New Belgrade: from abstract to personal

Resumen

The paper forms part of the author’s PhD research, carried out between 2001 and 2006 at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia Barcelona, titled “Architecture, Ideology and representation. Analysis of projects for New Belgrade 1947-1959”. It addresses the issue of the role of the architectural project in the context of changing ideologies as a means of understanding of complex relations between architecture, dominant discourse, structures of power and the social consequences of the large scale urban interventions. The research focuses on different phases of development of the central and initially most representative part of New Belgrade, the intended new capital of the freshly created Socialist Yugoslavia, concluding with the changes of the early 2000 that had put into focus the values of the new town as well as the weaknesses of the modernist concept in the socialist context that has been it’s original base. As means of conclusion, the text recalls the theories of Lefebvre and Lynch that stress the importance of the re-appropriation of the architecture and urban spaces by its users, as well as the importance of social consensus in projects that involve meaningful urban zones.