we are new belgrade (2013) by luka kreze

8/13/2019 We Are New Belgrade (2013) by Luka Kreze

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We Are New Belgrade

Dissertation by Luka Kreze

# w1129281

Dissertation Tutor: Dr. John Bold

Photos in colour by Luka Kreze

London, January 2013

University of Westminster School Of Architecture and the Built Environment

Module Number: 4ARC740



Superblocks of New Belgrade on Jurija Gagarina Street



New Belgrade urban landscape as viewed from the rooftop of one of the skyscrapers



This dissertation focuses on the city of New Belgrade in Serbia,

its architecture, and most importantly, its people. I was three

years old in 1991 when Yugoslavia broke up, too young to re-

member living under socialism, and much too young to remem-

ber the spirit of that time. But yet still, throughout my life it

seems that this spirit has somehow lingered on within my ownenvironment long after the socialist state of mind had disap-

peared. It is the architecture that has become one of the rare

remaining traces of the former country and a mesmerizing testi-

mony to almost forty years of socialism. The architecture of New

Belgrade has inspired many of the post war cities in the former

Yugoslavia, among which are many cities in my home country

of Slovenia. Hence one of the reasons why I decided to proceed

with this subject must be my desire to re-establish a connection with the environment I grew up in and discover its background,

but the main motive most certainly lies in the fact that, apart

from some standard statistical analyses, there has been little

investigation into the quality of life within the neighbourhoods

of New Belgrade.

In its three chapters this dissertation constantly puts the people

of New Belgrade and their opinions in the spotlight instead ofthe numbers and the statistics. And for this reason during the

summer of 2012 I travelled to Belgrade as well as Zagreb and

Ljubljana several times with the simple goal of having as much

one-to-one contact with the people of this cities as possible. Sev-

eral interviews were conducted, which allowed me to draw con-

clusions about the experience of living within the socialist city

from the personal testimonies of inhabitants, and not just from

the theoretical background. New Belgrade today is perhaps only

a modern district of Belgrade, however from its history it was

bound to become much more than that.

For this reason the rst chapter attempts to reveal the story

behind New Belgrade and its buildings, its theory and science,

stories behind its construction, and its politics. It also describes

the unfullled dream of the socialist party to create a modern

new capital for the newly born Yugoslavia, a city built on a tabula

rasa of a former swamp. By going through a series of master

plans, Chapter One briey focuses on the planning principlesbehind the city which were during the initial stages marked by a

constant battle between Stalinist xation on monumentality and

Le Corbusian functionality, whilst in the later stages they were

inuenced predominantly by a rather unique application of the

Athens Charter principles. Testimonies of people who lived in

New Belgrade in the years of its slow construction reveal their

experiences of life in a city where the urban bre was practi-

cally nonexistent and where distances between settlements wereenormous, whilst the vast open areas in between were covered

in dust. The interviews not only describe how people coped with

alienation but also with some other aws such as lack of trans -

port connections and the underprovision of any kind of ameni-

ties, schools, leisure facilities, and more.

Chapter Two focuses on life in New Belgrade after the construc-

tion ceased, however, it distances itself from historical facts and

sets as its focal point the dialogue between the city and its users.The chapter identies the elements of the Athens Charter in

relation to New Belgrade and uses them not only as a frame-

work, but also as a point of comparison between theory and the

state of reality, as acquired through residents’ testimonies. In-

terviews reveal the perception of the New Belgrade urban land-

scape through the eyes of its dwellers, their fascination with its

openness, yet rejection of its visual and material qualities. They

also focus on the absence of amenities as one of the greatestaws of this city ever since its conception, which very much lim-

ited social life to the private sphere. This chapter compares the

reality of the situation in New Belgrade to Le Corbusier’s ideals

as described in the Athens Charter.

Chapter Three attempts to reveal the reasons why people are

so drawn to a city that clearly fails in so many ways, and deals

with the spiritual experience of New Belgrade’s architecture.

The question arising in Chapter Three is: why does identication

with a place occur and what is necessary in order for a sense of

belonging to develop? In addition the effect of the urban lifestyle

and individuality on spirit of togetherness is observed in com-

parison with socialist times. Towards the end the last chapter

the inuence of nature is examined in relation to the sense of

belonging.

This dissertation through its three chapters attempts to present

three crucial aspects in relation to the city of New Belgrade, itshistory, physical reality, and the reasons for the emotional con-

nection of the people of New Belgrade to both.

5



Abstract

Table Of Contents

Chapter One: History, Theory and Politics Behind Planning of New Belgrade

Chapter Two: The Physical Realm

Chapter Three: The Sense of Belonging

Conclusion

Bibliography

Appendix: Interviews

Interview 1

Interview 2

Interview 3

Interview 4

Interview 5

Interview 6

Interview 7

Acknowledgements

5

7

11

25

61

81

91

97

98

102

105

106

108

110

113

116

Contents

1



Construction on one of many empty blocks of New Belgrade



Chapter One

History, Theory and Politics Behind the Planning of New Belgrade



Buildings of New Belgrade during the years of construction surrounded by vast empty areas



“This grand, stunning city, and the life within it, will notonly pave the way, but will be reminiscent of Sun shineclear and bright over the nations of Yugoslavia, the Bal-kans and rest of Europe. It’s strength will be apparentfrom great distances, just as the powerful voice of this

very Communist Party can be heard from far away… Andso our battle is more than justied and noble, as we areghting to give joy and happiness to our working masses,

while providing the strength and power to our new-bornrepublic”

Vlado Zečević, Secretary of Built Environment of Socialist Federative Re -

public of Yugoslavia, 1948

New Belgrade is a city conceived on grand ideas that were

never brought to life. It is a city designed with a clear vision

that has, through the years, been moulded and shaped to t the

ever-changing social, political and economic paradigms. It is a

place of contradictions, transformations and irony, which has,

in a way, resulted in a fairly unique example of inconsistency

in design and has become a “fascinating landscape testimony

to changing concepts and practices in urban design and urban

policy over the last 60 years.” (Waley, 2011, p209)

The modern city of New Belgrade is located on a historically

crucial site. The former swamp area at the conuence of the Riv -

ers Danube and Sava was, from the mid 18th century until the

First World War and with the emergence of monarchy, a border

between the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires.

The vast empty land was for decades seen as an attractive site

for the expansion of Belgrade, especially during and between the

world wars. At that time several relatively diverse master plans

were suggested, ranging from rather traditionalistic planning

suggestions and garden city examples, to the predominantly

modernist planning of the late 1930’s.

Most of these master plans focused primarily on monumentality

as the main point of concern, however, apart from the erection ofmodernist pavilions for the Belgrade Fairground, there is no evi-

dence of habitation on this very site prior to the post-war period.

In one of the interviews Bogdan, who has lived in Belgrade his

entire life, remembers: “In 1938 the fairground was built in

the middle of an empty area next to the old Sava Bridge, today

Branko’s Bridge in New Belgrade. This was a place where the

most important innovations of that time were presented, even

television. This fairground was seen as a place where peoplefrom the East and the West would meet, exchange information,

contacts and make new friendships, the centre of Europe in a

way. So I can see how this through time could evolve into a capi-

tal, which is one of the most important European centres.” (In-

terview 2)

The Second World War and its consequences, however, resulted

in a change of socio-political concepts, which inuenced every -day life in the Balkans for decades to come. New values and new

order were the results of the transition from a monarchy to a

republic and, more importantly, from capitalism to socialism.

This political and economic shift was accompanied by certain

much more tangible and realistic consequences of the war. It

was under these post war conditions and its housing crisis that

the long lasting idea of a new city was eventually realised. In

fact, all the ingredients were there for the dream to become real-

ity. The unlimited amount of land, with no previous record of

habitation was more than a perfect foundation for a city built on

a blank slate – a city, which would not only erase the memories

of the capitalist past, but also represent an “important symboli-

cal window to the socialist future of international signicance.”

(Blagojević, 2005, p3)

Over the years to come the planning of New Belgrade was con-

stantly driven by the notion of centralisation: “Unlike Petržalka,New Belgrade was not intended to be a residential district and

unlike Nowa Huta, industry was not its Raison-d’etre” (Waley

20011, p210)

The new capital of six republics, built on a land that belonged to

no historical city, would be the nation’s new economic and cul-

tural hub and the centre of political power for the new socialist

republic. Although the propaganda behind the planning of thecity might have seemed somewhat demagogic, the stories of the

people who actually experienced the years of planning are rather

13



Emptiness during the years of construction



Master plans by Nikola Dobrovic from 1946 (left) and Branko Petricic from 1957 (right)



National Assembly Building during construction



Jugoslavia” started in 1948, while Nikola Dobrović’s plan was

succeeded by an even more orthogonal plan by Vido Vidović In

the same year construction of housing began according to the

plans of the same architect. The rst housing estates were built

in the western area of New Belgrade, located far away from Old

Belgrade, leaving vast empty areas of sand and dust betweenthe housing settlements, government building and the Old City

centre. Stories of people who have experienced the “pre-urban”

era of New Belgrade speak for themselves:

“In the beginning it really was a dormitory, as there was nothing else to do here. Shops, community cen-tres, post ofces, banks and so on were only built towards the end of the 1970s in the majority of neigh-bourhoods” (Interview 5)

Their testimonies reveal the fact that New Belgrade was, particu-

larly in the initial years, suffering from severe underprovision

of services of any kind, while its settlements at that time were

a clear sign of what became the greatest pathology of New Bel-

grade in the future as well: incompleteness, emptiness, and lack

of connections.

It is at least ironic if not fascinating that throughout its entire

history, the era that shaped the city the most, was one of absolute

standstill of construction, the era of “status quo” - the 1950’s.

Political arguments between Yugoslavia and The Soviet Union

culminated in a split between these two nations. The break-up ul-

timately resulted in again altering the political, social, and espe-

cially economic conditions, which prevented the construction of

housing during the times when the housing crisis had reachedits boiling point. Following the break-up Yugoslavia implemented

a self-management system throughout the federation, a system

where every business or factory relied solely on itself. Within the

self-management system the government only monitored the in-

dustry, whilst being replaced by workers in the decision-making

position. The result of this was the migration of workers from

the countryside into the cities.

As the housing crisis escalated with every passing day due to

this migration, people would be forced to live in elevators, hall-

ways, and laundrettes. Strict socialist housing policy, which once

banned any kind of private ownership, was mitigated in order

to encourage construction, whilst illegal construction spread

across the otherwise empty canvas of the city. Socialism was

obviously not working, as the system based on collectiveness

would push people “back into the private spheres” (Le Norman,2006, p15). The construction plans as conceived after the war

were clearly too ambitious for this new economic situation and

their realisations were, needless to say, impossible within the

non-existence of modern building techniques.

And so in 1950 Yugoslavian architects gathered at a conference

in Dubrovnik where they eventually distanced themselves from

the examples of Soviet architecture, whilst the idea of collectiv-

ist design was replaced with standardisation. A variety of master

plans for new Belgrade were proposed in the early 1950’s, gradu-

ally moving further and further away from the initial concept

of the new capital, reinforcing the impression of New Belgrade

becoming a “dormitory city” (Le Norman, 2006, p14) and with only

the National Assembly Building as the sole artefact of the origi-

nal plan.

The master plan of 1957 by Branko Petričić was very much fu-

elled by the ideas of the new social order and self-management.

It introduced a strictly orthogonal grid, where functional zoning

was perhaps not omitted entirely but was, as a result of the over-

all lack of concept and nonexistence of services, almost wholly

limited to the provision of housing. What the plan eventually

introduced within its rigorously square grid of 400m by 400m

were settlement units. Settlement units (mikro rajoni), as had

emerged in most Soviet cities, were a socialist interpretation ofhousing estates or neighbourhoods, which are an integral part

of most modern master plans. In theory a self - management

system was believed to be a perfect environment for such units,

since each unit was in fact an independent self-sufcient cell,

governed by its local centre.

There have in fact been some successful realisations of settle-

ment units in New Belgrade, mostly due to Petričić’s develop-ments of Blok 1 and Blok 2 which succeeded as self-sufcient

communities, with adequate facilities and local centres. The

19



Sand and dust between the blocks of New Belgrade



broader reality was, however, that most developments did not

only fail in terms of uniformity and lack of identity, but most

importantly they failed to provide the necessary facilities within

the settlement units such as shops, community centres, laun-

drettes, newsagents. The absence of facilities that are essential

for the internal economic activity and functioning of the micro-regions ultimately diminished their function solely to housing,

whilst lack of connections between settlements and the city cen-

tre resulted in the alienation of some particular neighbourhoods:

“The biggest problem was the trafc or to be morespecic, the nonexistence of trafc. Public transportin New Belgrade was not functioning until long afterI moved to this neighbourhood. It was quite hard totravel to the Old City. If for example you wanted to goto Zeleni Venac market you would have to walk fromBlok 23 to Mihaila Pupina Street, which is abouttwo miles away. Then you could take a bus acrossBranko’s Bridge or walk an additional mile, all of thisonly to buy some groceries.” (Interview 5)

The isolation of regions resulted in no interaction between the

settlements even in the 1960’s when the situation improved and

construction continued. Together with insufcient provision of

necessary facilities inside the settlements and the underpro-

vision of cultural facilities throughout the city, New Belgrade

remained economically, politically, and culturally dependant on

Old Belgrade at least until the 1990’s when social, political, and

especially economic paradigms changed again.

Deviation from any sort of plan and lack of control over con-struction on a large scale resulted in inconsistency, simplica -

tion of forms as well as uniformity. The 1960’s and especially

in the 1970’s produced architectures where “residential com-

munities were as a rule submerged in enormous open parking

areas that isolated them totally from other residential zones.

Individual buildings were identical, depersonalized, supposed to

house thousands and thousands of unknown tenants. The result

was rigidity, isolation, coldness and monotony, causing numer-ous psychological problems.” (Perović, 2003, p153)

Whilst this chapter has introduced us to the story behind the city

of New Belgrade it has also given us some basic theoretical back-

ground. It has presented the aws, which very much stigmatised

the city image in the eyes of many potential visitors, but it has

also revealed the historical reasons for these evident drawbacks

of the city. On the basis of these facts our only logical conclusionshould be that the lives of its inhabitants were severely affected

by these drawbacks.

