Controversial Modernist Urban Concepts on the Example of Alipašino polje Settlement in Sarajevo

The strong development of Yugoslavia and its society after World War II was mostly visible in the massive urban development of cities throughout the country. Among tens of other examples, it was the case with the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina whose population was increased 10 times in the period from 1945 until 1991 when Socialist Yugoslavia disappeared in several destructive wars. Population growth was related to the economic, social and industrial development and it was reflected to the urbanization and modernization of the entire society, but particularly cites and their new parts. Those new settlements were following the principles of modernism in urban planning and architectural approach. One of the biggest new urban areas realized at that time for more than 30,000 inhabitants in Sarajevo was Alipašino polje built in just several years during the second half of the 1970s. Thanks to high rise massive residential blocks and their number it is one of the most dominant and recognizable skylines in the city until present days. Controversial urban and architectural concept of Alipašino polje has provoked nurnerous discussions and opposite opinions about the way and quality of living in those kind of modernist settlements which deserve more scientific elaborations and professionals rooted researches, including experiences and opinions of their inhabitants. Through the analyzes of urban concept and spatial solutions of typical residential units implemented in this part of the city we can search for answers about the quality of those modernist concepts and their adaptability and usability in neo-modem and contemporary practice and what is the level of universal values, as one of the most proclaimed principles of modernist architecture. It is even more important to emphasize that all the flats in Alipašino polje were built as social housing in accordance to predominant policy in construction of collective residential buildings in the Socialist Yugoslavia that proclaimed housing right in the Constitution of the state as one of basic human rights guaranteed to every citizen of the state.