Understanding City Growth _ Boulevard-s. A vision for Blocks 61-64
The accelerated growth of the city caused by a large population influx as a result of political and social changes in the last thirty years has led to major changes in the urban fabric of Belgrade. Citizens of the capital city often talk about the threatened identity of the city, problems in functioning, inadequate infrastructure, pollution. In contrast, there are unquestionable qualities, 7000 years of uninterrupted urban history, the position at the confluence of two large navigable rivers, the overlap of numerous cultural influences, but also countless demolitions and rebuilding as a consequence of life on the limes, turbulent history and war destruction that repeats itself every 40 -50 years. The urban identity of Belgrade is formed by buildings, objects and interspaces created in all historical periods. Cultivating the spirit of a place means recognizing and marking significant memory and material layers of the city.
What today makes Belgrade recognizable on the urban map of Europe is precisely the material testimony of a long continuity of existence through fragments of preserved traces and with the culmination of the inter-war and post-war period of modernism. We invited LINA fellows, young emerging creatives, to Belgrade to give an insight into the development potential of Belgrade from their perspective through various media. This year, the focus is on New Belgrade, more precisely the Bežanija settlement/village and opposed brutalist mega structure of Bežanije blocks 61, 62 and 63. This border territory in permanent transformation, at the meeting point of the rural environment and the structure of mega blocks, is a great challenge for urban planners and architects. The first part of the Understanding City Growth, as part of the 2024 LINA Architecture Programme, the residency period, was dedicated to the research, meetings and workshops. During their stay, LINA fellows, in addition to the opportunity to get to know each other and exchange experiences, achieved cooperation with representatives of various institutions and organizations, local residents and representatives of different generations. The later period, upon their return, was dedicated to analyzing and defining the proposal. The last one was the joint exhibition “Understanding City Growth” during the BINA 2024 festival, organized in the BINA pavilion. For the occasion of the exhibition all fellows gathered again in Belgrade to present their proposals that would contribute to improving the situation and quality of life in the neighborhood, preserving the identity of the place and transformations in accordance with the requirements of modern life and the needs of the residents.
Having in front of us the results of the work of all six LINA fellows teams, it can be concluded that by applying different methodologies, in a certain sense, they all came to similar conclusions. The first obvious fact is that even after almost half a century since the construction of the new housing blocks, there is a clear division between the old rural matrix of the village of Bežanija and these structures of Blocks 61-64. These very different, but very close residential areas largely function separately and without insight into the history of some and the specifics of others. The second conclusion is that since the creation of urban plans relating to the entire territory and since the construction of blocks, there have been significant changes in political and social system, lifestyle and standards and that it is necessary to rethink the situation on the ground and make certain changes that would contribute to the quality of life of citizens.The identity and order of the old matrix of the Vojvodina settlement Bežanija, as the oldest settlement on the territory of New Belgrade, is threatened, and the memory of the place is also suppressed. However, within the settlement itself there are oases of common life and self-organization of residents who are fighting for the survival of their community. It is precisely these values, in the opinion of LINA fellows, that should be preserved and for the purpose of which the community should be strengthened and support provided by the system, through local authorities and institutions for the protection of monuments, culture and education.
On the other hand, when analyzing the blocks created in the period of the 70s of the last century, and which are still being extended, LINA fellows conclude that despite the former planned construction, the passage of time, changes in lifestyle, but also often insufficient maintenance or inadequate use of space, clearly indicates the need to first of all rethink and adapt public spaces to new conditions, habits, but also to global phenomena such as climate change, which dictate different needs of residents. When studying the assigned territory, LINA fellows also recognize positive models of appropriation and spontaneous use of public space by citizens such as spaces for gathering and socializing, bocce ball court, etc.
All these insights, created during a short residential stay, once again confirm how useful exactly this kind of transdisciplinary analysis, contact with the local community and citizens are, as a preparation for further planning and corrections in order to improve the current situation on the ground. A discussion with local urban planners organized during the opening of the exhibition: Božana Lukić (Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure), Žaklina Gligorijević (Society of Female Architects) and Ana Graovac (New Planning Practice) confirmed this position and indicated the need for precisely this type of analysis and preliminary work that would largely contributed to the quality of urban plans but for which there is often no will due to financial, but also circumstances dictated by the market, investors demands and politics.
Collaboration with LINA fellow Giulio Galasso (Italy)
Boulevard-s. A vision for Blocks 61-64
The wide boulevard that runs through the heart of Blocks 61-64 is burning during summer. Originally designed during the socialist era in Yugoslavia, this grand residential scheme was distinguished by its extensive outdoor areas, with each linear residential building enjoying access to both an adjacent linear courtyard and the communal boulevard. Although the residential buildings were completed as planned, a proposed linear community center along the boulevard never materialized, resulting in a neighborhood with a predominantly residential character.
Following the end of socialism, the boulevard saw a disorderly emergence of commercial ventures, including shopping malls, restaurants, and gambling houses, which occupied public land without adherence to a unified master plan. This period of deregulated growth also saw a significant increase in vehicle ownership among residents, leading to the conversion of large sections of the boulevard into parking spaces – which despite their abundance are still always full.
This unchecked expansion, although improving the residents' comfort and decreasing their dependency on the city center, has led to several negative consequences: extensive surfaces have been asphalted, exacerbating the overheating problem during the summer months, and many grassy spaces have been neglected due to the challenges associated with managing such large areas. As a result, a substantial portion of the outdoor area has become underutilized by the community.
This team introduce a vision to reconfigure the boulevard and its surrounding spaces to mitigate these challenges, enhancing their usability during the hottest months and allowing for the densification of services. Central to this plan is the redesign of the outdoor environment to feature several boulevards running parallel to the linear residential units, instead of a solitary, extensive boulevard in the middle. Commercial and parking facilities will be strategically repositioned along these new boulevards, scaling down the outdoor areas to a more relatable dimension and revitalizing areas that are currently underused.
The new parallel boulevards will serve as green arteries linking the Bežanija Forest with the River Sava, interspersed with trees and buildings that provide ample shade, thereby serving as reservoirs of cool air in summer. This approach will not only improve the microclimate but also render public spaces more inviting and compelling for the inhabitants, spurring them to actively participate in their maintenance. Similarly, commercial entities situated along the new boulevards will be encouraged to care for the neighboring outdoor zones, promoting a unified commitment to the stewardship of these spaces.
In addition to participating in the LINA program, Giulio Galasso and Natalia Voroshilova also participated in the central program format of BINA 2024 under the title "Echoes of Modernism". They gave a lecture "Grand- Ensemble-Dörfli/Garden City Neighborhoods in Zurich 1943-57" about the garden cities that were built by cooperatives in Zurich in the 1940s and 1950s, and are hybrids of the modernist Siedlungen style and the local typology houses: a naive response to the social and technological transformation that was taking place in Europe. This lecture, within the framework of the exhibition "Vila Prendić - new view, new duration", provided an insight and enabled a comparison of the two versions of the urban concept of the garden city created in the period 1926-1941. in Belgrade and a little bit later in Zurich.
