Urban form and urban master plan: Haussmann’s Paris and Josimovic’s Belgrade

Abstract

There is an everlasting, unbreakable connection between the urban plan and the form of a city. The current appearance of the Belgrade city centre was influenced by the plan, or, more precisely, the draft Reconstruction Plan for the Town within the Moat, drawn by Emilijan Josimovic in 1867. The aim of this paper is to study the impact of this Plan on the form of Belgrade, considering the social environment and the institutional framework under which it was developed. For the same reason, and to obtain a full insight into the impact of regulation plans on urban forms, Haussmann’s reconstruction plan of Paris, made only a few years earlier, will also be reviewed, as it also caused vast changes in the structure of Paris. The study will encompass the role of urban planners and contracting authorities, the social environment, the features of the “field design” determined by the ownership structure of urban construction land and the value of inherited structures, the structural form requirements imposed by the contracting authority and the social context, including the social, political and institutional framework under which the planning process took place, and other, given the complexity of the said process influenced by a number of actors and factors. Understanding the process of developing an urban form helps the process of its evaluation. On the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Reconstruction Plan for the Town within the Moat, this paper is yet another small contribution to its study, as well as the tribute to its creator, Emilijan Josimovic, his visions and possibilities (or inabilities) to carry them out.