I always wanted to explore Novi Zagreb and the other day the chance was there to wander around for a couple of hours. Novi Zagreb is like New Belgrade a massive new urban development that in both cases is connected to the old center of town with bridges across the river Sava. (See the book on Lefebvre and the project on New Belgrade he was involved in here)
Took a walk in the western suburbs of Zagreb where the Industrial and the Informal city meets in a sharp contrast. The walk was just about 1000 meters but it felt like worlds apart. From an area that could be called “Cities for People” (thanks to Jan Gehl) via “Cities by People (that I enjoy) to the “City of greed”.
In the “City of Greed” the same (profit maximising) industrial logic applies to both the businesses, the shopping centre and the housing. ” The City for people” is a good example of very well functioning and popular housing from the Yugoslav times, (but when I saw it first time I thought it was the ugliest place on earth).
The “City by People” is where the self build houses tell stories about who are living there and how the houses and the neighbourhood has been created over time. It is a place where the unpredictable beauty in an aesthetic sense is present along with the strong sense of the other kind of beauty that relates to the creation and use of these houses.
See more Photos on Flickr here
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