The historical facts most certainly left us unconvinced that New

Belgrade ever lived up to the promises and expectation as a city

in the sun. The previous quote by Perovic reveals an opinion

many visitors share about New Belgrade prior to their visit, in-

cluding myself. However, negative bias towards New Belgrade,

although rather popular and common is so bold and pessimistic

that further research and justication is more than necessary.

New Belgrade is, nevertheless, a multilayered city and its notori-

ously criticised visual aspect is only one of the layers.

The chapters that follow may shine a completely different light

on the matter. In order to gain a fuller understanding of this ex-

traordinary city we shouldn’t limit ourselves merely to a single

point of view. In the following pages it is crucial for us to dis-

tance ourselves from the theory, as well as the history, by focus-

ing primarily on emotions. And so the primary aim of the next

two chapters will be to unveil the mystery behind the spiritual

connection between the city and its inhabitants.

21



Construction of the New Belgrade neighbourhoods



Chapter Two

The Physical Realm



Children at play in one of the New Belgrade neighbourhoods



As the visitor becomes immersed in the architecture of New Bel-

grade for the very rst time, he/she becomes at last aware of its

full potential and its incredible power. Its buildings are one of

the rare remaining traces of the former country and a mesmeris-

ing testimony of almost fty years of socialism. The architecture

witnessed today between the banks of Rivers Danube and Sava,after so many decades, still radiates the epoch of a time long

gone and, like a good book, makes our ears thirsty for the stories

of a nation that no longer exists. And so with every breath we

make New Belgrade lls our lungs with anticipation, encourag -

ing us to explore the unexpected and listen to its stories with

our eyes wide open.

Chapter One attempted to reveal the story behind New Belgrade

and its buildings, its theory and science, the stories behind its

construction, and its politics. However, just as it is unfair to

judge a book by its cover, it is wrong to judge this city solely

on the basis of books, let alone photos, historical facts, master

plans, statistics or other critics’ opinions.

Architecture is only alive when there is a constant dialogue pres-

ent between the building and the observer. In his seminal book

“Eyes of the Skin” Juhanni Palasmaa identies the phenomenonof this rather spiritual event:

“I lend my emotions and associations to the spaceand the space lends me its aura, which entices andemancipates my perceptions and thoughts.”

(Palasmaa, 2005, p12)

Architecture speaks many different languages when trying toaddress the viewer whilst materiality, shapes, colours, mass,

delicacy and vegetation are only a few of the languages in which

architecture is uent. So the focal point of this chapter shall be

this very dialogue between the city and its users. On the one

hand the interviews will reveal the perception and emotional ex-

perience of the New Belgrade urban landscape in the eyes of its

dwellers. On the other hand, it is essential that we gain a deeper

understanding of the planning strategy and architectural logicbehind this extraordinary city in order to assess whether it ulti-

mately succeeded or failed. By looking deeper into the planning

approaches of the Athens Charter we shall, in each of the sub

sections, try to identify the languages the city speaks when ad-

dressing its inhabitants.

The inconsistency in the planning of New Belgrade and the rea-

sons for it have already been described in Chapter One. Conse-quently the city of New Belgrade that we see today hardly re-

sembles the original plans. Many elements of the Athens Charter

have, however, remained intertwined with the design strategies

of numerous consequent master plans, some of them in a more

obvious fashion than others. Classifying these elements will al-

low us to use the notions of the Athens Charter not only as

theoretical framework, but also a point of comparison between

the theory and state of reality, acquired trough resident’s testi-

monies, whilst the occasional comparison with Zagreb and Lju-

bljana should only deepen the assessment of quality regarding

the built environment in New Belgrade.

And so this chapter will focus on the following elements in rela-

tion to the city of New Belgrade: Space, Sun and Greenery, Lei-

sure and Amenities, Transport, and nally Materiality and the

Quality of the Dwelling.

27



Private gardens amidst the New Belgrade superblocks

S S d G i g l g t d i b t t t d i di id l



Space, Sun and Greenery

Quite possibly the most inspiring feature of the city of New Bel-

grade is its openness. The experience of crossing the Brankov

Bridge is a rather unique event. As the visitor moves away fromthe relatively congested city centre with very few wide avenues

and even fewer buildings above ve storeys, he all of a sudden

nds himself in an entirely different world where streets become

boulevards and where parks are found on every corner of every

neighbourhood. In one of the interviews conducted in New Bel-

grade Ljiljana and Bogdan talk about this particular sensation:

“From the moment we arrived to New Belgrade we knew very

clearly that we are never going to return back to the Old City.

There was simply so much space here, streets were wide and you

could breathe the air. “ (Interview 2)

There is a good reason, however, why in New Belgrade the houses

suddenly become skyscrapers as soon as one crosses the bridge.

It is because implementation of this sort of vertical construction

solves two problems at once quite efciently – it decreases the

congestion in a city whilst at the same time it increases its den-

sity. Openness is probably the most obvious of the ingredientsadopted from the Athens Charter in the planning process of New

Belgrade:

“Urbanism is a three-dimensional, not a two-dimen-sional science. Introducing the element of height willsolve the problems of modern trafc and leisure byutilizing the open spaces thus created.”

(Le Corbusier, 1973, p98)

If one were to take a look at the basic massing of the neigh-

bourhoods in New Belgrade, one would very soon realise that,

in fact, most of them share some very distinct characteristics.

A standard neighbourhood unit usually consists of several build-

ings of around fteen storeys high, set apart from each other

at distances great enough as to not to cast shadows onto one

another. Beneath them are typically two or three low-rise build-ings of maximum height up to four or ve storeys. These build-

ings either spiral as several continuous S-shaped blocks, creat-

ing large courtyards in between or are constructed as individual

long strips of low-rise housing. As a result the spaces in between

are very often fairly bright green areas and public spaces. The

Athens Charter stresses the importance of openness as well as

sunlight and greenery that come as positive side-effects of this

type of construction:

“The health of every person depends to a great ex-tent on his submission to the “conditions of nature”.(Le Corbusier, 1973, p55)

“The sun which governs all growth should penetrate the interior

of the dwelling” In addition to that the Charter nds it crucial

that the air quality is assured by the abundance of vegetation.


In Le Corbusier’s view a combination of the following ingredi-

ents: vegetation, space and sun is the key to a healthy and happy

living environment, hence these particular ingredients should,

as such, be treated as the three raw materials of urbanism: “Let

us bear in mind that the sensation of space is of a psycho-physio-

logical order, and that the narrowness of the streets and the con-

striction of courtyards create an atmosphere as unhealthy forthe body as it is depressing to the mind.” (Le Corbusier, 1973, p55)

In reaction to this the boulevards of New Belgrade do, as a mat-

ter of fact, receive a lot of sunlight primarily because the housing

developments are positioned far away from the street edges. An-

other reason is that the width of the boulevards is much greater

compared to the narrow alleys in the city centre, just as advised

by the Charter. And so especially in the summer New Belgrademight indeed give a visitor an impression of a city in the sun, as

promised in the 1940’s by the state ofcials and city planners.

Ljiljana sees the element of openness not only as one of the great

benets that the city of New Belgrade has to offer in comparison

to the Old City, but also the main reason she would not even

contemplate moving back there. “Our block is quite close to the

river so we would go for a walk every day and enjoy this openness

we did not know before. My husband used to live in StrahinjicaBana Street in the city centre, now more commonly known for

its party scene. He simply cannot imagine life there with thou-

29



Vertical construction in New Belgrade

sands and thousands of people on the street every day drinking produce and constitute a new revolutionary space” and instead



sands and thousands of people on the street every day drinking

and making noise. You cannot even breathe normally because

the place is so crowded.” (Interview 2)

The predominantly vertical construction of New Belgrade is

even today quite surprisingly well-perceived by the people in the

Blocks and even among young mothers such as Ljubica:

“I got used to the look of my environment very earlyon. I accepted it, since I have lived in such environ-ment my entire life. It even seemed quite interestingto me. Large, high- rise buildings seemed extremelyimpressive to me ever since I was little. Even elevatorrides excited me when I was a little girl. “ (Interview 1)

After several similar answers it could be deduced that this un-

conditional acceptance of high-rise construction might have its

origins in the childhood memories of the residents, however, it

is also possible that on a sub-conscious level people, to a certain

extent, connect the dots between the high-rise construction and

it’s previously described positive side-effects such as openness.

In one of the interviews Bogdan, who is generally rather dis-

pleased by the visual image of the city, admits his appreciationfor the monumentality of buildings and open spaces: “One of the

rare positive aspects is probably that this sort of environment

might seem quite imposing to many. I quite like the openness,

grandiosity etc.” (Interview 2)

Openness, however, should not be equated with emptiness. Open-

ness, as previously stated, is the result of high-density vertical

construction, planned with the aim of freeing the ground. Empti-ness, on the other hand, is what happened in New Belgrade in

the 1950’s and is the consequence of absence of urban bre, the

result of which is isolation of some particular neighbourhoods

and alienation of the residents.

Although the New Belgrade of the 21st century is a somewhat

open city, new developments have started to ll the free space

between existing urban bre in recent years. As a matter of

fact it could be argued that the city built on the ideals of com-

munism and with the hands of the volunteers failed to “fully

produce and constitute a new revolutionary space and instead

created a perfect “contextual and spatial framework for a differ-

ent hybrid concept of social and spatial structuring of the town.”

(Dimitrijevic in Eric, 2009, p117) In “Differentiated Neighbourhoods

of New Belgrade” Dubravka Sekulic describes her experience of

the transition era as she remembers it from her student years:

“For us, New Belgrade was not only a part of town, buta very strong experience. A town created as a com-prehensive idea – we simply had a feeling of drivingthrough utopia. It was exciting to constantly discoverfree spaces of utopia that were rather inspiring. Andthen - almost overnight it started to materialize (…)Empty spaces we used to daydream about were lled

rapidly. Impersonal construction started to sprout.And we started to wonder, to ask ourselves.”(Sekulic in Eric, 2009, p135)

The city of New Belgrade has, especially over recent years become

a playground where Serbian-Neo Capitalism, ideology based on

public sale of national wealth, corporate power over state power,

and excessive consumption is slowly transforming the city and

where urban is rapidly violating the once even more abundantnatural sphere. This process, however, has not stayed unnoticed

by the residents: “Nowadays they build these new glass palaces

between old cubes, they build new multicoloured buildings and

keep worsening the situation further and further. Sometimes

I think that whoever is behind these projects must really hate

people.” (Interview 2)

The three previously identied raw elements as prescribed bythe Athens Charter are also the main planning ingredients in

most of the other post war cities and housing developments

throughout former Yugoslavia. In none of them, nevertheless,

is the discrepancy between the Old City and these new develop-

ments as pure and obvious as in New Zagreb, where many parts

of the city seem almost intact and unaffected by the transition

period of the 1990’s. In comparison to New Belgrade, where

shopping malls and other temples of global consumerism sprout

like mushrooms, in the case of New Zagreb the manifestation of

capitalism is much more gentle. Greenery plays an important

31



View from New Zagreb skyscraper reveals the abundance of greenery beneath it and the city centre in the background

part in Vladimir’s life. It is one of the main reasons why he shares her memories with us, sitting on the bench amongst wil-



p y

enjoys living in New Zagreb and so when asked to compare his

former life in the city centre to the life in New Zagreb the answer

resembles the answers of so many people in New Belgrade:

“It is horrible there (the city centre). There is noopenness, no air, too much trafc and no greenery.To me the old city centre is more of a concrete junglethan this new part of town, if that makes sense. NewZagreb as you can see is a town in greenery. Every-thing is open and bright. Overall this is a great placeto live, it truly has soul and the parks are everywhereas you can see.” (Interview 6)

In the Athens Charter Le Corbusier stresses the importance of

greenery by placing it unexpectedly high on his list of priorities.

He sees nature as direct or indirect extensions of the dwellings

and just as important as the dwelling itself. When seeking justi-

cation he goes back in history to see how the traditional cities

he loathes so much were built: “The fact that the most expensive

apartments are situated in the environments that best mimic

the natural ones is proof that if means allow him man will seek

habitation in nature.” (Le Corbusier, 1973, p14)

Robert Fishman in his book “Urban Utopias in the 20th Cen-

tury” identies how Le Corbusier’s ideas sometimes become

even more radical, up to the point when he urges the architects

and urbanists to “forsake mere decoration and prepare to under-

take great works” in order to “create a complete environment

in which man, nature, and the machine would be reconciled.”

(Fishman, 1982, p189)

If we use Le Corbusier’s previously mentioned categorisation of

nature as direct or an indirect extension of the dwelling, which is

based on whether the natural environment penetrates the urban

form or not, we can conclude that New Belgrade’s neighbour-

hoods enjoy an abundance of both. Comparisons between differ-

ent periods of the New Belgrade history in relation to greenery,

however, reveals that the discrepancies in the quality of natural

environment have been quite evident through the years. Valerija

has lived in New Belgrade since the 1960’s and so when she

, g g

lows and poplars, we can hardly believe that she is describing

the very same place: “This very place where we stand right now

was covered in sand. It looked like a desert on one hand and a

concrete jungle on the other. Nothing was green except some

accidental bushes every now and then” (Interview 4)

However, as the years went by Belgrade became greener and

greener as well, in fact it currently boasts around 20.000 trees

of around 90 species. The largest of the parks is the Friendship

Park, which has throughout its history been planted by lead-

ers of even some of the most diametrically opposed political sys-

tems in the world such as Nasser, Nehru, Nixon, Ford, Thatcher,

Mubarak, Indira Gandhi, and Queen Elizabeth II as well as sev-

eral celebrities such as the Rolling Stones in 2007.

Ljubica remembers her childhood years mostly as years of life

in nature. The way she speaks about her early days with enthu-

siasm in her voice, idealism in her words and optimism in her

eyes, reassures us that childhood memories and the abundance

of open green space have left a strong mark on her and her

perception of the living environment. And even though she dis-

agrees with the fact that authorities today intentionally neglectthe importance of open green spaces by leaving them abandoned

or swallowed by the uncontrolled sprawl of commercial construc-

tion, her answers always lead back to the pleasant memories of

childhood:

“Then there were parks that were taken care of, so we would run around, play on the swings and slides.

