Between the Urban Vision and the Revision of the Five-Year Plan: Planning and Construction of Settlements in Zagreb for Employees of State-Owned Enterprises of Heavy Industry (1949 – 1956)

Abstract

The consequences of the economic blockade and the new political and security situation after the Cominform resolution of June 1948 had threatened the goals and dynamics of implementation of the first Yugoslav Five-Year Plan. Therefore, in 1949, state investments in the economy and housing were reduced as part of a broader revision process of the Five-Year Plan. In part, savings were made achieved by the cancellation of reduction of funds and resources previously intended for the construction of housing estates for employees of state-owned enterprises. In Croatian historiography, there are no comprehensive studies on this topic.

This paper advances the hypothesis that the economic blockade of the FPRY and the political decisions of the Yugoslav leadership to reduce funds and resources previously intended improvement of the standard of living had a decisive influence on the realization of three settlements in Zagreb. In 1949 the Urban Planning Institute of Croatia drew up the plans for three new workers' neighborhoods for employees of companies in the Federal Ministry of Heavy Industry and planned for completion of the construction by the end of the Five-Year Plan (1951).

However, the "cutting" of amounts intended for the construction of residential and public buildings, the "deletion" of certain buildings from the investment plans, revisions of architectural projects with the aim of savings, and other administrative procedures resulting from the federal administration decisions had a direct impact on the reduction of the contents in the settlement and the change of construction dynamics. The dynamics slowed down significantly. In the mid-1950s, only some of the residential buildings in the cores of the new settlements were built according to the original plans of 1949, while a significant part of the residential and public facilities still needed to be accomplished. Ultimately, the settlements were only partially constructed according to the original planning documentation and remained unfinished. The paper also tries to confirm that the reduction of investment in the construction of workers' settlements since 1949 contributed to the fluctuation and shortage of qualified workers in heavy industry companies. The post-war visions of modern housing were realized only in the following decade, when the foreign political and economic situation stabilized and the strengthened construction industry began using prefabricated elements in housing construction.