Designing Tito's capital : urban planning, modernism, and socialism

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Le Normand, Brigitte, Author.

Series:

Culture, politics, and the built environment Designing Tito's capital

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

City planning--Belgrade--Serbia.

City planning.

Socialism--Serbia--Belgrade.

Socialism.

Socialism--Yugloslvia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (321 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

University of Pittsburgh Press

Philadelphia : University of Pittsburgh Press 2014

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"The devastation of World War II left the Yugoslavian capital of Belgrade in ruins. Communist Party leader Josip Broz Tito saw this as a golden opportunity to recreate the city through his own vision of socialism. In Designing Tito's Capital, Brigitte Le Normand analyzes the unprecedented planning process called for by the new leader, and the determination of planners to create an urban environment that would benefit all citizens. Led first by architect Nikola Dobrovic and later by Miloš Somborski, planners blended the predominant school of European modernism and the socialist principles of efficient construction and space usage to produce a model for housing, green space, and working environments for the masses. A major influence was modernist Le Corbusier and his Athens Charter published in 1943, which called for the total reconstruction of European cities, transforming them into compact and verdant vertical cities unfettered by slumlords, private interests, and traffic congestion. As Yugoslavia transitioned toward self-management and market socialism, the functionalist district of New Belgrade and its modern living were lauded as the model city of socialist man. The glow of the utopian ideal would fade by the 1960s, when market socialism had raised expectations for living standards and the government was eager for inhabitants to finance their own housing. By 1972, a new master plan emerged under Aleksandar Đordevic, fashioned with the assistance of American experts. Espousing current theories about systems and rational process planning and using cutting edge computer technology, the new plan left behind the dream for a functionalist Belgrade and instead focused on managing growth trends. While the public resisted aspects of the new planning approach that seemed contrary to socialist values, it embraced the idea of a decentralized city connected by mass transit. Through extensive archival research and personal interviews with participants in the planning process, Le Normand's comprehensive study documents the evolution of 'New Belgrade' and its adoption and ultimate rejection of modernist principles, while also situating it within larger continental and global contexts of politics, economics, and urban planning. "-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1. Modernist Functionalist Planning in Global Context

Chapter 2. A Blueprint for Modernity

Chapter 3. The Lost Decade and the Dawn of a New Era

Chapter 4. New Belgrade, Capital of Yugoslav Modernity

Chapter 5. Planning Undone: "Wild" Construction and the Market Reforms

Chapter 6. Modernism under Fire: The Changing Attitudes of Social Scientists and Urban Designers in 1960s Yugoslavia

Chapter 7. Modernity Redefined: The 1972 Master Plan

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

9780822979548

0822979543