I have to admit we had a somewhat incredible child-hood. I would say those were the easier times - in waycarefree and better times. And for this reason theseblocks are all my life.” (Interview 1)

33



New Belgrade - a town in greenery



Left: New Belgrade landscape as viewed from the top of one of the skyscrapers.Creativeness of children in the absence of leisure facilities

Leisure and Amenitiestent whereas Local Centres were rare. Leisure facilities were

ll th lt f hi h th t th lit f f



Leisure and Amenities

The Athens Charter sees the open space as an integral part of

the functioning of a city. As stated before the land that was freed

due to vertical construction should ideally allow activities con-

nected to leisure, education, culture, sports and to some extent

commerce, to ll the empty spaces created between the housing.

Le Corbusier identies the purpose of these facilities as places

that ultimately should “meet the collective activities of youth

and to provide a favourable site for diversions and games during

the leisure hours.“ The urbanists henceforth must “assure city

dwellers of living conditions that will safeguard not only theirphysical health but also their moral health and the joy of life that

results from these.” (Le Corbusier, 1973, p66)

And so he nds it absolutely crucial that the number of daily

working hours meets the amount of free time for each worker, to

be more precise, time devoted exclusively to a “refreshing exis-

tence amidst natural elements.” (Le Corbusier, 1973, p67)

Le Corbusier divides “free time” activities into three categories:

daily - which are spent within the vicinity of a home, weekly -

which are spent out of the city and nally yearly - which are

spent abroad. Depending on these categories Le Corbusier then

lists the facilities, which shall in every city become the “realms of

freedom and creativity for those who spend their working hours

taking orders.” (Le Corbusier, 1973, p67) These facilities include:

parks, forests, playing elds, stadiums, beaches, lakes and riversas well as youth clubs, reading rooms, game rooms and cultural

facilities such as museums, galleries and theatres.

To be honest not many of these principles have ever been imple-

mented within the construction of New Belgrade, in fact the un-

derprovision of amenities has been the greatest aw and cancer

wound of this city ever since its conception. Chapter One already

described the unbearable living conditions in the 1950’s and

1960’s when residents were left no choice but to travel many

miles merely to buy necessities. Schools were almost non-exis-

scarce as well, the result of which was that the quality of free

time was rather mediocre. When asked whether their typical day

could be in any way compared to what Le Corbusier had in mind,

the answers of the interviewees would almost unanimously re-

veal that hours of hard work were almost never repaid by an

equal amount of leisure.

“My block wasn’t really a pleasant environment tolive in as you can imagine. There was no place forpleasure here, because there were no other facilitiesbuilt except housing. You would work during the day,return home and then go to rest. Even if you weren’ttired and wanted to indulge yourself in a certain ac-

tivity you had no option to do that. New Belgrade re-ally was a large dormitory back then.” (Interview 4)

Still, as time passed the situation improved slightly at least when

it came to some leisure facilities such as playgrounds and sports

facilities. Ljubica, however, describes the circumstances today

as once again critical and so she weeps for the old times: “Situ-

ation now is much worse. There are no benches to sit on, no

playgrounds for children, which really bothers me as a youngmother. There used to be swings, basketball elds, football elds

and all sorts of things.

The authorities today focused only on taking care of that one

park a few blocks down the road, however, all the other blocks

are left abandoned. It was considerably greener when I was

younger. Now the kids play in the doorways and hang out in pas-

sages because they have no other place to go.” (Interview 1)

Ljijana and Bogdan are of similar opinion when it comes to as-

sessing the quality of the urban furniture in New Belgrade:

“To be honest the neighbourhoods are not especially well looked-after. Sports facilities are in horrible con-dition, benches are broken and the older concretebenches are extremely uncomfortable to sit in. Over-all the prediction that the architects of this neigh-bourhood had about how people will use the outdoors

37



Playgrounds of New Belgrade

furniture was completely wrong.” (Interview 2)

Nevertheless the inhabitants agree that one of the rare positive



Nevertheless the inhabitants agree that one of the rare positive

side effects of the transition into neo-capitalism and the emer-

gence of the private sector is that nowadays they are offered

plenty of opportunities when it comes to culture and especially

shopping. “I have so many other things today that I can enjoy.

Most importantly I have everything I need on my doorstep now,

transit, shops, market, groceries, cafes, parks etc. Compared to

the life in a desert in the 1970s this is wonderful.” (Interview 4)

Today’s situation seems quite similar in Ljubljana, although

Marija describes that she has never really experienced anything

nearly as harsh as people in Belgrade did when they settled into

these new neighbourhoods: “The conditions here were perfect for

raising a child, lots of playgrounds and greenery. Now the condi-

tions are even better. The community centre offers a variety of

classes and activities such as learning a language, gymnastics,

computer lessons, drawing classes, sculpturing etc. There are

so many opportunities for everyone, to exercise, learn and meet

people, you only need to be active” she says as she explains how

in fact the leisure opportunities almost fall from the sky in her

Ljubljana neighbourhood. (Interview 7)

39



Primary school amidst the blocks of New Zagreb



Streets separating the blocks of New Belgrade

Transportof the building.” (Interview 1)

If we don’t take into account the fact that there is no under-



New Belgrade obeys many rules of the Charter when it comes to

transport. The most obvious adaptation is without any doubt the

city’s strongly orthogonal grid of wide boulevards which follow

Le Corbusier’s ideals of geometry and perfect form:

“The city of to-day is dying because it is not geometri-cal. The result of true geometrical lay-out is repeti-tion. The result of repetition is a standard.”(Le Corbusier, 1929, p175)

Without the standard there is no perfect form and the systemdoes not function efciently. The orthogonal grid of new Bel -

grade is set in such a way that the distances between the main

crossroads are great enough as to allow uninterrupted journeys

and relatively high velocities, so commuting in New Belgrade

runs a lot smoother than in the adjacent city centre.

As discussed previously the majority of New Belgrade is con-

structed so that vertical construction frees the ground, whilstat the same time it increases population density. This notion is

crucial when it comes to trafc.

Increasing density without increasing the congestion means

that people do not need to travel as far to work as they would in

a city with primarily low-rise buildings and the same number of

inhabitants. Another important aspect is the separation of traf-

c routes from pedestrian routes, and the introduction of green

belts, which not only separate the housing from main boulevards

but, to some extent, also create a safer living environment for

the children. Ljubica describes her childhood experience in rela-

tion to trafc:

“Streets separate blocks. This is very important. Es-pecially when we were little, we weren’t allowed tocross the streets. Streets are wide and dangerous. We

felt safe in our own neighbourhood, plus our parents were reassured if they knew we were playing in front

ground transport in New Belgrade whatsoever, apart from pe-

destrian trafc (strangely enough subways were implemented

in New Belgrade even before the rst ones were built in the Old

City centre) and that the main means of transport is still the

tram (which Le Corbusier strictly rejected as inappropriate for

the modern city) New Belgrade has, together with some develop-

ments in Zagreb, succeeded to quite a high extent in achieving

the standards of the Charter, whilst various developments in Lju-

bljana don’t share the same principles, mostly because planning

principles there were never based on an orthogonal grid.

43



Visual image and materiality of the superblocks

Materiality and the Quality of the Dwelling me wrong, I do not like the visual image of thesebuildings, perhaps you could say they are even ugly,

h l I d h b ld f



“Well I think it is obvious that these buildings are notpleasant for the viewer’s eye. Most of them, especiallyin our block 22 are reminiscent of tombs, mausole-ums. I would even argue that the quality of construc-tion is quite disappointing.” (Interview 5)

The term concrete jungle gets tossed around a lot when it comes

to describing the city of New Belgrade. It is important, however,

that we establish what the term in fact means. Concrete jungle

as many perceive it is a large urban area mostly populated with

predominantly high-rise unattractive concrete buildings, mostlypaved open spaces and very scarce greenery. Even though the

primary aim of this dissertation is not to relativise whether New

Belgrade is a concrete jungle or not, it is important that we ask

ourselves this question, nonetheless. The interviews did reveal

that when it comes to an assessment of the visual image of the

buildings, materiality and the quality of dwellings, the answers

do in fact reveal a high level of disappointment amongst the

inhabitants.

Building techniques and the planning ideology behind the con-

struction of New Belgrade have been explained in the beginning

of Chapter Two. As these observations were merely theoretical it

is crucial that we take a look at the other side of the coin.

“It is like living in a city of cubes, nothing to kill the monotony,

no interesting details, at least I see it this way” explains Ljiljana,

who sees the aesthetics of her neighbourhood as “disappoint-ing.” (Interview 2)

One of the most surprising conclusions that can be drawn from

the interviews, however, is that none of the interviewees implied

that there is any sort of correlation between the visual aspects

of New Belgrade architecture, its materials and health issues

or even happiness. Ljubica illustrates her relationship with the

architecture:

“Architecture did not affect our happiness. Don’t get

inhumane, cruel. I admit, the buildings are in facttoo tall” (Interview 1)

Nevertheless, concrete, as the main construction material re-

mains notoriously unpopular. Valerija, who has lived in the city

ever since it was built, describes her rst experiences with the

material:

”It was ugly. That is what bothered me. There wasconcrete everywhere, the buildings, the benches, thepaths, the garages and the playgrounds. I was usedto living in a house before I came here so it was quite

a shock to me. The concrete is such a cold material,it makes the environment gloomy, and so we decidedto x that. We would put owers on the balconies andthose who lived in the ground oors would createlittle gardens in front of their doors.” (Interview 4)

Furthermore, based on several similar answers, it seems that

concrete performs even worse when it comes to its physical char-

acteristics, not only its aesthetic value. Milorad remains rmlyunconvinced about the choice of concrete as the material:

“Let me tell you one thing: in thirty or forty years time all of

these buildings will end up under a bulldozer and be demolished.

You cannot live with concrete slabs above you and concrete slabs

beneath you. It is not pleasant. Concrete heats up in summer

and cools down in winter. It transmits temperature and humid-

ity. You can hear everything that is happening above you and

below you. It is a horrible material to live in. I am grateful that we received these apartments, don’t get me wrong, but I cannot

give them kudos for creating a quality place to live. “ (Interview 5)

When it comes to the quality of the dwelling unit, however, opin-

ions seem to differ, as the ats vary in size. Materiality still

seems to be one of the greatest aws, nevertheless, room ar -

rangement and privacy appear to be often-occurring issues as

well: “Buildings are made entirely out of concrete, and concrete

is hell. During the summer it will heat up to the degree where

if you touch it, it is almost as hot as the hot plate. On the other

45



Interior view of a New Belgrade apartment

hand, during the wintertime it is freezing cold. I am rather un-

satised with ats as such as well. The arrangement of the rooms

is just silly. The rooms are very small, so I would not even count

lived in New Zagreb since the 1970s shares her view:

“If you are asking me whether I am satised with the look of

the buildings I would have to say no. But I would not say that it



them as rooms. It almost seems that when they built these ats

their logic was to take one regular sized room and split it in half

in order to make two. To be honest this is a at for two. I cannot

imagine our son still living here with us. With the exception ofone room merely sliding or harmonica doors separate the entire

at. My husband in a way prefers this sort of arrangement, while

I am not so keen about it. A person needs privacy every now and

then. These sorts of ats do not allow you to isolate yourself

from others. It is almost impossible to fall asleep in one room

while someone is doing something else in the other rooms. We

can also hear every sound coming from ats around us, every

sentence, every footstep, we can hear our neighbours watchingthe telly etc. “ explain Ljiljana and Bogdan who not only experi-

ence problems with the materiality of their apartments, but also

nd the size of the rooms and the general arrangement of the

ats particularly disturbing. (Interview 2)

Nevertheless, I need to admit, with a hint of remorse that prior

to my rst encounter with this city my opinion was strongly in -

uenced by the prejudice and expectations of a concrete jungle.But aren’t the inhabitants of the city the ones who should decide

what their city truly is or isn’t?

And so even though the interviews did in fact support my preju-

dice, as most of the answers presented materiality and lack of

aesthetic value as main faults in the otherwise quite extraor-

dinary system that New Belgrade most certainly is, residents

demonstrated an unconditional acceptance of their living envi-

ronment despite its evident drawbacks:

“I got used to the look of my environment very earlyon. I accepted it, since I have lived in such environ-ment my entire life. We had a wonderful childhoodhere so most of us continued with our lives in NewBelgrade” (Interview 1)

says Ljubica who has lived in the New Belgrade blocks ever sinceshe was born. She is not alone in this opinion. Vladimir, who has

bothers me either. You see, through all these years we slowly got

used to this type of architecture. I believe that the reason why I

got used to it is because I lived in these buildings ever since they

were built and I am almost certain that I look at these buildingsin a different way than you do, for example.” (Interview 6)

And so at the end of this chapter it is important that we ask

ourselves why is it that people have through the years devel-

oped such a positive relationships with their neighbourhoods,

regardless of the fact that they openly acknowledge the obvious

weaknesses? One of the possible answers to this question could

be that some of the drawbacks of the neighbourhoods are outweighed by some remarkable benets that this type of construc-

tion allowed and were described in the rst part of Chapter 2.

We need, however, in the next chapter to approach this phenom-

enon from a different point of view, because it just might be that

the reason for this rather odd relationship between the city and

its dwellers does not lie in the mainly visual aspects that were

described in this chapter, but that the answer is perhaps hiddento our eyes.

Juhanni Pallasmaa seeks for this answer outside the realm of

the visual. He does not perceive architecture as an isolated and

self-sufcient artefact.

