From Value Recognition and the MoMA Exhibition to Cultural Heritage and Future Sustainability: A Case Study of the Central Zone in New Belgrade

Abstract

Awareness of the necessity to protect architectural works and implemented urban planning solutions from the post–World War II period began to emerge within Serbian heritage institutions during the 1990s. By the early 2000s, these institutions had initiated more systematic research and launched legal protection procedures. Among the first spatial entities recognized in this context was New Belgrade, a planned urban area located on the left bank of the Sava River, part of Belgrade, Serbia’s capital, whose inception and development are closely linked to the immediate post-war years. Its central section – the Central Zone of New Belgrade – was initially designed to include nine residential blocks with related amenities, of which six were realized according to the original plan. Although professionals and heritage institutions in Belgrade began identifying the enduring architectural and urban values of this area at a relatively early point in its existence, it took more than half a century for these values to be equally recognized and appreciated by residents and the wider community. This paper foregrounds the dual processes of international and local acknowledgment by examining the influence of a major international exhibition; Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980 (held at MoMA) and the procedural framework of designation as cultural heritage. The aim is to illuminate the complex trajectory from initial recognition to institutional and societal acceptance of these values as lasting cultural assets. In addition, the paper investigates how the formal decision to designate the Central Zone as a cultural monument has introduced new challenges and raised critical questions. These include the need to define protection measures and maintenance strategies suited to Modernist heritage, which require innovative and adaptive approaches.