The Urban Imprint of Post-socialist Projects in the Multi-family Housing of Cities in Vojvodina: between Regional Fundamentals and Local Strategies

Abstract

Urban development in post-socialist Europe has been marked with the collision between old, mainly socialist legacy and the rise of capitalism, further supported with globalization. These new influences have made an imprint in urban fabric, bringing the well-established patterns of urban development from the West. Nevertheless, this process is not a monolithic; it presents a variety of different approaches and strategies across pos-socialist Europe. A good example is the new, post-socialist multi-family housing in Serbia, which is basically formed on two important pillars; the first one is the decentralized housing policy of the former socialist Yugoslavia with many local customizations; the second pillar is deregulated housing market in present-day Serbia, strongly affected by the Yugoslavian Crisis from the 1990s. Multi-family housing has blossomed in Serbia since 2000, especially in middle-size cities. The aim of this research is to present the imprint of the new multi-family residential development in six middle-size cities in the Northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, considering their location in urban fabric and relation to the other types of housing. The comparison of six showcases is a key for the final conclusions about the importance of regional post-socialist influences in housing and their adaptations to local conditions.