FOREWORD 7 3 ProJECTS OF URBAN INCUBATOR Jürgen Krusche BELGRADE 1 INTrodUCTION ŠkoLA URBANE PRAKSE 120 TO SAVAMALA THE SCHOOL OF URBAN PRACTICes 121 Ivan Kucina BUREAU SAVAMALA BELGRAde 12 MODEL ZA SAVAMALU 130 Jürgen Krusche A MODEL FOR SAVAMALA 131 Maja Popović Vračar / Boba Stanić KRATAK PREGLED ISTORIJE I IZGRADNJE BEOGRADA 24 A BRIEF OVERView OF BELGRADE’S HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 25 MikroUTOPIJA TREćI BEOGRAd 140 Vladimir Dulović THE THIRD BELGRADE MICro-UTOPIA 141 Selman Trtovac GENTRIFICATION RESEARCH: A BRIEF INTrodUCTION 42 Philipp Klaus STARE KAFANE SAVAMALe 156 OLD KAFANAS IN SAVAMALA 157 Nina Todorović / Predrag Terzić 2 BUREAU SAVAMALA CAMENZIND // KAMENZINd 164 Leila Peacock / Axel Humpert THE ROLE OF ART AND CULTURE IN GENTRIFICATION AND UPGRADE OF THE SAVAMALA NEIGhborhood 50 Philipp Klaus 4 AND SAVAMALA’S FUTURE? SAVAMALA‘S CHANGE AND REGENERATION 72 Results of Image-based Research 72 BEOGRAD NA POLITIčkoJ VOLJi 172 Changes Documented in the Project Area 74 BELGRADE ON TroUBLED POLITICAL WATers 173 Photo Documentation 77 Ljubica Slavković Jürgen Krusche KRV NIJE VODA 186 LIKE / DISLIKE SAVAMALA 109 BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATer 187 Jürgen Krusche Rastko Novaković OTVORENO PISMO GRađANIMA BEOGRADA 194 OPEN LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF BELGRAde 195 BIOGRAPhies 202 PICTURE CREDITs 206 IMPRINT 207 7 FOREWORD A SMALL URBAN NEIGHBORHOOD IN THE GLOBAL SPOTLIGHT FOREWORD Jürgen Krusche In 1999, NATO bombed Belgrade and, to this day, debate continues as to whether this represented a violation of human rights. The remnants of this attack can still be seen: for example, the bombed and burned-out Ministry of Defense in the city center. The “White City” has a difficult past to overcome; yet it has still managed to make progress in moving closer to Europe. A direct train connection with Vienna was reinstated at the end of 2014 and there are plans to further develop the line to Budapest, which will immensely benefit the freight transport industry. The People’s Republic of China, which has strategically invested billions in diverse infrastructure projects for Southeastern Europe, has great interest in modernizing the railway from Belgrade to Budapest—and later extending it as far as the port of Piraeus. In the future, Chinese goods will be transported quickly and safely via this new route to Central Europe.1 Serbia looks set to benefit from Beijing’s global investment strategy, in which the country is seen as part of western Eurasia.2 This Chinese investment strategy benefits not only Serbia in general, but Savamala in particular. The Chinese play a significant role in improving the quality of life in Savamala—the neighborhood that this publication focuses on. For decades, heavy trucks have thundered down Karadjordjeva in the middle of the otherwise tranquil quarter. Most national and international north-south freight transport has to pass 11 SAVAMALA O N T N IO UCT 1 rod INT INTrodUCTION TO SAVAMALA 13 Today, the central train and bus stations are located here, in a southern part of Sava- BUREAU SAVAMALA mala that was once a swamp known as the Gypsy Pond. Next to the huge shopping mall and numerous offices, developers also plan to build over 5,000 new apartments BELGRADE in the area over the next few years. With the goal of making this area presentable for SAVAMALA O such an ambitious project, the 1907 Geozavod Building was renovated. The streets Jürgen Krusche N T N and sidewalks were also redesigned, and the surrounding area was decorated with IO > 2 UCT hundreds of banners. ( ) This summer of renovation gave one a sense of the effects rod that large, well-funded development projects can have on an area. Even during the INT initial stages, that is even before anything has been built, large developments projects begin to change an area in a way that is at once both symbolic and superficial. This vision for the future represents an admirable and surprising conclusion to the project Bureau Savamala, for we at the project were able to follow the development of the quarter in depth, from its initial small changes, to the expansion of the design and club scenes, finally to this forward-looking vision. This project’s task and goal were to observe, document, and analyse the transformations taking place in Savamala until fall 2014 and these two years turned out to be a pivotal period in the quarter’s development. INTrodUCTION At the End, the Future Bureau Savamala’s research was wrapping up in summer 2014 when an exhibition designed to inaugurate the future of Belgrade opened on Savamala’s central square. Abu Dhabi-based developer, Eagle Hills, presented its multi-billion dollar Belgrade Waterfront project. The presentation used a large-scale model and computer-gener- ated pictures, and took place in one of Belgrade’s most beautiful historic buildings, the Geozavod Building, formerly the Belgrade Cooperative Building.1 This vision for the future—Belgrade Waterfront—is slated to be built on the Sava riverfront, starting in 2015, with the support of the government and municipality. A 180-meter tower is planned as its central landmark and “will put the site at the top of the rankings of the must-see spots of the world”, as the project’s website proclaims.2 The whole development—which will house the largest shopping mall in the Balkans—plans to create an image of what the future could look like, not only for Belgrade but Serbia as a whole. (> 1) “We are changing Belgrade. We are changing the face of Serbia. The whole country will shine like this high-rise!” said Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić at the exhibition’s grand opening.3 This vision of a new Belgrade marks the conclusion (for now) of a decades-long discussion about an area that has also been known as the “Sava Amphitheater”. 