Codeless Sarajevo : Effects of the absence of a building code on building permit procedure in Sarajevo Canton

Abstract

In most European countries, spatial and land-use planning documentation (formal and informal) and building codes complement each other. The city of Sarajevo, however, has not had a building code over the last eight decades. The author, with many years of professional experience as a planner in Sarajevo, shows how this has affected the spatial planning system in all its segments, including through a weak building permission procedure. She compares Sarajevo’s legal framework to the planning systems and building regulations of Slovenia, Vienna, Zurich, and Paris. Arguing that a building code is an inseparable part of land-use management and land-use planning implementation system as well as of sustainable, effective urban politics, the author proposes a model for a new building code and a comprehensive planning system for the Canton of Sarajevo. With implications for spatial planning beyond Bosnia and Herzegovina, the book is highly relevant for planning policy and administration, but also for the scientific community: It addresses spatial and urban planners, jurists, architects, sociologists, and historians of architecture in Continental and South-East Europe.