In his opinion architecture “gives a conceptual andmaterial structure to societal institutions, as wellas to the conditions of daily life (…) Architecturestrengthens the existential experience, one’s sense ofbeing in the world, and this is essentially a strength-ened experience of self. Instead of mere vision, orthe ve classical senses, architecture involves sev -eral realms of sensory experience which interact andfuse into each other.” (Pallasmaa, 2005, p41)

51



Blocks of New Belgrade



Skyscrapers of New Zagreb in blocks Sopot (left) and Zaprudje (right)



Fuzine neighbourhood in Ljubljana



Chapter Three

The Sense of Belonging



Brass band rehersing in the New Belgrade neighbourhood courtyard

While Chapter One described the historical background, which

most certainly inuenced the relationship between the city of

New Belgrade and its residents, and whilst Chapter Two focused

on their experience of the physical environment, the last chapter

sets as its focal point the mysterious phenomenon of the sense

In his testimony Vladimir points out that the relationships were

not based on interaction or affection, but instead primarily origi-

nated from regular encounters between residents. Encounters,

however, do not constitute groups on their own, because groups

put down their roots in interpersonal bonds and “bonds based on



sets as its focal point the mysterious phenomenon of the sense

of belonging, present in most New Belgradians, in spite of some

apparent negative aspects of the city they live in.

It is crucial that we approach this very fragile topic carefully and

from many aspects. In Chapter Three we will treat the concept

of belonging as a decisive variable in the equation of New Bel-

grade. We will do so by looking at the role of the community and

neighbourhood as key factors in the process of identication of

the dwellers with the city. And so our goal will essentially be to

determine whether belonging occurs in the dwellers due to theiremotional experience of the community, their experience of the

neighbourhood, both or perhaps neither of them.

In her seminal book “Urban Bonds” Talja Blokland identies the

notion of community as something rather intangible. For her

the community is not a physical entity, but instead refers to the

experience and desire for “pleasant, warm and congenial togeth-

erness”. (Blokland, 2003, p62) Prior to my visits to the socialist

cities of former Yugoslavia it was my strong belief that due to the

nature of socialism, as a system strongly based on equality, the

sense of belonging most people experience has its roots in the

bonds between the residents, whilst those bonds fuel the spirit

of community. The testimonies revealed, however, that in reality

very few deep and meaningful relationships developed between

residents, at least in the past. Vladimir who has lived in New

Zagreb’s neighbourhood of Zaprudje for 40 years quite vividly

describes his own personal experience of the community:

“If you are asking about relationships, friendshipsI have to disappoint you. These relationships werebased merely on saying hello and goodbye to someone when you met them on the street. Certain groups didmeet and hang around, however, these relationships were strictly dened by one’s occupation and took

place at set locations such as community centres orclubs.” (Interview 6)

put down their roots in interpersonal bonds and “bonds based on

affection derive from sympathy and shared interests.”

(Blokland, 2003, p78)

Physical nearness and regular encounters in isolation cannot re-

sult in deep meaningful relationships between people. However,

if it is shared interests that constitute bonds, how come is it

then that meaningful relationships developed so rarely within

an environment such as New Belgrade, where the differences

between residents were much smaller compared to some other

more heterogeneous neighbourhoods around the world?

The answer might lie in the fact that, when it comes to the forma-

tion of a community and the quality of interpersonal relations

the neighbourhood as such plays a very important role. First of

all, however, it is crucial that we are fully aware of the relation-

ship between the neighbourhood and community because:

“The neighbourhood is not, never was and can neverbe a community. Instead it serves a practical andsymbolic purpose as means to form and perpetuatemany different communities.” (Blokland, 2003, p207)

What we can deduce from the previous statement is that a neigh-

bourhood as a built form, in a way, presents the framework or

- perhaps even more suitable - formwork around which the com-

munity is later on formed and shaped. One of the many ways a

neighbourhood can achieve successful formation of a communi-ty is to provide spaces suitable for quality interaction. It needs to

be said that the quality interaction cannot be in any way equated

with the physical encounters simply because encounters as such

are impersonal, whereas interaction could lead to affection. The

quality spaces, which the neighbourhood should provide would

allow people to discover and pursue their numerous mutual in-

terests and activities. With all this in mind it can be concluded

that one of the key reasons why social relations in New Belgrade were, at least until recently, relatively rare or at best limited to

63



A group of elderly residents resting in the shadow of a tree in New Zagreb’s neighbourhood Zaprudje



Child playing in the courtyard of one of New Belgrade blocks

the privacy of the apartments, lies in the fact that neighbour-

hoods failed to offer suitable spaces for interaction outside the

dwelling.

“Those were our little rituals where we would meet in

rocal as “what happened to one person one day, could happen to

the other the next” (Blokland, 2003, p82) Among the reasons why

people relied on one another much more than they do today were

also the fact that vital things such as shops, transport links and

amenities were virtually nonexistent, whilst in the 1950’s the



each other’s ats drink coffee, smoke cigarettes and

chat. This was simply because there was not much todo outside” explains Valerija who admits that theserelationships did not have much to do with the com-munity spirit, but were mostly just acquaintancesmade at the workplace. (Interview 4)

These girls did, however, all live in the same neighbourhood as

her and so even though actual relationships never developed

amongst them, a certain type of attachment did develop as the

spirit of togetherness was rather strong nonetheless. This could

be attributed to the fact that the women who all lived in the same

neighbourhood either worked at the same job or shared an expe-

rience of being married to, for example, a husband who was in

the military, which meant that there was a high level of equality

amongst them.

Attachments such as these can sometimes occur even without

interaction. In fact “we may feel attached to others and focus

our actions on them even if these others are not concrete indi-

viduals to us.” (Blokland, 2003, p71) It is, however, important to

know that these types of attachments do not constitute bonds.

And so in the absence of true deep meaningful relationships

some other forms of relations emerged in the neighbourhoods

of New Belgrade, such as latent neighbourhoodism, which de-

veloped mostly between close neighbours as a direct result ofproximity. In such cases people spent time with their neighbours

“because they valued good neighbourly relations, rather because

they were fond of them or felt they needed a relationship. They

considered a good neighbour to be somebody friendly and help-

ful in emergencies and with minor things.” (Blokland, 2003, p81)

These sorts of relationships were not just coincidental though,

since the belief of everyone being in the same boat was very com-mon. The phenomenon of neighbourhoodliness was hence recip-

y ,

economic situation only enhanced this spirit of togetherness.

Equality seems to be an important factor when we talk about thesense of belonging in relation to the communities of the socialist

cities. Valerija remembers:

“I would say that there was perhaps a bit of this spiritof togetherness present, but I believe that was be-cause we were all the same. We were all families ofmilitary men and at work we were all health care workers. These were the only two worlds that I knew,so even when I was home I would only be in the com-pany of girls I already knew from the workplace. To-day there are more heterogeneous environments”(Interview 4)

Vladimir from New Zagreb expands her thoughts on equality by

focusing on the importance of work and above all the fact that

everyone who wanted to work was offered a job: “Back then ev-

eryone was a worker, to be more precise everyone was employed.

Every family had at least one, two or sometimes even three em-

ployed members. This is a very important fact because it inu -

ences the general feeling of the neighbourhood and community

quite a lot, I would say.” (Interview 6)

The situation today is to a large extent different for many rea-

sons. Not only does it seem that the urban lifestyle, which came

to Serbia hand in hand with capitalism in the 1990’s, changedsome habits people shared in the past, which ultimately pushed

the social life more and more towards the private sphere, but has

this individualization in some ways also changed the communi-

ties? In a way has individuality overcome the sense of the com-

munity and equality, at least what was left of it from the former

system? Ljubica describes the current situation:

“Now the times have changed, this equality disap-peared and the spirit of togetherness vanished in a

67



A game of football in one of New Belgrade’s neighbourhoods

way. My block was a block where only military fami-lies lived. My father was a military ofcer. In someother blocks most of the people came from the coun-tryside in pursuit of a better life, so you could re-ally feel this positive energy between them, empathy

ories of more carefree times. But what role does the neighbour-

hood have in all of this. The neighbourhood is “a circumscribed

built environment” that people use not only practically but also

symbolically.” (Blokland, 2003, p213) When it comes to nostalgia

this notion is essential simply because “virtually all stories of



I would say. Our generation is already so urbanized

that this togetherness is not leading our lives any-more. Activities have changed, technology and trans-port changed our lives, children play video games intheir tiny ats or go to the cinema, very few stayoutdoors and play in greenery. I try to keep my twochildren away from the computer as much as pos-sible and instead go downstairs with them to play inthe nature.” (Interview 1)

From interviews conducted in New Belgrade, New Zagreb, and

Ljubljana we could conclude that people did in fact feel a certain

level of belonging to their specic community, however no actual

bonds developed amongst the residents. The feeling of belong-

ing did not originate in attachments to particular members, but

could be described as some sort of ethereal sense of afnity,

which had its roots in the notion of the equality of the general

population.

On the other hand it seems that people experience a much stron-

ger sense of belonging to their built environment, perhaps not

to its tangible physical characteristics such as materiality and

shape, but some spiritual connection most denitely exists be-

tween them and their surroundings.

We need to already start considering the importance of the neigh-

bourhood as a physical environment when we talk about nostal-gia as a source of belonging. Many testimonies reveal that when

it comes to the notion of identication with the environment it

is absolutely crucial at which point in their lives the residents

moved to New Belgrade and how much time they spent there.

Pleasant childhood memories very often blur the unpleasant ex-

periences that the citizens might have had with their environ-

ment throughout the years of their residency. People who have

lived in New Belgrade have often developed a much strongerbond to their environment simply because of the nostalgic mem-

the past include references to location.” (Blokland 2003, p205) Not

only because location helps people remember, but also becausepeople who have lived in a neighbourhood for a longer period of

time share a similar experience:

“Many people’s memories were of their childhood –those childhood years believed to be happy that peoplerecalled with nostalgia. The minimal role repertoireand high neighbourhood use among children meantthat they had acquired most of their experiences inthe neighbourhood. Nostalgia automatically came tobe associated with location.” (Blokland, 2003, p206)

Ljubica is a perfect example of a person who looks at her envi-

ronment through the prism of memory and nostalgia:

“Back when I was still a child, blocks seemed phe-nomenal to me. We would play hula-hoop, dodge ball,

and volleyball from morning until evening. I mostcertainly did identify with my environment, not only with the people, but also with the block as such.”

(Interview 1)

It could be argued that nostalgia makes people members of a

special kind of community where everyone shares a sense of be-

longing to the group. The reason for this does not only lie in the

fact that they share a pleasant experience from the past, but alsobecause of feelings of equality, duration of residency and higher

extent of neighbourhood use compared to newer residents. In a

way nostalgia and collective memory provide “a framework for

categorising other long time neighbourhood residents.”

(Blokland, 2003, p198)

One of the important aspects, which we need to take into account

when we speak about this categorisation in relation to New Bel-grade is that, as a result of the implementation of the orthogo-

69



Identication with the block on the walls of New Belgrade buildings

nal grid and the attempt to create micro-regions in 1957, New

Belgrade neighbourhoods at least to a certain extent remained

closed units. As they were surrounded by trafc routes from all

four sides the streets actually separated blocks, which created

a rather unique living environment, especially for the children:

It seems, however, that once individuals grow older this attach-

ment to the particular environment in a way becomes even stron-

ger. Many residents who have spent a large proportion of their

lives in New Belgrade would not contemplate moving to the Old

Town even if they had an opportunity. Ljiljana who is the mother

f t t ld M k d ib thi h



“We mostly made friends with other children fromour block, perhaps even our building. We did not re-ally play with the children from other blocks. Streetsseparate blocks. This is very important. Especially when we were little, we weren’t allowed to cross thestreets. Streets are wide and dangerous. We felt safein our own neighbourhood, plus our parents were re-assured if they knew we were playing in front of thebuilding. So yes, there was a certain level of separa-tion between the blocks. I hung out with kids from myblock because I would see them every day. Of coursenot everyone I knew was from my block simply be-cause every block did not have a school, so we wouldfor example share the primary school. (Interview 1)

We have seen that physical separation of the blocks plays an

absolutely crucial role when it comes to identication with a

particular neighbourhood. If we also take into account the lengthof residency and the period of life when people moved to the

neighborhood, we can conclude that those individuals who have

lived in a particular neighborhood unit from their childhood

have fully adapted to their environment and have identied with

it through their childhood experiences. Members of peer groups

have created closed communities in which they all connect their

identity with the neighborhood.

Peer groups have developed between members of a certain age

and Petar and Boris, who are both eight years old, are part of

one. When they were asked about whether they identify with

their environment or perhaps feel in any way attached to their

block they answered: “Yes, we do. We love our block. We feel at

home here. We know each other by where we come from. If you

say Boris from Block 45 everyone will know that this is me. We

ha lived here ever since we were born and our parents, they livedhere even before that.” (Interview 3)

of twenty-seven year old Marko describes this phenomenon:

“Our son, he was born in New Belgrade, not in thisparticular block, but we moved here when he was very little. This was a very exiting experience forhim. This is not a particularly tall building and be-cause we lived in the third oor, he was able to walkdownstairs for the rst time and come back at his will. A brand new world opened to him there. He enjoyed this environment very much, he bonded with itso much that now when he is older he would neverconsider living anywhere else but New Belgrade.(Interview 2)

On the other hand the older population, which has spent a small-

er part of their lives there accepted their environment, but only

identied with some particular aspects of the neighborhood. In

one of the interviews Bogdan was asked whether identication

with his environment happened on the level of a city, particularbuildings, relationships or something else:

“I would say none of these, perhaps all together. Idon’t think that you identify with buildings. Theplace I identify with is my whole world. It is what Isee, what I remember, what I feel and who I meet. Itis the little things that eventually pile up and form

something bigger. For example where I buy my icecream, where I buy my newspaper, where I read, thetrees that surround me etc. In my block I got quiteattached to two specic trees in front of my window, which they cut down a couple of months ago. It mademe very sad, that they bothered someone.” (Interview 2)

Finally, greenery seems to play an extremely important role in

the lives of the people, not only in New Belgrade, but also inZagreb and Ljubljana. This, however, does not come as a sur-

71



Tree most denitely is the “best friend” of the New Belgrade blocks

prise since the abundance of greenery in New Belgrade truly is

impressive. Testimonies of people in fact reveal that greenery

might be one of the crucial factors when it comes to the feeling

of belonging in adults. Ljiljana shares her feelings and attach-

ment in relation to greenery:

dren of nature only a tree, as an element of familiarity and hu-

man scale can modify “a scene that is too vast, and its casual

forms contrast with the rigid forms which we have conceived and

made by the machinery of our epoch.” (Le Corbusier, 1929, p237)

For New Belgradians nature is simply an element of soothing

that protects them from the otherwise rather brutal surround-



“I guess I also have certain paths among the treesin the park where I often go for a walk and I regardthose paths as my own and so on. I don’t know ifthis is identication, it certainly is an emotional con-nection between me and for example a certain place, view, scene. I would say that young people identify with their peers more than my generation did. I amnot sure to what extent they nd themselves emo-tionally attached to, for example, beautiful views ofnature.” (Interview 2)

In one of his most important publications, “The City of Tomorrow

and Its Planning” Le Corbusier emphasizes the absolute impor-

tance of greenery in relation to identication with the modern

urban landscapes. In his view trees are essential as they prevent

the individual being overwhelmed by the articial environment.

