Aleksandra Đukić
Fig. 3
Sketch for the regulation of Belgrade on the left bank
of the river Sava from 1946 by Nikola Dobrović.
(Archive Đukić)areas. New Belgrade was seen in this sketch as a huge landscaped city garden.
Another idea for a radical reconstruction of Belgrade was proposed in 1941,
on the eve of WW II. The sketch was done by Dragiša Brašovan and included
the area of New Belgrade, named “Sava New Settlement-City Belgrade” too.
New Belgrade was planned for 500.000 inhabitants as a connection between
Belgrade and Zemun in a radial urban matrix. Besides the residential area and a
new railway station, a huge park with sport and recreation facilities surrounded
by representative public buildings such as theaters, museums, churches were
foreseen. Brašovan respected in the plan the Olympic stadium project, done by
the architect Werner March in 1940.
The period from 1945 until 1960After the end of WW II, Belgrade became the capital city of the new-formed
Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia. New Belgrade was conceived as a new
governmental centre, reflecting the ideological and technological aspirations
of the recently established socialist society. Its unique position in the topology
of Belgrade enabled its total modern design based on a grid which followed
the modernist ideas of Le Corbusier, proclaimed by CIAM in 1928. The ideas
implemented in the urban plan denied the aestheticism and academicism
and proclaimed the functionalism, presented by open mega blocks, divided
functions, flat roofs and transparent ground floors.
The first urban plan “Sketch for the Regulation of
Belgrade on the Left Bank of the River Sava” was
designed by Nikola Dobrović in 1946, who was famous
Serbian architect and the head of the newly formed
Town Planning Institute.^3 According to this plan New
Belgrade was considered as an administrative center
with governmental buildings, a new railway station
and a residential area for diplomats. The urban matrix
was asymmetrically radial (the main streets were
planned parallel to the river Sava) and formal, with
mega blocks and large percentage of greenery. The
new building of the 50 m high Parliament was located
within the historic Kalemegdan castle on the top of
the hill, flanced by two skyscrapers of 100 m height.
The majority of the participants in the architectural
competition in 1946 followed principally Dobrovic’s
concept, but neglected the radial urban matrix and
suggested an orthogonal one. The member of the
jury Josip Seissel divided in his report about the
results of the competition the proposals into three
groups, according to the size and the use of the space:
maximalists, minimalists and the moderate solutions