La modernidad sin protección: Nueva Belgrado en la distopía neoliberal (original) (raw)

2018, Monclús, Javier and Carmen Díez Medina (eds.): Ciudades y Formas Urbanas. Perspectivas Transversales. Vol. 2. Formas urbanas, paisaje urbano histórico, patrimonio. Zaragoza: Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza collab. w/ Institución Fernando el Católico, 2018, pp. 175-186. ISBN 978-84-17358-81-5.

In the housing complexes of the era of modernity in Belgrade, the historical Escarpitian 'erosion' is present in multiple senses, revealing new meanings and roles that they acquire in the contemporary city and its future. The strong contrast between the initial concepts, the transitional transformation and the current state of the large residential complexes is the most evident in New Belgrade, the model city of Yugoslav socialism. In the tension between the violent pressures of the neoliberal market and the already impossible docomomian protection, its conversion into a new centre of business and commerce clearly shows the loss of the universal values of this urban landscape. The abandonment of the premises of modern urbanism, based on the idea of scientific planning and social welfare, in the matrix of the market converts housing from value to price, demanding that we return to the broader questions of what the city is for, what is the community and what society we are creating. Between the densification and commercialization of consolidated urban areas and the informal development of undeveloped land, differences quickly diminish, lowering spatial standards, urban qualities and the variety of types and models. Planned as archipelagos in the sea of greenery, the mass housing complexes and neighbourhoods of the era of modernity today form islands of urbanity in the continuous favela that can play a crucial role in the city's system and its resilience.