DELETE HISTORY : HIGHWAY E75

Project description

What is happening to the city that intersects the highway? Is that highway connected to the city or is it a foreign part of? What happens with the spaces next to it? This paper starts from the thesis that a responsibility of society and government is lacking in abandoned spaces next to infrastructure systems, such as highways. Are these spaces where construction is not an option? Accordingly, the subject of research is the highway E75 from the Mostar loop to the Autokomanda loop, in the old part of the city of Belgrade, where along with the line infrastructure there are several abandoned spaces: Belgrade beer industry, Topovska supa camp from WWII, abandoned construction sites, and complete absence of pedestrians. There are complex and parallel historical events in this area - the informal settlement Jatagan-mala was formed and removed, the creation of the Topovska supa camp, the construction of a city highway, which permanently divided two parts of the city, and the abandoned Belgrade beer industry factory, a symbol of the industrialization of Belgrade. It was built space, now is unbuilt, and the responsibility of society and government is the same - a space that is cut off from the city and intersects the city. According to Bill Hillier, the movement of pedestrians is a circulation that allows economic, social and cultural exchange, which is not realized here. The paper tries to discover the cause of the abandonment of such spaces, as well as the appearance of such a relation in the complex socio-economic mechanism of the city. The method used in addition to historical research is the three-part-theory of spatial syntax. The theory was applied in the analysis of the mentioned abandoned spaces next to the infrastructure system. The relation is achieved between theory and separate architectural assemblies. The contribution of the paper is that it can serve as a reference for further research of socio-economic conditions in post-socialist and post- transition societies.