The physical landscape exceeds the scale of a man several times

in New Belgrade, not only due to the height of the structures,but also due to the distances between them. For this reason the

following words of Le Corbusier seem absolutely essential to our

understanding of why most of New Belgradians don’t perceive

their city as a concrete jungle, despite their strong rejection of

visual and material qualities of the built environment.

“As a man nds himself alone in vast empty spaces

he grows disheartened. Architecture is able to makegreat play with contrasts, to harmonize simple ele-ments with complex ones and small with great, toblend the forcible with the graceful. The vast build-ings which the town planning of the future will bringabout would crush us if there were no common mea-sure between them and ourselves.”


Le Corbusier then continues by saying that since we are all chil-

that protects them from the otherwise rather brutal surround

ings. Nature is this city’s last hope and salvation from deper-sonalization, as its presence diminishes the role of the harsh

concrete landscape to the one of the backdrop.

“It would seem that the tree is an element essentialto our comfort, and its presence in the city is a sortof caress, a kindly thing in the midst of our severecreations.” (Le Corbusier, 1929, p237)

Although we have covered many aspects of life in relation to

the sense of belonging and attempted to nd a reason behind

this rather odd relationship between the city and its dwellers, it

would be unjust to expose only one. One thing is certain nonethe-

less. In the city of New Belgrade as well as New Zagreb nature

plays an absolutely crucial role in covering up some negative

aspects of the life in a concrete city. For this reason let us nish

this chapter with an extract from the interview with Vladimir

who has lived in a New Zagreb skyscraper for almost forty years,as his emotional testimony describes the pure essence of the

importance of nature in the lives of people in the cities such as

both New Zagreb and New Belgrade:

“These three trees I found abandoned and startedtaking care of them years ago. Now they grew im-mensely over the last years. You might wonder why I

am telling you this story. The trees are right next tomy garage, as you can see. Every time I come homeI park my car in the garage, take the chair out, sitdown for a beer and enjoy how quiet this park is. Myson would come often and sits down for a conversa-tion or to drink a beer with me. For him this feelsalmost like a holiday.” (Interview 6)

73



The view of Friendship Park and New Belgrade in the background from Branko’s Bridge. Greenery of New Belgrade alleviates the harshness of the concrete infrastructure



Stunning view of New Zagreb skyscrapers amidst the abundance of grenery



Looking down from the top of a New Zagreb skyscraper



Conclusion



A typical New Belgrade neighbourhood

In order to understand the city of New Belgrade we rst covered

its historical background and the planning principles behind

the city. We experienced the pre-urban New Belgrade from the

1940’s to 1960’s and the life during the years of construction,

as well as life in the socialist New Belgrade after the construc-

tion ceased. We then compared this experience to the experience

of the present New Belgrade.

ent aspects of a city. Thus whilst childhood experience and the

experience of the community seems to be crucial for belonging

regarding younger people who have lived in New Belgrade their

entire lives, the roots of this belonging within the older popula-

tion can be found in the spiritual relationship with nature and

experiences of the natural realm.



of the present New Belgrade.

We researched the success of applying the particular planning

strategies of the Athens Charter in relation to the city of New

Belgrade, such as the notion of openness, greenery, deconges-

tion, and ideas about trafc and transport, as well as people’s

experiences of these qualities. We have discussed the importance

of providing services for the life in a city and attempted to il-

lustrate the experience of living in the absence of such services.

We validated the prejudice we had had about the city prior to our visit as the residents demonstrated an overall rejection of the

visual image of the city’s built environment, and the material-

ity of its building. Despite the rejection of the visual image and

materiality, the inhabitants throughout the entire dissertation,

nonetheless, demonstrated a surprisingly strong acceptance of

their living environments.

This was the turning point after which the true goal of this dis-sertation was revealed at last. As the cause for this uncondi-

tional acceptance of the living environment could not be found

in the tangible qualities of the city it was crucial for us to focus

on the realm of the intangible. Past this point our goal became

to seek an answer to the spiritual connection between the dwell-

ers and the city. We took a look at the notions of community

and neighbourhood in relation to belonging, which gave us some

understanding of the relationships between the dwellers andtheir attachments to their environment. Childhood experiences

of New Belgrade’s urban landscape and the memories associated

with these experiences proved to be of vital importance for the

development of belonging to this particular place.

This helped us to not only understand that one of the most im-

portant factors for attachment to a city is the period of life in

which the residents moved to the city, but also that different

generations developed a sense of belonging in relation to differ-

To what extent, however, is the sense of belonging specic to the

city of New Belgrade, since many would argue that this phenom-

enon is no more specic to neighbourhoods of New Belgrade

than it is to the social housing estates in the United States or the

UK? First it is important to take into account the fact that those

living in social housing estates very rarely have the opportunity

of an alternative lifestyle and so their acceptance of the environ-

ment does not originate in belonging but in the necessity and

inability to exit. As Blokland explains, in neighbourhoods likethese “neither practical nor symbolic use of the neighbourhoods

occurs” and so they accept their environment simply because

of the low rent and the fact that “everybody needs to live some-

where.” (Blokland 2003, p158) On the contrary, people living in

New Belgrade often refused to live anywhere else even if they

were offered an opportunity. Ljiljana explains:

My mother left him (Marko, the son) a at in the OldCity when she passed away. Instead of living therehe would sell this at and buy one in New Belgrade.That is how much he felt a part of the new city. Heloves this part of town.” (Interview 2)

And so with every interview it seemed that the phenomenon of

belonging in the residents of New Belgrade is in fact city spe-

cic. Ljiljana, however, highlights the fact that that some correla-tion between this emotion and the character of the Serbians as

a nation might exist as well. When asked why people in Slovenia

experience the belonging to a place on a rather different level

compared to Serbians, she answered: “This is simply because

you Slovenians are different. I would say it is because you don’t

have this, how can I put it, certain emotion, sentiment. You don’t

relate to the “place” on the same emotional level as we do.”

(Interview 2)

83



Concrete megastructures of New Belgrade



Left: New Belgrade landscape as viewed from the top of one of the skyscrapers.Back alley in one of New Belgrade neihbourgoods along the Jurija Gagarina street

Nevertheless, one critical factor still needs to be examined in

order for us to obtain an overall answer as to why the residents

accepted the city of New Belgrade as their own.

The apartments in New Belgrade were distributed amongst peo-

ple according to the size of the family, occupation and merits,

but most importantly they were free:

things we did not mind that our living environment did not offer

us the leisure opportunities. And so yes, I do look nostalgically at

my past, life was better in many aspects.” (Interview 4)

New Belgrade is a mysterious city, and as such very hard to

explain. It is a city of many layers, colours and languages. As a

city of contrasts New Belgrade only works as a whole entity and

ll h d h d l



“We had nothing then, so we were incredibly thankfulfor the life they gave us. My late husband was a mili-tary ofcer so we basically received this at for free.You cannot be dissatised with what you are givenfor free, and so even though some things botheredus, we were grateful. Socialism offered us a good liv-ing standard. To own a at is something most young

people cannot even dream of today. Back then it wastotally different.” (Interview 4)

For many these ats were, especially during the times of the

housing crises, gifts from above. They not only saved them from

a life of misery, but were also an opportunity for a fresh start

and the symbol of a new modern life. And so for this reason

relatively strong gratitude developed among the people of New

Belgrade despite the evident drawbacks of the city:

“Another thing you need to know is that getting anapartment was one of the most joyous occasions inour lives. It was a long wait before we were given theapartments. For most of us these ats were unreal,meaning that they exceeded our expectations. They were often bigger than we deserved or expected.”

(Interview 5)

Not only were the people grateful for the living environment they

were offered, but were also grateful for the living standard the

system gave them. Valerija remembers: “Living standard out-

weighed the drawbacks of living in this concrete jungle. The way

of life was much better, we would travel every year to places that

we cannot even imagine travelling to today. It was luxury and it

still is luxury, but back then we could afford it because the loans

were so cheap or you could pay the instalments. Because of these

will as such disappoint anyone who remains xated on its visual

weakness. On the contrary, it will open its heart to those who will

open their hearts back and listen to what it has to say. In our

attempt to fully understand why this city works the way it does

and to understand the mystery behind the unique bond between

the residents and the city, it’s component parts rst needed to

be taken apart, it’s ingredients extracted and afterwards studied

thoroughly in isolation. However, as we have learned, in the case

of New Belgrade the relationships between the components aremore important than the components as such. In fact these re-

lationships are absolutely crucial, because many of components

do not function in isolation.

Perhaps there is no denitive answer to the question as to what

makes this city so different from any other, which is a rather

extraordinary phenomenon. I know now, that I will never fully

understand the city of New Belgrade, at least I will never under-stand it’s secret. And so although there is something about this

city, that made me feel at home when rst seeing it, perhaps

searching for its secret would only ruin the magic behind it.

87



Opennes is one of New Belgrade’s most inspiring features



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Articial lake and skyscrapers of New Zagreb in the background

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95



Monumentality of the New Belgrade megastructures

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1



Appendix

Interviews

Interview 1

Ljubica, age 35

Mother of two, a nurse.

Block 63, New Belgrade

Some would describe the blocks of New Belgrade as a relatively

monotonous environment How have You experienced it?

then, so we would, for example, collect paper around the block

in exchange for lollipops or ice cream. We were all the same in a

way. Those times were different, somewhat special.

Now the times have changed, this equality has disappeared and

the spirit of togetherness vanished in a way. My block was a

block where only military families lived. My father was a military

ofcer. In some other blocks most of the people came from thecountryside in pursuit of a better life so you could really feel



monotonous environment. How have You experienced it?

I have lived in these blocks my entire life actually, even now I live

a bit further down the road in a block of at is a bit lower, only

about 5 or 6 storeys. Back when I was still a child, the blocks

seemed phenomenal to me. We would play around from sunrise

to sunset. There were parks that were taken care of, so we would

run around, play on the swing and slides. I have to admit wehad a somewhat incredible childhood. I would say those were the

easier times, in a way carefree and better times. Somehow these

blocks are all my whole life.

Do You still experience the environment in the same way now

that You are older?

The situation now is much worse. There are no benches to siton, no playgrounds for children, which really bothers me as a

young mother. There used to be swings, basketball elds, football

elds and all sorts of things. The authorities today focus only on

taking care of one park a few blocks down the road, however, all

the other blocks are left abandoned. It was considerably greener

when I was younger. Now the children play in the doorways and

hang out in passages because they have no other place to go.

Would You say that when You were younger You felt a certain

belonging to Your block, to be more precise, did You identify

with it to a certain level?

Yes, most certainly I identied with it. Not only with the people,

but with the block as such. There were more children hanging

out together, I would say there were around 30 of us. We would

be sneaking and lurking around, playing all the time.

In fact, there were work campaigns organised every now and

countryside in pursuit of a better life, so you could really feel

this positive energy between them, empathy I would say. Our

generation is already so urbanized that this togetherness is not

leading our lives anymore. Activities have changed, technology

and transport has changed our lives, children play video games

in their tiny ats or go to the cinema, very few stay outdoors and

play in the greenery. I try to keep my two children away from the

computer as much as possible and instead go downstairs withthem to play in the green areas.

But You must admit, New Belgrade is, to some extent, a con-

crete jungle. Does this brutal architecture bother You in any

way? Would You say life would be happier in an environment

that would give a less cruel impression?

I would disagree with that impression. I got used to the look ofmy environment very early on. I accepted it, since I have lived

in such environment my entire life. It even seemed quite inter-

esting to me. Large, high rise buildings have seemed extremely

impressive to me ever since I was little.

Even elevator rides exited me when I was a little girl. Now that

I am a mother I look at this aspect of architecture differently,

these high rise buildings seem enormous to me, I would never

live in these particular sorts of blocks now, mainly because of my

situation as a mother.

It is much more convenient for a family with children, more nat-

ural. But as I said even these tall buildings seem impressive to

me, they have a certain quality, whether it is materiality or size

it is hard to say. I believe that if you look at the world optimisti-

cally, then you can make it work. And people back then looked at

the world with positive eyes, for most of them this was all they

98

had. They were very hopeful about the future.

On the other hand, if you are a negative person, you will nd

something bad in every aspect of life. I believe it is all a matter

of what kind of person you are. But also, these buildings are

too large to ever be demolished, they will stay here forever so I

believe that we have to accept this situation and make it work

for ourselves.

positive characteristics, which you won’t nd even in some of

the most expensive apartments in the old city of Belgrade. For

example, as I have said, these all used to be military ats. So

some of the ats on the top oors, were reserved for military pi -

lots and used to have large balconies and terraces, where people

would create gardens, build swimming pools etc.

Would You say that, because You have lived here Your wholelife You look at New Belgrade and its buildings with different



Don’t get me wrong, I do not like the visual image of these build-

ings, perhaps you could say they are even ugly, inhumane, cruel.

I admit, the buildings are in fact too tall. I heard stories that life

in tall building can affect the blood ow, apparently because of

gravity. Some people say you shouldn’t live too far away from the

ground, that living in a house is healthier, I don’ know. Life in

skyscrapers most certainly differs from life in the countryside,however, I would not say that this can in any way affect the happi-

ness. Depression does not have origins in the built environment.

The problems of people who suffer from depression originate

somewhere else. You are the only one who can give meaning to

your own life. It is not in any way whatsoever connected to the

buildings. Suicides happen everywhere in the world.

