After the announcement that almost ten million new square meters are planned to be built on the banks of the Sava, architect Bojan Kovačević in an interview with "Vreme" says that the plan is disastrous, that it is the work of the powerful, "who are ignorant, but persistent".
The New Planning Practice organization announced that planning is underway in the wider area along the Sava coast construction almost ten million new square meters, predominantly residential space.
"The share of public facilities in this part of the city is estimated at 3,2 percent, only 320.000 square meters," adds the New Planning Practice announcement.
This organization published an analysis of the scale of future construction in the wider area along the banks of the Sava, which concerns a dozen urban plans that have been adopted or are in the process of being developed: IMT, the expansion of Belgrade on the water, a new railway and bus station...
Currently, an early public inspection is underway for changes and additions to the spatial plan of Belgrade on the water, which will extend from Terazije Terrace to Ada Ciganlija, Block 18 and the Shipyard on the New Belgrade side.
"If we arrange it into the kind of towers that are currently springing up in Belgrade, following the example of 'Belgrade on the water', it could be 20 new towers 200 meters high, 100 new towers 100 meters high, and even 500 new towers with an average height of 50 meters - which will completely "build up" the wider Sava river banks. These are 20 new Avala towers in the middle of New Belgrade and the coast, 100 new Beogradanka towers, and 500 new Geneks buildings," states New Planning Practice.
The analysis also includes plans for the transformation of the wider area of the Shipyard, blocks 18 and 68, the plan for the transformation of the tram depot in New Belgrade, as well as the expansion of the plan for the area of Belgrade on the water to part of the area of the municipality of Čukarica and New Belgrade.
Kovačević: Massacre of Belgrade
Architect Bojan Kovačević stated in an interview for "Vreme" that this government "has already ruined Belgrade with its decisions and construction, but that does not mean that they should not be stopped now".
"Fortunately, what is planned does not necessarily mean that it will be built," he states.
When asked what we should hope for now, he answers that it is clear that the draft plan is megalomaniacal and that he hopes it will remain as some "paper for recycling after the urgent change of government in Belgrade, whenever and whatever the elections are".
"After all, this is within the jurisdiction of the Republic of Serbia, not the City of Belgrade," Kovačević points out.
He adds that "the very fact that the Government of Serbia decides on the Spatial Plan of the Special Purpose Area speaks for itself."
"The body that decides should be 'professional'", the Minister of Construction and his staff are responsible. Also, about the fact that the Ministry of Culture has not had the breath to say anything about all this continuously since 2014 - it is better not to mention it. For Belgrade, this plan means that when the talk about the 'complete change of character' started, the competent institutions did not react, and the city was massacred, and the authorities were still sitting in their seats. "Because if they had reacted, they would have been returned to their positions of nobody," says Kovačević.
"I have to remember here an episode with my senior colleagues, somewhere in 2014-15. year, Mihajlo Mitrović and Dragoljub Bakić, who, independently of each other, told me not to get too excited about Belgrade on the water because nothing would come of it. "Unfortunately, even though I was twenty or more years younger than them, I knew that the combination of the ignorant and persistent could continue to unfold exactly as it is happening before our eyes," says Kovačević.
He explains that it is not only a matter of financial non-transparency, but physical
capacity and infrastructural dramas, but above all about "total identity
the transformation of the city in accordance with one's wishes, which are reference examples far in the Gulf images of success" .
"And even there, say in Oman, there is no such thing as towers as symbols," emphasizes Kovačević.
"Attractive places for sale are chosen"
Speaking about the opinion of his colleagues, he notes that the opinion of the profession about this project is one thing, and the practice is something completely different.
"Although there are non-public mice that are involved in the current project 'Belgrade on the water', the vast majority of respected names in architecture, and even urbanism, condemn the results of that project so far, and especially these announced intermediate proposals from which these capacities can be calculated colleagues from 'New Planning Practice'. One of my comments, as well as that of many others, is that the borders of the expansion of the plan speak very badly about it, because they 'select' places and moves that are attractive to them for construction - read sales," says Kovačević.
He notes that the opinion of the Government of Serbia is more important than the opinion of the biggest experts.
"For me personally, even though I am not a lawyer, it is questionable how the legal statuses of the area, as it is, are established."
enforced back then through the 'lex specialis', now they are simply transferred to new areas. Because when the Government of Serbia comes to the conclusion that it is in the national interest, then it simply is. Even though we all know it's a lie," he states.
The authorities either have incredible self-confidence or they do not understand what is happening in Serbia
Kovačević emphasizes that presenting such a plan to the public, regardless of the fact that the phase is called early public insight, can only mean two things: either the authorities have incredible confidence in the fate of the story, the proposal, or they do not understand what is happening in Serbia.
"In our country, in connection with lithium mining, there is actually a rebellion of citizens who do not trust the authorities or the so-called opposition parties. People feel, both in the countryside and in Belgrade and other cities, that they are trying to get the soil out from under their feet, all with more pollution from chemicals or too dense housing. This plan as a legal act, which it always is, must fail so that we do not fail," concludes Kovačević.
He underlines that the Government must listen to the opinion of the citizens of this country and abandon this project.
Almost six months after the fall of the canopy and the beginning of blockades of faculties and school institutions, due to numerous protests and pressures, the appeal of the National Body for Accreditation and Quality Assurance in Higher Education (NAT) arrived for higher education institutions to take urgent measures, in order to ensure the smooth and continuous development of the teaching process
Radio-television of Serbia (RTS) submitted a criminal complaint to the Prosecutor's Office against unknown persons for publishing photos of employees of that media company in the form of warrants.
As Serbia counts the seventh femicide since the beginning of 2025, the activist group "Zene ze promene" is organizing a protest on Thursday (April 24), at Freedom Square in Novi Sad, from 18 p.m.
The Serbian oil industry requested a new postponement of the American sanctions, but at the same time the company is preparing for them
After a new wave of closures of Serbian institutions in the north of Kosovo, the European Union says that no health and educational institutions supported by Serbia, nor other Serbian structures that provide basic social services, should be closed.
RTS is blocked, universities do not work, and threats, insults and calls to the prosecutor's office and the police to arrest blockers, rioters and terrorists are pouring out from the top of the government. The Serbian state has turned into a farce
Anyone who condemns the regime's targeting of people from the media, the non-governmental sector, the opposition and universities, must not agree to this targeting of RTS editors and journalists either.
The government of Đur Mazut is "counter-revolutionary", focused on retaliation and state and street violence against opponents of the regime
The archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
See all
