Planning Capital Cities

large shopping and business centres, which would be always subjected to the

criteria of setting, identity and quality of the environment. These measures,

tasks and principles are important, because they serve as a benchmark of

Belgrade’s primary communication quality, as well as its competitive identity

implementation.

Review of the actual development projects – substance and symbolic

actions

The Beko Master Plan is an urban regeneration proposal for a multifunctional

complex replacing the former “Beko” textile factory in the immediate vicinity of

the Belgrade Fortress. It is located about 500 meters away from the city centre

and on top of a cultural axis that connects some of Belgrade’s most important

destinations. Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the project is conceived as

a mark of the continuance of Belgrade’s “modernist” movement, which was

abruptly discontinued in the 1980s.

The project started in 2007, when the “Beko” property was sold to the Greek

company Lamda Development.^50 The Centre for Urban Development Planning

(CEP) launched in November 2008 the initiative to work over the Detailed

Regulation Plan of the entire city block owned by the Property Development.^51

CEP started the plan changes based on the opinion of the relevant public

institutions requested by the Department for Urban Development of the

municipality.^52 The public was informed about the activities for the first time

in December 2009, although the public interest was determined as a primary

factor. The draft plan was put on a public display in the summer 2011 and was

adopted in March 2012. The former master plan for the Beko area from 1969,

which defined a recreational area on the disputed site, ceased to be valid.

Belgrade: The quest for the desired city image

Fig. 6
Urban regeneration proposal by
Zaha Hadid Architects.
(ZHA)