We had a wonderful childhood here, so most of us have continued with our lives in New Belgrade. The architecture has not affected

our happiness. I don’t believe that architecture can affect the

way children are raised and what they achieve later in life. This

is strictly the role and responsibility of the parents. Hundreds of

successful people were brought up in these blocks.

What about the ats as such, are You satised with their stan-

dards?

This is debatable, back in time when people moved in everyone

was happy about the ats. This was mostly because we were all

happy to receive a at, no matter how good or bad it was. We

were thankful, however, now that the times have changed, you

slowly start to spot the aws. The ceilings are very thin and low,

you can hear neighbours talking, watching television, some of

the walls that separate ats are only partitions, and so the level

of privacy is not very high. But some ats have a number of very

life You look at New Belgrade and its buildings with different

eyes compared to people who have moved here recently?

It is quite hard to answer this question. People move to New Bel-

grade for different reasons, some of them because of the price,

some because, their relatives left them these ats, and some

because of the location. The location is very nice, especially over

recent years when several new amenities have been provided.Shops, markets and similar facilities are around the corner,

transport is not as bad as well.

However, to answer your question more specically my husband,

for example, has not lived here his entire life. Before we moved

to New Belgrade, his family lived in a house in Zemun. There

he lived a lifestyle that was diametrically different to what he

found in New Belgrade. Zemun, whilst still a part of the urbanBelgrade, feels more like the countryside. It is really beautiful

there, so it was quite hard for him to settle here. It took him

quite a while before he got used to the constant noise of the

blocks. But eventually he did.

I wouldn’t say people who moved here recently look at this place

much differently, perhaps they are a bit more nervous in their

interactions, but whether this is the result of the living environ-

ment or not, I wouldn’t know.

What about the young people? How do they cope with this en-

vironment?

Every block is specic, so we can talk about certain level of iden-

tication. For example block 45 down the road is famous for

its musicians. Some of the greatest artists of our generation

grew up in these blocks. There certainly is a lot of creativity

99

in this environment, which would not be born anywhere else

in Belgrade. It is a quite inspiring place to live in, I would say.

But as anywhere in the world, even here you can expect to be

surrounded by all sorts of people. So yes, you can expect drug

addicts and hooligans as well. Problems occur on an everyday

basis, but if we use the example of Zemun again, even there you

can nd gangsters of the so-called “Zemun Clan” and Zemun is

supposedly a quiet place to live. I believe it is much more impor-tant how you raise your children and then this will inuence how

To what extent do the blocks differ from each other?

I wouldn’t say they differ much, external looks perhaps, the

height, materials. The lower blocks of ats are perhaps of higher

quality, but overall I don’t see much difference. I believe this

was the whole point, to build for equality. I know from what my

mother told me that across the road there was a eld with bar -

racks and people lived there. When the workers with the ma-chines came to build the new blocks they evicted those people



ta t ow you a se you c d e a d t e t s w ue ce ow

they understand and use their environment.

But if we go back to more positive topics: lets nish with creativ -

ity within the block that I was telling you about before. Even

though it is really hard to explain and transfer this to you, there

certainly is this special spirit of creativity in the block, a certain

alternative movement that I really like and think is very healthy.It is a one of a kind experience.

This is exactly what I would like to nd out, this feeling of

the community. Can You feel this sense of togetherness in the

community?

A lot has changed, indeed. People have changed as well. Many

new people moved to New Belgrade to be honest, on the otherhand, there are a lot of retired people living here as well. It was

different before, we were together, and relationships were more

sincere, more often. Perhaps it is the times that are living in that

is to blame, I wouldn’t know for sure. But I know that when I still

lived here I had no relationships with any of the new people from

the block, which was almost impossible when I was younger. I

have good relationships with my neighbours, however, the times

when you would ask your neighbours to look after your at, wa-

ter your plants, wipe the dust for you etc. while you are away

are gone. Trust is gone to a certain extent, people don’t have

condence in others anymore.

These sorts of relationships perhaps still apply to older genera-

tions, but younger generations don’t share this feeling anymore.

It might be that because of the current economic situation, peo-

ple shut themselves off from the external world, stay in their

little environments, takes care of themselves.

chines came to build the new blocks they evicted those people

and gave them ats in there. Perhaps new blocks are better, but

I wouldn’t say that the difference is worth mentioning. To be

honest, all of these blocks seem quite well built. A lot of money

was invested in them.

Are You at all familiar with the original plans of what New

Belgrade was supposed to become? Perhaps You were taughtat school about some of those concepts?

No not at all. New Belgrade has been a huge dormitory ever

since I can remember.

Does this bother You?

It doesn’t bother me, no. I got used to it. This is my area, thearea I grew up in. I am raising my family here now so I somehow

identify my life with New Belgrade.

The fact that all those plans failed does not really affect me.

Those were different times anyway. I truly like New Belgrade. I

like the Old City too as there are some fabulous areas there as

well. I like to walk the streets in the city centre, the green neigh-

bourhoods such as Zvezdara, Dorcel, don’t even get me started

on Dedinje. I wouldn’t say that if offered I would not switch to

living in the Old City, however, I am bound to New Belgrade

through my childhood.

As I said New Belgrade has always been my home and now it is

the home to my family. My family is what is most important to

me. I have all my friends here, all my relatives live here, uncles,

aunties. All the people that I know are here and we spend a lot of

time together. When you know the people it is easier to gure out

100

how the place works, so it is easier for you to function within it.

You experience things completely differently. Somehow you feel

at home. It does not actually matter where you are and what this

place looks like.

Another thing is that if you ask people who are older these same

questions they will probably say that this environment is hor-

rible, at least I can imagine they will. They unfortunately lookat these things with different, pessimistic eyes. I see myself as

the primary school. Some of my friends were also from other

blocks.



g , p y y

an optimist, but also I had a wonderful childhood here, so this

might be the reason why our views differ.

So what was a typical day like when you were a child?

We would play hula-hoop, dodge ball, and volleyball from morning

until evening. We would be running around chasing each other,eating ice cream. Our favourite one was the one that had two

sticks, so you could split it in half and share it. We were very gen-

erous to each other. There was one store in the entire block, so

you could only buy the more necessary things. My mom would,

however, buy me this ice cream and I would share it with friends.

Now things are different. Shopping malls ruined this charm. You

buy things that you don’t need.

How did You interact with children from Your neighbourhood /

other neighbourhoods?

We mostly made friends with other children from our block, per-

haps even our building. We did not really play with the children

from other blocks. Streets separate blocks. This was very im-

portant. Especially when we were little, we weren’t allowed to

cross the streets. Streets are wide and dangerous. We felt safe in

our own neighbourhood, plus our parents were reassured if they

knew we were playing in front of the building. So yes, there was

a certain level of separation between the blocks.

In primary school rivalry between Block 63 where I lived and

adjacent Block 62 was extremely fun. But as I said, I hung out

with kids from my block because I would see them every day. Of

course not everyone I knew was from my block simply because

every block did not have a school, so we would for example share

101

Interview 2

Ljiljana and Bogdan, age 62 and 64

Retired university professors


How did You deal with this brand new lifestyle during Yourrst years in New Belgrade?

to kill the monotony, no interesting details, at least I see it this

way. Nowadays they build these new glass palaces between old

cubes, they build new multicoloured buildings and keep worsen-

ing the situation further and further. Sometimes I think that

whoever is behind these projects must really hate people.

One of the rare positive aspects is probably that this sort of en-

vironment might seem quite imposing to many. I quite like the

openness, grandiosity etc.



y g

My husband and I we moved to New Belgrade 35 years ago from

the Old City. He used to live in Dorcel and I lived in Zvezdara,

both beautiful parts of Belgrade, however, from the moment we

arrived to New Belgrade we knew very clearly that we are never

going to return back to the Old City. There was simply so much

space here, streets were wide and you could breathe the air. Ofcourse it took us time to adjust to this new way of life.

And so we would go back to the city centre for a walk almost

every day, we would stroll down the Knez Mihailova street or go

buy groceries as there were almost no shops opened around our

block. But with every day we would be drawn more and more to

New Belgrade. Our block is quite close to the river so we would

go for a walk every day and enjoy this openness we did not knowbefore. My husband used to live in Strahinjica Bana street in

the city centre, now more commonly known for its party scene

as “The Silicon Valley”. Now he simply cannot imagine life there

with thousands and thousands of people on the street every day

drinking and making noise. You cannot even breathe normally

because the place is so crowded.

What is Your opinion about Your living environment?

I would have to say the condition of the buildings is rather bad.

The façade is crumbling and quite large pieces of it are falling off

on a regular basis. Buildings are made entirely out of concrete,

and concrete is hell. During the summer it heats up to a degree

that if you touch it, it is almost as hot as the hot plate. On the

other hand, during the wintertime it is freezing cold. It is a hor-

rible material to live in. Even the aesthetics of the neighbour-

hoods is disappointing. It is like living in a city of cubes, nothing

So if I understand correctly You are generally displeased by

the visual image of Your living environment?

I don’t like it one bit. It is grey and boring.

But are you satised with the interior of the apartment?

I am rather dissatised with ats as such. The arrangement of

the rooms is just silly. The rooms are very small, I would not

even count them as rooms. It almost seems that when they built

these ats their logic was to take one regular sized room and

split it in half in order to make two. To be honest this is a at for

two. I cannot imagine our son still living here with us. With the

exception of one room the entire at is separated merely by slid -

ing or harmonica doors. My husband in a way prefers this sort

of arrangement, while I am not so keen on it. A person needs pri-

vacy every now and then. These sorts of ats do not allow you to

isolate yourself from others. It is almost impossible to fall asleep

in one room whilst someone is doing something else in the other

rooms. Of course this is not the only problem. We can also hear

every sound coming from ats around us, every sentence, every

footstep. We can hear neighbours watching the telly etc.

We quite like the fact that we have a balcony since this is in a way

the place where you can hide if you want to. We have a tiny little

stove on the balcony as well so we use it for cooking as long as it

is not too hot outside.

Do You know anything about the original plans for New Bel-

grade to become the new political, economic and cultural cen-

tre of Yugoslavia?

I was not familiar with that detail. This is probably why they built

102

the general assembly building. It seems interesting to me though

because I know quite a lot about what was happening in this very

place before the 1940’s but somehow I don’t have a clue about

these plans. If you want I can tell you a story, because I think

it is quite interesting perhaps even ironic how things evolved

through time.

Please do.

of living in this environment? Why does it often happen that

younger people identify with the blocks to a much greater ex-

tent than some older people?

I would certainly agree that belonging is probably an integral

part of a young persons life here in New Belgrade. For example

our son, he was born in New Belgrade, not in this particular

block, but we moved here when he was very little. This was a very exiting experience for him. This is not a particulary tall



In 1938 the fairground was built in the middle of an empty area

next to the old Sava Bridge, today Branko’s Bridge in New Bel-

grade. This was a place where the most important innovations of

that time were presented, even television. This fairground was

seen as a place where people from the East and the West would

meet, exchange information, contacts and make new friendships,

the centre of Europe in a way. So I can see how this trough timecould evolve into a capital, which is now one of the most impor-

tant European centres.

Can you describe the life in the neighbourhood?

The neighbourhood is relatively alive, children still come out and

play, however, I would say much less than they used to. They play

basketball or tennis against the walls, some older kids practice

parkour and some other unusual activities as well. They play on

top of what they call “garages” which are this concrete struc-

tures in front of the entrance. To me, these garages seem quite

inappropriate to be playgrounds. A lot of kids get injured.

Some older people sit on the benches and talk to each other, but

I would say children and youngsters are the ones that give the

neighbourhood most of its vibrancy. To be honest the neighbour-

hoods are not especially well looked after. Sports facilities are in

horrible condition, benches are broken and the older concrete

benches are extremely uncomfortable to sit on. Overall the pre-

diction that the architects of this neighbourhood had about how

people will use the outdoors furniture was completely wrong. I

would never go out and relax on this kind of furniture. This is

why my husband and I usually catch the sunrays on our balcony.

Would you say that feeling of belonging is an important part

building and because we lived on the third oor, he was able to

walk downstairs for the rst time and come back at his will. A

brand new world opened up to him there. He enjoyed this envi-

ronment very much, he bonded with it so much that now when

he is older he would never consider living anywhere else but New

Belgrade.

My mother left him a at in the Old City when she past away.Instead of living there he would sell this at and buy one in New

Belgrade. That is how much he felt a part the new city. He loves

this part of town.

If I understand correctly You probably would not agree with

the premise that living in a concrete environment such as New

Belgrade can affect persons happiness, health, success in life?

No certainly not, at least in the long term. Children will always

nd a way if they are creative, smart and if they are brought

up well. Many successful people have come out of these blocks

over recent years, some of them are my son’s generation. For

example Saša Djordjević, famous Serbian basketball player, he is

a child of the Blocks. He started playing basketball when he was

still little right here in these block. He has turned out to be very

successful.

There are many Serbian lms that were lmed here in Belgrade,

for example Rane (Wounds), 1 na 1 (1 on 1), Absolutnih Sto

etc. All these lms tell different stories of young people who live

here. Some stories are tragic but some are stories of people who

found happiness in what for some would be a desperate situa-

tion. Sometimes this belonging is exactly what saved them and

eventually helps them to enter the real world.

103

But again, why is this emotional connection so often associ-

ated with youth?

Perhaps it is the inuence of the American hip-hop culture,

which did leave an evident trace in behaviour of young people

here in regard to gangs, blocks and belonging to the peer group.

But I believe this phenomenon is more than anything simply an

emotional connection to “your” place. You identify yourself with

a place you feel you belong to, a place where you come from. Forexample, as I said I come from Zvezdara. I love Zvezdara. I still

f l h Z d h Th h h h h l

place, view, scene. There are of course things and scenes that

disgust me: abandoned dogs, buildings that are falling apart,

holes in the streets, broken benches, litter everywhere.

I would say that young people identify with their peers more than

my generation did. I am unsure to what extent they nd them -

selves emotionally attached to e.g. beautiful views of nature.



feel that Zvezdara is my home. This is where my high school

was, it is where my mother would take me to buy my rst shoes,

materials for knitting etc. Zvezdara is where my life began.

Ok, I can understand this, but in Slovenia for example I lived

in one street almost my entire childhood, in the years that I

believe, were crucial for my further development. I can hardlyspeak of any sort of emotional connection to that particular

place.

