to use, building a sense of community, improving quality of life and providing a place for people to connect and cooperate in a shared environment.

The team is actively involving the citizens to participate in this process from the early stages of design to the final stages of building construction. Workshops, meetings and consultations would be held in this space through open and participatory dialogue. Based on all collected data from the residents and participants themselves, as well as the recommendations and opinions of experts in the field of architecture and urban planning, and in cooperation with a consulting organization, a detailed project documentation will be created.

“We want to improve the life of people who live in this neighborhood, including their sense of safety. We want the people to want to spend time in the space and to improve the sense of ownership and the shared responsibility for making the spaces we live in better and more comfortable.”

In the long-term, the team wants to influence others to do something similar in their neighborhoods, thus raising awareness of the importance of community engagement in the decision-making process in their cities.