A major influence was modernist Le Corbusier and his Athens Charter published in 1943, which called for the total reconstruction of European cities, transforming them into compact and verdant vertical cities unfettered by slumlords, private interests, and traffic congestion. As Yugoslavia transitioned toward self-management and market socialism, the functionalist district of New Belgrade and its modern living were lauded as the model city of socialist man. The glow of the utopian ideal would fade by the 1960s, when market socialism had raised expectations for living standards and the government was eager for inhabitants to finance their own housing. By 1972, a new master plan emerged under Aleksandar Đordevic, fashioned with the assistance of American experts. Espousing current theories about systems and rational process planning and using cutting edge computer technology, the new plan left behind the dream for a functionalist Belgrade and instead focused on managing growth trends.
This book examines Yugoslavia's efforts to build and maintain a relationship with its migrant workers in Western Europe through cultural and educational programs.
The devastation of World War II left the Yugoslavian capital of Belgrade in ruins. Communist Party leader Josip Broz Tito saw this as a golden opportunity to recreate the city through his own vision of socialism. In "Designing Tito s Capital," Brigitte Le Normand analyzes the unprecedented planning process called for by the new leader, and the determination of planners to create an urban environment that would benefit all citizens. Led first by architect Nikola Dobrovic and later by Milo Somborski, planners blended the predominant school of European modernism and the socialist principles of efficient construction and space usage to produce a model for housing, green space, and working environments for the masses. A major influence was modernist Le Corbusier and his "Athens Charter" published in 1943, which called for the total reconstruction of European cities, transforming them into compact and verdant vertical cities unfettered by slumlords, private interests, and traffic congestion. As Yugoslavia transitioned toward self-management and market socialism, the functionalist district of New Belgrade and its modern living were lauded as the model city of socialist man. The glow of the utopian ideal would fade by the 1960s, when market socialism had raised expectations for living standards and the government was eager for inhabitants to finance their own housing. By 1972, a new master plan emerged under Aleksandar Dordevic, fashioned with the assistance of American experts. Espousing current theories about systems and rational process planning and using cutting edge computer technology, the new plan left behind the dream for a functionalist Belgrade and instead focused on managing growth trends. While the public resisted aspects of the new planning approach that seemed contrary to socialist values, it embraced the idea of a decentralized city connected by mass transit. Through extensive archival research and personal interviews with participants in the planning process, Le Normand s comprehensive study documents the evolution of New Belgrade and its adoption and ultimate rejection of modernist principles, while also situating it within larger continental and global contexts of politics, economics, and urban planning.
Using archival and published materials and oral interviews, this dissertation investigates the Yugoslav socialist regime's adoption of the Athens Charter as a model for developing its capital, and the transformation of this project over the next two decades, as it was influenced by changes in state ideology, global trends and the actions of Belgrade's population. Although authorities in devastated cities across Eastern and Western Europe had the opportunity as well as incentive to rebuild their cities in a Modernist style after the Second World War, few opted to stray far from traditional urban forms. In Belgrade, Yugoslavia, urban planners and top policy-makers, seeking to break with the past and modernize society and the economy, formulated the goal of transforming the capital into a Modernist city, based on the principles of the Athens Charter. This vision was encoded in the first post-war Master plan, adopted in 1950, which projected that Belgrade and the neighboring town of Zemun would be joined, and that a new city-center, "New Belgrade" would be built on the plains separating them. Following the break with Stalin and the ensuing ideological transformations, urban-planners re-imagined New Belgrade as a model residential settlement, showcasing Yugoslavia's high standard of living. However, in increasingly emphasizing personal consumption as a means of fuelling the economy, policy-makers weakened their support for a Modernist model founded on collective consumption. Faced with an epidemic of illegal construction of houses by rural migrants, federal and municipal authorities attempted to co-opt builders by creating settlements of family houses, rather than persevering with the construction of collective housing. Ironically, in spite of the egalitarian content of the Athens Charter, in the late 1960s, social scientists and critics began to attack the settlements built on this model as bastions of privilege. They also criticized their aesthetic and social sterility. Urban planners responded to these critics in two ways, advocating a return to small-scale urbanism and local architectural forms, and importing the latest urban planning approaches from the United States. The new Master plan, adopted in 1972, signaled the waning of the Athens Charter as a hegemonic approach.
A major influence was modernist Le Corbusier and his Athens Charter published in 1943, which called for the total reconstruction of European cities, transforming them into compact and verdant vertical cities unfettered by slumlords, private interests, and traffic congestion. As Yugoslavia transitioned toward self-management and market socialism, the functionalist district of New Belgrade and its modern living were lauded as the model city of socialist man. The glow of the utopian ideal would fade by the 1960s, when market socialism had raised expectations for living standards and the government was eager for inhabitants to finance their own housing. By 1972, a new master plan emerged under Aleksandar Đordevic, fashioned with the assistance of American experts. Espousing current theories about systems and rational process planning and using cutting edge computer technology, the new plan left behind the dream for a functionalist Belgrade and instead focused on managing growth trends.
This book examines Yugoslavia's efforts to build and maintain a relationship with its migrant workers in Western Europe through cultural and educational programs.
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