This is simply because you Slovenians are different. I would say

it is because you don’t have this, how can I put it, certain emo-

tion, sentiment. You don’t relate to the “place” on the same emo-

tional level as we do.

But would You say that this identication occurs on the level

of the city, buildings, relations etc.?

I would say none of these, perhaps all together. I don’t think that

you identify with buildings. The place I identify with is my whole

world. It is what I see, what I remember, what I feel and who I

meet. It is the little things that eventually pile up and form some-

thing bigger. For example where I buy my ice cream, where I buy

my newspaper, where I read, the trees that surround me etc. In

my block I got quite attached to two specic trees in front of my

window, which they cut down a couple of months ago. It made me

very sad, that they bothered someone.

I guess I also have certain paths amongst the trees in the park

where I often go for a walk and I regard those paths as my own

and so on. I don’t know if this is identication, it certainly is

an emotional connection between me and for example a certain

104

Interview 3

Petar and Boris, age 8

Primary school students


How would you describe life in the blocks?

I d ll l k I l 5 b ld h

No, we don’t. (Boris) Well very rarely, sometimes, almost never,

never... (Petar) We don’t ght. But the older guys they ght all

the time.

But have you ever experienced any sort of problems in this

block that would make you feel scared?

No, never. I don’t think I have ever had or saw any problems inmy block. I feel very safe.



It is good, we really like it. I live in a 5 storey building over there

and he lives in this skyscraper. But we spend most of our time

outside playing so it is great.

What does your day look like? Do you play with children from

your own block or do you have friends in other neighbourhoods

as well?

Well we are from the same block so we spend most of the time

together, but we have friends from everywhere, from other build-

ings as well, even in other blocks. We usually meet on the basket-

ball court, someone is always there so you always have someone

to play with. We play football, basketball and, so on.

Would you change anything in your block?

Perhaps it would be nice if someone took care of the buildings

and the environment. The ground seems very dirty to me and I

don’t like that. Buildings seem dirty as well.

Could you say you are attached to your block?

Yes, we are. We love our block. We feel at home here. We know

each other by where we come from. If you say Boris from Block

45 everyone will know that this is me. We have lived here ever

since we were born and our parents, they lived here even before

that. They said that it was always very nice.

Is there any rivalry present, to be more precise, are there any

disputes between the blocks? Do you ever ght with children

from other blocks?

105

Interview 4

Valerija, age 82

Paediatrician


Block 23 was one of the rst ones to be built in New Belgradeand You say You have lived here from the very rst day it was

built Could You please describe me the situation that awaited

bothered me, I would have to say.

And so this decoration helped to keep this neighbourhood more

people friendly for quite a while, however, today I started to no-

tice that people just don’t care about decoration anymore.

My block wasn’t really a pleasant environment to live in as you

can imagine. There was no place for pleasure here, because

there were no other facilities built except housing. You would work during the day, return home and then go to rest. Even if

you weren’t tired and wanted to indulge yourself in a certain



built. Could You please describe me the situation that awaited

You when You moved to New Belgrade?

It was horrible. This very place where we stand right now was

covered in sand. It looked like a desert on the one hand, and a

concrete jungle on the other. Nothing was green except some

accidental bushes every now and then. There were no benchesto sit on, no paths, no shade to rest and escape from the sun.

Buildings were surrounding us but between them everything

was empty, a big unused empty desert where the shops were as

rare as hen’s teeth. New Belgrade sure is a bit chaotic today with

all the shopping malls and banks everywhere, but at least life is

easier now in that respect.

But You probably did not live amongst sand for very long, amI right? How would You describe Your living environment once

You settled in New Belgrade?

You are right, things did change, however, I would not say that

much has changed in relation to the quality of living environ-

ment.

So what bothered You the most about it?

It was ugly, that is what bothered me. There was concrete every-

where, the buildings, the benches, the paths, the garages, and

the playgrounds. I was used to living in a house before I came

here, so it was quite a shock to me. Concrete is such a cold mate-

rial, it makes the environment gloomy, so we decided to x that.

We would put owers on the balconies and those who lived on the

ground oor would create little gardens in front of their doors. I

lived in a house in Zemun before, so this lack of greenery quite

you weren t tired and wanted to indulge yourself in a certain

activity you had no option to do that. New Belgrade really was a

large dormitory back then.

What kept You going then?

Well rst you have to know that we had nothing then, so we wereincredibly thankful for the life they gave us. My late husband was

a military ofcer so we basically received this at for free. You

cannot be dissatised with what you are given for free, and so

even though some things bothered us, we were grateful. Social-

ism offered us a good living standard. To own a at is something

most young people cannot even dream of today. Back then it was

totally different.

My boss, she was planning to paint the walls in her at, but

instead she just decided to switch ats so she would not have to

paint. That is how easy it was in some cases.

Living standard outweighed the drawbacks of living in this con-

crete jungle. The way of life was much better, we would travel

every year to places that we cannot even imagine travelling to

today. It was luxury and it still is luxury, but back then we could

afford it because the loans were so cheap or you could pay the

instalments. Because of these things we did not mind that our

living environment did not offer us the leisure opportunity. And

so yes, I do look nostalgically at my past, life was better in many

aspects.

How Would You compare the life in the community between

Your rst years here and today?

106

I would say that there was perhaps a bit of this spirit of togeth-

erness present, but I believe that was because we were all the

same. We were all families of military men and at work we were

all health care workers. These were the only two worlds that I

knew, so even when I was home I would only be in the company

of girls I already knew from my workplace.

Those were our little rituals where we would meet in each other’sats drink coffee, smoke cigarettes and chat. This was simply

because there was not much to do outside We were lot more con-

reason is that I just can’t stand the big crowds. New Belgrade

has, in the last 40 years, become a green city in a true sense of

the word. I enjoy nature a lot. The conuence of the rivers and

the Friendship Park are only a few minutes away, so I would

much rather take a stroll trough the park than go to the Old

Town.

Would You say that You are a bit disappointed by the fact thatNew Belgrade never became a great capital it was supposed to

be? That the great dreams of the 1960’s never came to life?



because there was not much to do outside. We were lot more con

nected back then than people are now, I think. We would hang

out together when we found the time. Now, I think, the lives of

people became much more individually oriented. But the prob-

lem lies somewhere else as well. I believe that for the community

to function it is extremely important that everyone is the same.

We were all equal back then, nancially, profession-wise and bybackground. As I said, every family in our block was a military

family. This is probably why we felt a certain level of connection.

In contrast, the community is very heterogeneous today. We are

not as tight together because we differ too much.

If You were asked to compare Your life in the 1970s and now,

what would You say?

Life today is good, I mean, You always have to look at both as-

pects, the good and the bad. Just like the advantages of life in

the 1970s outweighed it’s disadvantages and with that I mean

the fact that living standard outweighed physical limitations of

the living environment, I can say the same about my life now.

I am not in a position practice many things that seemed normal

back then, such as travelling, all because of my nancial situa-

tion. Sure the community is not as homogeneous and does not

function as well as it did back then, at least in my age group.

However, I have so many other things today that I can enjoy.

Most importantly I have everything I need on my doorstep now,

transit, shops, market, groceries, cafes, parks etc. Compared to

the life in a desert in the 1970s this is wonderful.

I have to admit I rarely go to the city centre anymore. There are

two reasons for that: the rst one is that I don’t need to go there,

as I have everything I need right here in my block. The second

be? That the great dreams of the 1960 s never came to life?

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed by that. I imagined what

life would be in such a community, even though many aspects of

life were far from perfect. However, year after year I slowly got

over this disappointment, especially now that I have been living

this new modern life for so long. I cannot complain about my life,it has treated me well and I am a grateful person.

107

Interview 5

Nikola age 79, Milorad age 83, Miloš age 86

Retirees


Could You picture for us life in Block 23 right after it wasbuilt?

not really a urban lifestyle as there were no shops in the actual

block. And so it was quite hard to get accustomed to travelling

far away only to buy necessities in the nonexistence of transport

opportunities. So unless it was necessary we would mostly stay

in our own block.

There is no modern lifestyle without modern architecture

though. How do you look at the aesthetics of concrete, which pre- vails in New Belgrade, but is especially prominent in Block 23?

Well I think it is obvious that these buildings are not pleasant



The situation was completely the opposite to what you see today.

The visual impression, I have to admit, was quite weird with sand

everywhere and then skyscrapers rising out of the sand. People

would make their own gardens in front of their apartments to

create their own green haven, as greenery in New Belgrade was

quite scarce.

The biggest problem, however, was the trafc or to be more spe -

cic, nonexistence of trafc. Public transport in New Belgrade

was not functioning until long after I moved to this neighbour-

hood. It was quite hard to travel to the Old City. If for example

you wanted to go to Zeleni Venac market you would have to walk

from Blok 23 to Mihaila Pupina Street, which is about 2 miles

away. Then you could take a bus across Branko’s Bridge or walk

an additional mile, all of this only to buy some groceries.

Would You say that You are a bit disappointed by the fact that

New Belgrade never became a great capital it was supposed to

be, an economic, political and cultural centre of this part of Eu-

rope? That the great dreams of the 1960’s never came to life?

I have not heard about this plan. Some of the administrative

buildings that were built did function for some years, however, I

really had no idea that there was a bigger plan behind this.

Would You say that You were prepared for a completely new

modern lifestyle?

We all came to New Belgrade from the countryside or other

smaller towns in Yugoslavia, however, I have to say the we got

accustomed to this new lifestyle very quickly, even though it was

Well I think it is obvious that these buildings are not pleasant

for the viewer’s eye. Most of them, especially in our block 22 are

reminiscent of tombs, mausoleums. I would even argue that the

quality of construction is quite disappointing.

Nonetheless, we have lived in these buildings from the very be-

ginning. Most of us came here from the countryside looking fora better life so not only did we get used to this type of archi-

tecture, but we were glad and happy to accept it. This does not

mean that we do not notice the aws in construction and design,

perhaps the fact that we have lived here for so long means that

we have experienced all of these aws throughout the years. I do

not know how the younger generation responds to this kind of

architecture, but I am guessing it is a bit harder for them to get

accustomed.

Another thing you need to know is that getting an apartment was

one of the most joyous occasions in our lives. It was a long wait

before we were given the apartments. For most of us these ats

were unreal, meaning that they exceeded our expectations. They

were often bigger than we deserved or expected. Very often they

were distributed according to a person’s rank in the military and

since I was a high - ranking ofcer I was entitled to a 3.5 room

apartment. This, however, did not mean that these apartments were quality apartments. My friend here, he is from Slovenia

and he is determined that people who came here from Slovenia

received the worst ats of all. I would not be so sure about that.

Some say that the builders knew when they built the neighbour-

hoods that these ats wouldn’t last more than 60 years. We will

see what happens in the future.

108

Would you agree with the names “dormitory” and “concrete

jungle” that were applied to New Belgrade very soon after it

was built?

In the beginning it really was a dormitory, as there was nothing

else to do here. Shops, community centres, post ofces, banks

and so on were only built towards the end of the 1970s in the

majority of neighbourhoods. Nowadays life is much easier in thatrespect, you have more opportunities when it comes to leisure.

However, if you have no money to do it you are basically limited

hood? What inuences the good functioning of the community?

Perhaps You could compare the situation now and when You

moved in?

I believe people are the ones who create the community. But

without material conditions it is quite hard for the community to

function as is should. Nonetheless, there are many other factors.

Today the community is quite diverse, whereas in the 1970s forexample these differences were relatively small. The new system

has changed a lot of things as well, it almost seems that more



, y y y y

to sitting in parks and playing chess, just like we are now.

We used to have our own room in the block, which was a sort

of community room. Over recent years all of such rooms, bike

sheds, and service rooms have been converted into apartments

by private investors. We lost our room this year so we don’t reallyknow where we are going to hang out during winter.

But if you are asking about concrete, let me tell you one thing. In

thirty or forty years time all of these buildings will end up under

a bulldozer and be demolished. You cannot live with concrete

slabs above you and concrete slabs beneath you. It is not pleas-

ant. Concrete heats up in summer and cools down in winter. It

transmits temperature and humidity. You can hear everything

that is happening above you and below you. It is a horrible mate-

rial to live in. I am grateful that we received these apartments,

don’t get me wrong, but I cannot give them kudos for creating a

quality place to live.

Would You say that certain blocks differ in quality?

Well I would not know whether they differ in quality, at least not

in quality of apartments. Perhaps the military blocks were builtto a higher safety standard, I doubt that apartments are better

though. The biggest difference, in my opinion, occurs when it

comes to location. To me my block, which is Block 22, is much

better than for example adjacent blocks 21 and 23. You have the

marketplace here, amazing transport connections, Sava Cultural

Centre and so on.

How would you evaluate the community in Your neighbour-

g g ,

and more people think more and more individually. They sort of

clam up and hide in their own private world.

How would You compare life under socialism and capitalism in

relation to New Belgrade?

I don’t know whether the relationships between people are better

or worse, but they sure are different. What has really changed for

better are the living conditions. With that I don’t mean the actual

apartments but everything that surrounds them. However, If you

are asking me whether life as such was better back then, I would

say yes. I would still love to live in old Yugoslavia. I think that life

as a whole was better back then.

109

Interview 6

Vladimir, age 72

Factory worker

Block Zaprudje, New Zagreb

How long have You lived in New Zagreb?

I have lived here for a long time, almost 40 years. In fact I moved

swimming pool and museums were built a bit later, but my point

is that the situation, when it comes to amenities, was far better

than in Belgrade at around the same time. There are not many,

so to say, “neighbourhood centres” here. Post ofce, supermar -

ket and bakery are all in the same place, but it does not function

as a community centre.

So how were You then satised with Your living environment?

I have lived in one of these tall skyscrapers the entire time. My



g , y

into this neighbourhood right after it was built.

Could You describe Your experience of New Zagreb at that

time?

