05/ Podbrezje, Radman Vrbanek © MMVI Competition

Podbrezje Urban Plan, Zagreb

New Zagreb, across the river Sava, is a showcase of 20th ct. urbanism. Around the edge of a huge void at its core, the following sequence unfolds chronologically (clockwise): orthogonal modernist (CIAM), chamfered late modernist (Team X), filleted neo-historicist (PoMo), etc. The masterplan for the new neighbourhood offered an opportunity to rethink this legacy and to propose ‘the next stage’. In other words, we did not want to compete in yet another stylistic exercise of who’s gonna come up with the most aesthetically pleasing composition (which pretty much describes the current state of affairs in local planning).
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The fundamental change that occurred in the post-socialist era is that, in contrast to the earlier central planning which would see the execution of the plan to its full completion, it has become common for contemporary developments to either be left partially finished or even be altered, subject to the whims of the market. This is a fact that has been neglected in contemporary planning (because architects make drawings rather than buildings?).
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Giving priority to horticulture over architecture could, in our view, guarantee the necessary coherence despite the dynamics of gradual, incremental and slow building. Urbanism would thus be separated from architecture. It is no different from Rowe’s inversion of Vasari’s Uffizi and Le Corbusier’s Unité (referenced in ‘Collage City’), only with horticulture. We propose that rows of trees should envelop buildings in much the same way as a classical block would envelop gardens (we simply could not resist trying out the winter-spring-summer-autumn variations).