1 The Belgrade Waterfront project, computer rendering, 2014 methods should supplement these analyses. In contrast to gentrification processes, 19 4. BUILDINGS AND PUBLIC SPACES upgrading is well suited to image-based research methods. Because upgrades can be Changes to the visible structure of Savamala’s public spaces—such as changes to seen as forerunners to gentrification—or, at least, there exists a causal relationship street spaces, façades, businesses, workshops, sidewalks, and parks—were captured between the two—analyzing upgrades can contribute to a better understanding not through comparative photo documentation from 2013 and 2014. In addition, maps SAVAMALA only of gentrification but also of a quarter’s whole development path. Therefore, both O were used to document and record commercial changes, such as new stores, bars, and upgrading scenarios and gentrification processes played an important role in Bureau T N restaurants. IO Savamala’s work. UCT 5. MEDIA rod Six Research Areas INT The project team also regularly perused various daily newspapers and online maga- The following six research areas were established in order to identify and capture the zines in order to document discussion around Urban Incubator and the media’s devel- neighborhood’s changes on as many levels as possible: oping perception of Savamala. Two tag clouds from 2013 and 2014 visually present these results. 1. URBAN INCUBATOR ProJECTS TheUrban Incubator projects were evaluated via interviews and surveys of the project 6. STATISTICS leaders and participants about their goals, methods, and impact. In addition to verbal The Savski Venac Statistics Bureau made census data available to the team, specifi- surveys, a PDF questionnaire was sent to all project leaders. cally 2002 and 2012 data concerning Savamala’s demographic changes. The team supplemented and improved this data by studying real estate and rental fluctuations 2. SAVAMALA RESIDENTS in Savamala. Interviews: Standardized interviews were conducted with Savamala residents and visitors, as well as with those who work in the area. A series of surveys were conduct- ed in May and October 2013, as well as in July and August 2014. The 2013 surveys were carried out as interviews while the concluding surveys in 2014 were printed out and distributed in Savamala in the form of questionnaires. Appeal Profile: The surveys included a so-called appeal profile that gauged the ap- peal the area held for respondents by asking them to express their feelings about the quarter with a list of adjectives. Substitutional Photo Inquiry: A substitutional photo inquiry of Savamala resi- dents accompanied the interviews and surveys. The results were presented as a street exhibit in front of Bureau Savamala on 19 July 2013; they were also pub- lished in the magazine Kamenzind.8 Nightwatch: On 19 June 2013, a so-called nightwatch took place; assessing the area’s expanding nightlife scene, changes were tracked from the afternoon long into the night. 3. EXPERTS The specialists who made their expertise available to project members included city planners and architects, as well as the head of the Savski Venac district administration. PUBLICATION CoNTENTS 21 Philipp Klaus’ text, “The Role of Art and Culture in Gentrification and Upgrade of the Savamala Neighborhood” conveys the main outcomes of Bureau Savamala’s ex- This publication provides insight into the work and outcomes of Bureau Savamala, plorations. The many interview series and appeal profiles, as well as data on real estate as well as selected Urban Incubator projects. It opens with an introduction to the purchase prices and rental prices, form a detailed picture of the transformation that SAVAMALA development of Belgrade and concludes with a discussion of the city’s future with O has taken place. These analyses are supplemented by two maps that illustrate changes reference to the controversial Belgrade Waterfront mega-project. T N in businesses, bars, restaurants, and workshops since fall 2012. IO UCT Introduction Urban Incubator Projects rod Vladimir Dulović introduces the vicissitudes of Belgrade’s urban history—a city INT The book’s third chapter depicts five selected Urban Incubator projects that are repre- caught between the power struggles of the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, a city sentative of many Savamala activities from 2013.