The neighbourhood was built relatively quickly, compared tosome other cities in Yugoslavia. Before the city emerged this

area was covered with elds and pastures. The River Sava would

overow every now and then in the times before the levies were

built. New Zagreb was built in the times after the earthquake in

1963 which affected most of Yugoslavia, especially Macedonia

and Bosnia. For this reason all of the buildings that you can see

around you were built to an extremely high safety standards. A

part of the neighbourhood called “cans”, which are these long 6

storey buildings with shiny metal façades was built rst, where-

as the skyscrapers were built as an example of good modern

architecture designed to impress the delegations of state and

foreign ofcials that would visit it. This whole area was empty

before New Zagreb was built.

Some other neighbourhoods such as Siget, Sopot, Sredisce and

Dubrave were built in order to put the Zagreb fairground in con-

text. However, we always saw our neighbourhood as the symbol

of a successful attempt to spread the city across the River Sava.

It was a nice neighbourhood, quite calm. It was expected that

not many cars would pass through it so many streets between

the buildings are quite narrow, which does cause some problems

today.

One of the positive aspects was that schools and kindergartens

were built not long after the ats were nished. High Schools,

apartment is on the 11th oor out of overall 18. The apartment

units are ok, I would say. Flats are quite functional, with a rela-

tively good use of space. Perhaps they are a bit small for a family,

but we don’t complain. The size of 3 of the ats in one storey

is around 60 square meters, whereas one is bigger, around 90

square metres.

The neighbourhood was quite empty at the beginning, there were

no shops except the market place hidden somewhere amongst

the “cans”. We would walk to the city centre to buy everything

else but vegetables and fruit. For example if you needed a mop

or a detergent, a pencil or a book, you would have to go all the

way to the Old Town.

One of the drawbacks is denitely the fact that the skyscrapers

have a lot of, so to say, open surfaces. Not only are they tall

concrete structures, which in the summer results in problems

with heat, problems occur also in times of strong winds and

thunderstorms, because of the large windows. The noise of the

glass jingling in the wind is quite terrifying and since the build-

ing units are very far apart, they do not shelter each other in

times of bad weather.

If you are asking me whether I am satised with the look of the

buildings I would have to say no. But I would not say that it both-

ers me either. You see, trough all these years we slowly got used

to this type of architecture. I believe that the reason why I got

used to it is because I lived in these buildings ever since they

were built and I am almost certain that I look at these buildings

in a different way than you do, for example. Is that right? Per-

haps I am lucky because I live in a building which I quite fancy.

110

I would not, however, want to live in the “cans”. My daughter

wanted to buy an apartment there and I have to say I forbade

her to do that.

How would You compare the life in the Old City to this modern

new life that was offered to You in the 1970s? Do You even go

to the Old City nowadays or are You satised with what You

have here?

I go to the Old City every now and then, but I have to say I most

Well, you were unable to purchase an apartment here, no one

was. These buildings were built by the companies and factories,

just like the one that I worked for. They built these blocks for

their workers. Some of the neighbourhoods were built for mili-

tary men and their families as well, such as Zapredje across the

road, however, the majority of blocks for the civil population.

Legend has it this was in fact done to avoid military attacks,

which would most certainly occur if these blocks were built formilitary personnel only.



certainly avoid going if I can. I used to live in the very centre

of the city when I was young. Back then the town had a certain

meaning, purpose. It had a sense of a small town, with all the

little, so to say, craft shops where you could buy everything you

needed. If you wanted to get your shoes xed you would go to

the shoemaker’s, if you needed the meat you would go to thebutchers. The city has changed a lot since then, unfortunately

for the worse.

On the one hand is the city centre too crowded, and with that I

mean that it became one giant promenade where people showed

off their possessions and a walkway for women to be seen. On

the other hand the result of this is that all these small shops that

I found pleasure to visit back then are now closed, or at least

very close to death I don’t go to the city centre much, I can buy

the necessities here in New Zagreb, so I don’t see a reason why

I would torture myself by going there, god forbid. It is horrible,

there is no openness, no air, too much trafc and no greenery.

To me the old city centre is more of a concrete jungle than this

new part of town, if that makes sense. New Zagreb as you can see

is a town in greenery. Everything is open, bright, overall a great

place to live, it truly has soul, in a way. Parks are everywhereas you can see. This park used to be named Carl Marx park, but

after some time they renamed it to Vjekoslav Majer Park, after

one of the great Croatian writers. In fact many poets, novelists

and artists in general, as well as politicians or activists were

given apartment here in this neighbourhood since many of them

experienced nancial troubles at some point in their lives.

So how did You end up here in this very neighbourhood?

The process was fairly simple, you had to be on the list to get

awarded an apartment and then apartments were given accord-

ing to that list. We paid I believe 10 percent of the value of the

apartment, the rest was paid by the factory and the bank. The

company, however, even returned us our share in instalments

over a 10-year period. Flats were distributed according to howlong you have worked at the company and also according to how

important your knowledge is to the company. The size of the fam-

ily and some other factors would also bring you points when it

came to the distribution of apartments.

Do You have any specic locations around this block that You

really enjoy?

Please walk with me and I will show you. These three trees I

found abandoned and started taking care of them years ago. Now

they have grown immensely over the years. You might wonder

why I am telling you this story. The trees are right next to my

garage, as you can see. Every time I come home I park my car

in the garage, take the chair out, sit down for a beer and enjoy

how quiet this park is. My son would come often and sits down

for a conversation or to drink a beer with me. For him this feels

almost like a holiday.

Can You notice a difference in the way the community func-

tioned for example in the 1970s and now?

Of course, back then everyone was a worker, to be more precise

everyone was employed. Every family had at least one, two or in

sometimes even three employed members. This is a very impor-

tant fact because it inuences the general feeling of the neigh -

111

bourhood and community quite a lot, I would say. The majority

of the social life was, however, happening at the workplace. After

coming home from work those who had children would perhaps

take them for a walk in the park and so on, but that was more

or less it.

You mentioned that according to the principles of Le Corbusier

a neighbourhood should offer a worker 8 hours of leisure after8 hours of work. Well this was not the case here in New Zagreb.

Just like New Belgrade this city did not offer workers much in

I would have to say that it did change. New people came, the

original “settlers” are slowly disappearing, however, the stories

about people moving to New Zagreb from the Old City are not

quite correct. The majority of people who move here come from

the countryside and places far away, such as Slavonija. Perhaps

some parents buy apartments for their children or rent the apart-

ments to students, however, it is still mostly people in pursuit of

a better life who move here. Another important factor that reallytransforms the community is the unemployment rate, which can

be noticed and felt on every corner.



terms of diverse activities except the abundance of greenery.

One of the rare activities which was in fact organised by the

factories were the balls held in the community centre.

And so after work many would go straight to their ats and spend

whatever was left of their day in their own private environment.

In the same manner as some other Yugoslavian cities, New Za-greb quickly got its nickname “dormitory”. This does not mean

that people fell asleep as soon as they arrived from the work-

place, however, they did spend the rest of the day in their ats.

Nonetheless, everyone seemed more or less satised with their

lives. That was a completely different life from the one today.

If you are asking about relationships, friendships I have to disap-

point you. These relationships were based merely on saying hello

and goodbye to someone when you met them on the street. Cer-

tain groups did meet and hang around, however, this relation-

ships were strictly dened by one’s occupation and took place at

set locations such as community centres or clubs.

If you are interested about today, I have to say that I feel very

sorry for the young people. All they do is hang around and drink.

Their lives are quite pathetic, I would say. Most of them are un-

employed and I believe they have fallen into a state of apathy. Alot of them are uneducated, illiterate. On the other hand there

are some very bright exceptions here as well, but I am guessing

this neighbourhood does not stand out in any way from others.

Just like you can nd drugs anywhere you can nd smart and

well raised people everywhere.

What about the structure of the population, has it changed

much through the years?

What truly interests me is whether You were prepared for this

modern life in a modern city, considering the fact that You

moved from the Old City and away from a relatively traditional

lifestyle?

I don’t know whether I was prepared for a modern life when I

moved here. I don’t even know what that truly means. What I

know is I was prepared for a better life. The ats were functional

and offered all the conditions for quality living, for a healthier

life. I moved to New Zagreb at about the same time as I got my

family. New living environment proved to be a perfect place for

raising the family. I have to say I was reborn here. Life I was of-

fered was a very cultural life, of a relatively high standard even

for today and we were very grateful for it. As you can probably

imagine, I did not even have time to think about whether I am

ready for a modern life or not. It would be unfair.

That time truly gave us the opportunity to prosper, in all aspects

of life. If you were a talented and hardworking person, you would

be given an opportunity to take-over a more difcult assignment.

Perhaps this question is too broad, but it is hard to avoid it:

how would You compare Your life in socialism and in capital-ism?

It is hard to say. Perhaps it was better in the past, but probably

because we were young back then. Also, everyone who wanted to

work was offered a job. The ability to work is a very important

part of a peoples lives.

112

Interview 7

Marija, age 60

Teacher

Block Fuzine, Ljubljana

How long have you lived in this neighbourhood?

I have lived here in this neighbourhood for twelve years now,

but I have lived in Ljubljana for 30 years altogether. First when

sion to move here was the one. The visual look of the buildings

does not bother me at all. I have everything I need to survive

here, a shop, bank, post ofce and vast areas where I can go for a

walk with my dogs. I love living here. In comparison to Bezigrad,

where there were no parks, only sidewalks and cars, this place

is a paradise.

But many people see this neighbourhood in particular as oneof the grimiest neighbourhoods in Ljubljana. Are You really

not bothered by the visual image and materiality of Your living

i t?



I moved here I lived in the Bezigrad neighbourhood. And I have

to tell you that I would never go back there again. Even though

nowadays it is a quite popular place to live, my life there was

horrible.

Could You be a little bit more specic?

Of course. As I was saying, I would never move back there ever

again. Cars were parked everywhere, streets were narrow, build-

ings were quite close together, neighbourhood was too dense in

my opinion.

For me as a mother this was a awful location to live. There were

no parks, no playgrounds and no paths, basically no place to

take your child for a walk or to play. I had a somewhat good view

from the apartment I have to admit. However, the view could not

outweigh all the disadvantages of living there.

I love the neighbourhood where I live now. I know it might sound

strange to you, after all Fuzine neighbourhood has a quite infa-

mous reputation among the Slovene people. When I was looking

for a at here I was hoping for anything but Fuzine, once I saw

the neighbourhood and once I saw my apartment I decided that

I am never moving anywhere else again.

My son would say: “Mom, why are we moving to Fuzine, they

shoot each other there.” I told him that the situation is no differ-

ent anywhere else. And so we have lived here for 12 years now

have and not had one problem with anyone in this neighbour-

hood.

If I have done only one thing right in my life, I believe the deci-

environment?

Not at all, even though I would not say that this neighbourhood

is an achievement in the visual sense, however, it has so much to

offer, that I do not even notice the visual drawbacks.

The other day I read in the newspaper that according to a certain

study ats in Fuzine are of a higher quality compared to some

other ats in Ljubljana, even some blocks on very popular loca-

tions. I don’t know whether this is true or not, but apart from

some issues with acoustic privacy, I haven’t had any major prob-

lems in the 12 years I have lived here.

The apartments are terric, very functional, rooms are fairly big

and the at offers quite a lot of privacy. All I can say is that I fell

in love with it the rst time I saw it.

You mentioned acoustics as an issue sometimes. What do you

mean by that?

The walls between ats are adequate, the ceilings, however, are

most certainly too thin. My upstairs neighbour, an older lady,

she constantly complains, rings my doorbell, reports me to allsorts of institutions etc. I guess my dogs bother her. I think this

is ridiculous. I can hear my other neighbour though, running

around her at in the morning before she leaves for work. She

wakes me up every morning, but fortunately I am a very exible

person.

I have to say I was positively shocked when I rst stepped into

this neighbourhood. The greenery, amenities and the buildings

113

as such are in relatively good shape, despite the negative con-

notation that this neighbourhood holds amongst the people of

Ljubljana. How did You manage to tidy up this neighbourhood

to this level?

Every entrance in our building has its own janitor who is paid by

the occupants. The rules are set at meetings we have on regular

basis. No one is allowed to leave their belongings in front of theirdoors so the hallways are always clean and tidied. The occupants

are paying the cleaning lady and she takes care of the hallways

too

only living environment, a place intended merely for sleeping?

No, not at all, after coming home I would cook dinner and then

take my children for a walk. I spent most of my free time with

my children, perhaps this is why I never engaged in relationships

with the people from the neighbourhood. The conditions here

were perfect for raising a child, lots of playgrounds and green-

ery. Now the conditions are even better.

The community centre offers a variety of classes and activities

such as learning a language gymnastics computer lessons



too.

The situation is not the same in all of the buildings though. In

some of the buildings the rules are much looser and abstract so

the occupants of these buildings leave their shoes and bikes in

the hallways. Some of the janitors are extremely hard working,

they mow the lawn all the time, take care of the owers etc.

People living on the ground oor also create their own gardens

in front of their apartments and some of them are quite beauti-

ful.

So do You by any chance experience a sense of community in

Your neighbourhood or are relationships between the neigh-

bours quite brief?

I have to admit I was quite a loner at rst when I moved to this

neighbourhood. But ever since I have my puppies I meet people

from everywhere. I am constantly in contact with people from

various buildings, even though the community is quite hetero-

geneous, I have to say that I don’t choose friends by where they

come from. I realised very soon that nationality or religion do

not make someone a good or bad person.

So yes, nowadays I am a quite sociable person, whereas before

the puppies I would perhaps only say hello to people from my

hallway, my close neighbours.

Back when You were still working, what did a day in Your life

look like? Did Your neighbourhood offer You enough opportuni-

ties for quality leisure or was Your apartment, in a way, Your

such as learning a language, gymnastics, computer lessons,

drawing classes, sculpturing all of these for only 5EUR per

month.

There are so many opportunities for everyone, to exercise, learn

and meet people, you only need to be active. Many young people

only sit around the neighbourhood with no idea what to do with

their lives. They are almost certainly unemployed and completely

lost in life. I realise that the situation nowadays is horrible, to

have a job is luxury. However, with a little bit of effort they could

make something out of themselves instead of drowning their

misery in alcohol and drugs.

114



Thanks to Dr. John Bold, my parents and grandparents as well as Maks, Nina and Tim.

we are new belgrade (2013) by luka kreze

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