other two types of communicating the image aim to encourage and strengthen
positively the tertiary communication.^11 This especially applies to the population
groups, which are the most important target audience in the city branding and
the most important participants in the place marketing.
Kavaratzis^12 starts from the premise that all the dealing with the city takes place
by the perception and the image. In accordance with this it becomes necessary
to plan the image and to place it on the market. On the other side, there is an
opinion that everything a city consists of, everything that takes place in the city
and is done by the city, communicates messages about the city’s image.^13 The
model of the city image communication and Karavatzis opinion show that the
urban design and development are decisive factors for the city’s imaging.
The new role of urban designConsidering the perspectives of the European urban system, Gospodini
observes five key factors: the different economic foundation and the skilled
human capital, the high technology services and educational institutions,
the developed infrastructure, the high quality urban environment and the
institutional capacity to define the development goals. On this basis the urban
design takes a more important position in the economic development. In
the past the quality of the urban environment represented the result of the
economic growth, in contrast to the present, when it is taken as a prerequisite
for an economic development.^14 The main task of the local government is in this
sense to establish spatial conditions attracting businesses and people. The sites
and cities are asked to improve their attractiveness^15 and the image^16 in order
to achieve development.
The tendency to identify the urban design with the urban management coincides
with the return to the city planning aesthetics observed since the 1970s. This
is seen as a part of the commodification of the culture, which has led to the
situation in which urban places and architectural forms become consumer items
or packed environments that simulate the logic of promotion and flow of goods
and capital.^17 The urban design is seen as a visual cities’ improvement in order
to promote the city, to increas its competitiveness and participation in the
global markets.
Since the urban design appeares in the 1980s along with the trends to urban
marketing, a critical response is generated, when reducing the urban design
to an aesthetic of the venture.^18 Two errors are noticed that has to be be
corrected: The first relates to the fact that the urban design is not limited to
improving the visual quality of the environment. The second adjustment refers
to the treatment of the urban design as an urban management tool. In addition
to the use of urban design for increasing the revenue and for the purpose of
goods exchange, it is an instrument that contributes to serve all the citizens and
not just a particular group.
Belgrade: The quest for the desired city image