- Complex History of the Area as a Source of planning Problems    762 kb by    Vukotic Lazar, Marta & Djokic, Jasmina | jasmina.djokic@urbel.com    Short Outline The Old Belgrade Fairground built in the 1930’s was intended to be a golden key to the future. It was an exhibition complex, however, during the War an extermination centre, and after the War a devastated city area, burdened with a tragic history. It is a challenge for the planning process. Abstract Old Belgrade Fairground : The paradox of too much identity The OLD BELGRADE FAIRGROUND complex is a large area in the center of Belgrade that is completely isolated from other parts of Belgrade: it is one of the most devastated city areas, populated by poor inhabitants, often those from marginal groups, burdened with tragic history and one of hardest problems for planners to solve. It is situated in on the left bank of the Sava River between two bridges and downtown New Belgrade. Opposite to it, the Sava Amphitheatre slopes down the Belgrade Ridge towards the river. The complex was built in the thirties of the 20th century across the River Sava in the area that was an unpopulated swamp – Belgrade was situated on the right Sava bank. It was meant to be modern extension of oriental city, which should represent the western tendencies of the young state (Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and its capital. So, modern and monumental complex of exhibition and commercial pavilions was built, and started its life with national and international fairs and exhibitions. World War 2 changed its destiny: German occupation forces transformed the complex into the concentrate camp, where thousands of people were tortured and killed. After the war, new republican government, which was both communist and antifascist, had double frustration regarding this space: it’s tragic (during the War) and “capitalist” (before the War) past, so complex was absolutely ignored in the period of the postwar renewal, and the result is what we described in the beginning. It is obvious that the problem is, at the same time, about social relations, physical structures and economy, but at the first place it is cultural: while urban communities in the modern world are struggling to create their urban identity, the old Belgrade Fairground has too much of it. This paper discuses wheatear is possible to conciliate historical roles of the complex, and to realize it’s potentials in the modern world. Facts of the complex’s history are presented in the first part of the paper. Further on, these facts are been analyzed in the context of contemporary city development, both Belgrade in particular, and global world. Finally, some propositions for crossing the gap between this area and the rest of the city are presented in the third part f the paper. Keywords Urban identity, Fairground, influence of history, implementation Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2006: Cities between Integration and Disintegration   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper