Urban innovations from the 2003 Master Plan: Preserving Belgrade's identity

The subject of this paper are urban innovations that emerged from the Belgrade Master Plan, adopted by the Belgrade Assembly in September 2003. Twelve new spatial solutions that were directly related to the overall goals of the plan are presented. These are proposals for grand city projects created in 2001-2003 during the development of the Master Plan, which did not exist in the earlier master plans from 1951, 1972, and 1985, and their revisions. These projects were a response to the difficult economic, social, and urban situation of Belgrade in the aftermath of the breakup of Yugoslavia. They relate to the city region, the Confluence, the Danube orientation of Belgrade, the greenery system, the lasting values of the city, spontaneously constructed settlements, cultural assets, city centres, business and industrial zones and environment, social housing, transport, and modern architecture. Urban planners of different profiles who wrote this article were also engaged in the formulation of the Master Plan and are well acquainted with it. In the analysis, the authors relied on a formal document published in the Official Gazette of the City of Belgrade, and a CD-ROM containing the official maps of the Master Plan. For each project, its definition, the motive for the creation and its urban solution are given. An analysis of urban innovation has given a new understanding of Belgrade's intention to thoroughly improve the city and open up new ways of development, after the tragic 1990s, while safeguarding its identity based on features that differentiate it from other European metropolises and making it as self-contained cities.