In a post conflict zone, restoration of monuments is not only a scientific or technical matter but also a highly symbolic and emotional act of reclaiming culture, identity and urban form. In Bosnia and Herzegovina minarets are shaped by local building traditions and materials, influenced by the ottoman classical minaret format. Most of the prominent mosques have stone minarets, especially in regions abundant with suitable stone and craftsmanship. Wooden minarets were usually built alongside local neighbourhood mosques and they defined city image due to their frequent occurrence in most parts of the urban core. Restoration of these two types of minarets is significantly different mainly due to the nature of the material itself. Interventions on stone minarets were carried out through reconstruction and re-composition of elements, based on documentation about the structure. Stone remains were actually the prime source of information for geometry and breadth of the minaret body and for the complex structural considerations – mainly how to counteract the tension forces. Restoration of wooden minarets had its own challenges, due to the fact that after a major destruction its parts could not be reused and there was less available documentation about the original state. The paper will consider different parameters and make a comparative analysis on both typologies, from materials, structure, aspects of intervention and their subsequent role in restoring the historic urban landscape.

The Historical Museum, originally built as the Museum of Revolution in 1963, is an abstract modernist building; a stone-clad lapidary volume placed upon a transparent ground floor creates a strikingly simple and dramatic geometric and material contrast in the best manner of minimalism. The architects influenced by ‘less is more’ created an audacious building in architectural, material and structural scheme. In structural design and building physics less is, in most cases, simply less, and structural and surface/material deterioration is very visible on the building. This also affects the functionality of the entire building that needs to consume enormous amounts of energy (for cooling and heating), threatening an ever fragile budget of the institution of the museum. Due to its architectural values and cultural significance, the building is protected by law, as a national monument. Interventions must be performed to not only improve the conditions of the building but also maintain its original character and authenticity. A project for restoration of this building is emerging and proving to be even more challenging than initial estimates, especially for the structural aspects of the building that are far from current and needed dimensioning or fire protection codes, which is the case of many buildings from this era. The article will outline the proposals (part of the work is in implementation) and approach for restoration of several elements: structure, insulation, roof light, stone cladding and transparent façades. One of the most prominent features of the structure is the skeletal structure based on slender steel, +-shaped columns and hidden concrete grid beam system locked within thin slabs. This presents a challenging task for us – structural engineers and architects – to work in the domain of the hidden, the invisible in order to maintain the building’s original ethereal appearance.