Pioneer cities in Belgrade and Zagreb from creation to the disappearance of children's utopia

Abstract

This paper deals with the comparative analysis of the Pioneer Cities in Belgrade and Zagreb from the architectural, sociological, phenomenological, and museological-heritological aspect. Their origin, duration, and transformations arc interpreted through the urban and socio-political framework, whereas the values in the form of unused testimonial potentials are recognized in their present condition. Both children's towns were created within the Yugoslav post-war reconstruction of the building fund and the creation of new semantic nuclei. Therefore, the Pioneer cities are interpreted as separate spaces of utopia with the aim to provoke the change of (political) landscape and function in accordance with social needs, as well as to enable an undisturbed process of growing up of the youngest in line with the Yugoslav socialist ideology. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, they have been going through different transformations reaching the place of anti-utopia: however. their paths do not fundamentally differ. The Pioneer city of Belgrade today has the status of a "forgotten city", while the Pioneer city in Zagreb has been declared a cultural asset. Nevertheless, despite a different evaluation of their importance, neither of the two cities have a quality strategy for development and usage. These two examples somehow impose a reflection on the complexity behind the model of the "life with heritage", which we aspire to in modern heritological theories.