Urban Form, Plans and Procedures in Serbia: Recent Transformations of Urban Tissue and Its Inherited Values

Abstract This paper attempts to determine the relationship between the theory of urban morphology and the practice of urban conservation and urban planning based on the example of modernist and postmodernist open residential blocks created in Belgrade and other cities in Serbia in the second half of the twentieth century. The starting point of the paper was based on the fact that these configurations represent both urbanistic and cultural and historical heritage. It examines the values/criteria based on which the two Belgrade urban units have been categorized as cultural heritage. Furthermore, it demonstrates that these criteria can be generalized and applied to numerous examples of urban blocks and units that are still not institutionally protected but are recognized through the work of organizations, researchers, and experts studying the relevant era in the development of architecture and urbanism. The paper indicates the current urban planning and building practices that ignore the values of these units and analyzes relevant literature and documents in order to find out the cause of this problem. It points out the missing elements in the planning and protection systems that would potentially mitigate the effects and prevent further damage to these units. The forms and reasons for endangering these urban units can be viewed in relation to the issues of identification and protection of spatial values, i.e., valuable elements of the urban and physical structure; the key concept/scale at which the plans are developed and implemented; instruments for the spatial value protection at the urban block/groups of blocks level; and implementation/control of the planning solutions. Combining protection and planning practices identifies urban morphology as a common platform for consolidating knowledge about this type of urban heritage and integrating it into practice.