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Dissertation Information for Brigitte Le Normand

NAME:
- Brigitte Le Normand

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (2007)

ADVISORS:
- Ivan T. Berend

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- John Alexander Agnew
- Janice L. Reiff
- J. Arch Getty

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Raising the Phoenix: The wax and waning of Modernist urban planning in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 1945--1972

Abstract: Using archival and published materials and oral interviews, this dissertation investigates the Yugoslav socialist regime's adoption of the Athens Charter as a model for developing its capital, and the transformation of this project over the next two decades, as it was influenced by changes in state ideology, global trends and the actions of Belgrade's population. Although authorities in devastated cities across Eastern and Western Europe had the opportunity as well as incentive to rebuild their cities in a Modernist style after the Second World War, few opted to stray far from traditional urban forms. In Belgrade, Yugoslavia, urban planners and top policy-makers, seeking to break with the past and modernize society and the economy, formulated the goal of transforming the capital into a Modernist city, based on the principles of the Athens Charter. This vision was encoded in the first post-war Master plan, adopted in 1950, which projected that Belgrade and the neighboring town of Zemun would be joined, and that a new city-center, "New Belgrade" would be built on the plains separating them. Following the break with Stalin and the ensuing ideological transformations, urban-planners re-imagined New Belgrade as a model residential settlement, showcasing Yugoslavia's high standard of living. However, in increasingly emphasizing personal consumption as a means of fuelling the economy, policy-makers weakened their support for a Modernist model founded on collective consumption. Faced with an epidemic of illegal construction of houses by rural migrants, federal and municipal authorities attempted to co-opt builders by creating settlements of family houses, rather than persevering with the construction of collective housing. Ironically, in spite of the egalitarian content of the Athens Charter, in the late 1960s, social scientists and critics began to attack the settlements built on this model as bastions of privilege. They also criticized their aesthetic and social sterility. Urban planners responded to these critics in two ways, advocating a return to small-scale urbanism and local architectural forms, and importing the latest urban planning approaches from the United States. The new Master plan, adopted in 1972, signaled the waning of the Athens Charter as a hegemonic approach.

MPACT Scores for Brigitte Le Normand

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-08-06 13:14:53

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Students under Brigitte Le Normand

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None