Abstract
Despite the multiple contributions of public open spaces (POSs) to the quality of life in large housing estates (LHEs), the comprehensive treatment of their improvement has so far been a rare occasion in post-socialist countries. This paper aimed to explore the transformations of POSs in inherited LHEs in the socialist and post-socialist period and the potential for their regeneration. The investigation was based on a comparative analysis of two case studies in Niš, Serbia, which represent typical modes of POS devastation. The performed research study has shown that POSs have succumbed to dilapidation, displaying a wide array of problems and that their regeneration is neglected. The paper proposes a comprehensive set of measures to regenerate POSs based on contemporary concepts of urban planning and design with a special focus on long-term actions and residents’ needs. Particular importance is given to establishing the development guidelines as future prerequisites for overcoming current institutional, economic, legislative, and social obstacles for sustainable implementation of regeneration measures. These findings might encourage future studies of creating a model option for improving POSs at the city of Nis scale, as well in other Serbian cities towards sustainable urban development.
Highlights
Public open spaces (POSs) in inherited large housing estates (LHEs), which are present throughout Europe in all their variations regardless of the sociopolitical order and the level of economic development, are an integral component of the spatial functional structure and the living environment
We investigated whether the changes and development trends of LHEs in the post-socialist period are reflected in the transformation flows of public open spaces (POSs) in inherited LHEs and degradation and what are the types of that changes of POSs;
Concerning the first research aim—to investigate whether there is a relationship between the transformation flows of POSs in inherited LHEs and degradation and what are the types of that changes of POSs—the conducted research has indicated that this relationship exists in the following: POSs in inherited LHEs changed during the post-socialist period following the transformations of the LHEs within which they were built and under the influence of multiple spatial, socioeconomic, and institutional changes
Summary
Public open spaces (POSs) in inherited large housing estates (LHEs), which are present throughout Europe in all their variations regardless of the sociopolitical order and the level of economic development, are an integral component of the spatial functional structure and the living environment. Despite the conceptually fascinating ideas, over the last few decades, many of these areas have been facing serious physical, social, environmental, and economic deterioration They often include degraded urban areas, with dilapidated and neglected POSs, which are unattractive for human living [1,2,3,4]. Three modes of transformation were identified [7,9,10,11]: (1) complete demolition of existing dilapidated LHEs and construction of new residential buildings [9,12]; (2) uncontrolled and partial interventions resulting from inadequate policies and insufficient financial interventions with minimum national and local government participation, whereby the focus was most often on the improvement of residential buildings’ energy efficiency and POS regeneration; and (3) fully renovated urban regeneration projects, based on an overall spatial, functional, environmental, and social development [13]
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