GARDEN VALLEY

Masterplan development

2023-2024 

The Garden Valley development strategy emphasizes research on urban density and resilience to the climate crisis. This project outlines the principles for creating human-centered spaces that effectively address the challenges posed by climate change.

The masterplan strategy "Garden Valley" presents a synthesis of various urban structures integrated into a vast green park, with a major pedestrian boulevard dividing the site into two distinct areas. The residential zone is designed to connect the existing city with the new development along the river. Public infrastructure features extensive sports facilities, historically associated with the Sava River shoreline. The new urban services, including retail, schools, and sports facilities, are intended to benefit both the existing New Belgrade community and the revitalized Block 18.

LOCATION: Belgrade, Serbia

PROGRAM: Masterplan, mixed-use

AREA: 688 157 sq.m

CLIENT: N/D

STATUS: Research, concept published

STAGES: CD, SD

TEAM: Alexandra Koptelova, Elena Uglovskaya, Glafira Parinos

The district represents a new level of urban development that focuses on supporting a creative, sustainable, and innovative community which creates new urban center in the Staro Sajmište neighbourhood in the very center of Belgrade on the shore of Sava river.

The approach to the masterplan is based on a 15-minutes neighbourhood concept — retail, restaurants, entertainment, education, culture, medical facilities and social infrastructure — everything that one might need for a fulfilling life is within a reach by foot, bike or public transport.

Housing within Block 18 is human-scale oriented with number of floors varying from 2 to 9. Every building has a private green adjacent plot with playground, sport and recreational areas. Housing solution gives a wide selection of types of buildings and apartments. It helps building a diverse community of residents united by values. The concept is based on the idea of merging traditional to Belgrade urban density with wide palette of green public places.

This approach helps to establish new center of gravity in Belgrade — pedestrian friendly, green, community oriented with variety of retail formats and areas for local businesses. Architecture-wise Block 18 reflects on Belgrade heritage reimagining with the use of new, more ecological and sustainable materials, like wood, and resonates with natural surroundings.

Proposed concept is phased in a way that residents can start full-scale life before the whole project is completed. Technologies behind the Block 18 project are using deeply automated processes and prefab elements assembled onsite — it helps to escape the hassle of living close to construction site.

BLOCK 18 — a new urban center has wide-ranging impacts on Belgrade and the surrounding region, from economic growth and improved quality of life to cultural significance and environmental sustainability. Block 18 a new center of Belgrade linking old and new cities.

A well-planned new urban center improves the quality of life for residents by providing access to new amenities, such as parks, cultural centers, and retail outlets. It’s intended to provide better transportation options, reducing congestion and improving personal mobility. It serves as a hub for services, culture, and sports helping to promote Belgrade as a destination and fostering a sense of community pride and identity.

Today Belgrade experiences significant growth in sectors such as information technology, manufacturing, and finance. Belgrade is a fast-developing city, with a rapidly growingeconomy, a vibrant cultural scene, and a thriving tourism industry. While there are still challenges to be addressed, Belgrade is obviously on it’s way towards greater economic prosperity and a higher quality of life for residents. This trends put pressure on urban habitat and bring new requirements for quality of residential development.

MAIN COMPONENTS AND FIGURES

The masterplan strategy ‘GARDEN VALLEY’ is a combination of various city structures merged into vast green park with major pedestrian boulevard dividing the site into two parts. The residential area is designed to link the existing city with the new development along the river. Public infrastructure includes extensive sport facilities that historically appear on the shore of Sava river. The new urban services of retail, schools, and sports facilities serve both the existing New Belgrade and renewed Block 18.

The housing program is divided into two types:

City blocks and Park blocks. City blocks are higher and densier, Park blocks are lower and have more spaces in-between each other, they include patio and terraces houses in different scales where each unit combines residential and workspace programme. Plan consists of several megastructure footprints whose scale is inspired by Belgrade planning heritage. This approach provides opportunity to organize various types of housing within one block.

Architecture - wise Block 18 takes into account surrounding layout of New and of Old Belgrade masterpan and reflects on its heritage by implementing blocks resembling existing surrounding sizewise. The proposed layout consists of two types of block organisation: more dense several megastructure footprints with similar scale to the existing development of New Belgrade located on the north. This approach provides opportunity to fit more smoothly into the existing layout and to connect proposed infrastructure with existing and enhance both more actively.

Also bigger scale of footprint allows to organize various types of housing and mix-use within one block. Lower and smaller scale buildings are located closer to the embankment creating park blocks spreaded within green areas. This allows to create more private and quiet areas for single family housing and small retail.

The underlying conceptual image behind Block 18 urban design is lavish green network of parks within the site and on the river shore. This green network consists of the chain of green spaces of various scale and openness to public. Landscape boulevard is a linear center of the block stretched from north-eastern to south-western corners. The boulevard connects the embankment with the welcome-square and outer city of New Belgrade. The Block is divided into four parts by linear boulevards that link New Belgrade with embankment.

Every building within Block 18 is attached to private green yard with various playgrounds, recreational and sport areas. Such abundance of green public spaces provide many environmental benefits, such as absorbing carbon dioxide and other pollutants, reducing urban heat islands, and supporting biodiversity. They also help to mitigate the effects of climate change. Greener public spaces provide opportunities for people to relax, exercise, and socialize, which can improve their physical and mental health. It reduces the stress of life in dynamic of growing city. Access to quality green areas with various functions and density has economic benefits by increasing property values and attracting new businesses.

A 15-minute neighbourhood can create various opportunities for local businesses and entrepreneurs by ensuring that residents have easy access to shops, services, and job opportunities. This can create a vibrant and dynamic local economy that supports the community. By promoting community interaction and engagement, a 15-minute city can foster a sense of social cohesion and belonging among residents.

Block 18 is designed as an 15-minutes neighbourhood — this approach aims to create more livable and sustainable neighbourhood by ensuring that residents can access all their daily needs within a 15-minute walk and even shorter bike or public transportation ride. By ensuring that residents have easy access to all their daily needs within a 15-minute radius, commuting time is significantly reduced which directly improves the quality of life — less time spent in traffic and more time spent with family, friends, and engaging in leisure activities.

Assembling Block 18 is phased into four stages. Each phase includes residential quarter and attached public space. This approach allows residents to start full-scale life while some areas are still under construction.Development of the Sava embankment goes parallel to Block 18.

GREEN WIREFRAME

CITY AND COMMUNITY

PUBLIC SPACES PROGRAMMING

PHASING

APARTMENTS FOR EVERYONE

Proposed architectural approach allows to offer customers a variety of solutions:

Studios

1BR

2BR

3BR

Apts with patios (duplex, triplex)

Apts with terraces (duplex, triplex)

All the apartments have balconies or terraces and come with finishing.

A mix of different apartment types can attract a diverse group of tenants, including young professionals, families, locals and new migrants, which can create a more vibrant community.

Encouraging a variety of new housing types and mix-use with retained residential character while allowing neighborhood serving commercial use will preserve and enhance existing neighbourhoods.