Due to its important role in increasing human well-being and providing space for ecosystem services, green infrastructure has gradually become an integral part of urban development strategies. Focusing on the activities of community greening, the article considers this approach toward the application of urban green infrastructure as a part of a broader strategy related to the resilience of cities. The neighborhood/district level will be emphasized and the analysis will be conducted in two areas of the Serbian capital Belgrade—Block 45 in New Belgrade and the Savamala neighborhood in the historical city core. Representing two different epochs of Belgrade’s development, they are characterized by different typologies, while the characteristics of community greening also differ in several aspects, including purpose, model of organization, and involved stakeholders/participants. The green space of the identified typical morphological units has been cultivated and maintained in two different ways—institutional (provided by the public company) and non-institutional (community greening)—and their impact on the quality of the local GI will be compared. The analysis intends to provide data on the level of biodiversity, multi-functionality, and maintenance of green spaces which will show the effect of both applied approaches. Particular attention will be given to the tensions and challenges of the local context: the adoption of plans and regulations that are in accordance with contemporary trends, as well as the drawbacks in their implementation. Furthermore, the possibilities of community greening will be elaborated, as future steps for achieving the formal green infrastructure (hereinafter GI) standards at the neighborhood/district scale.

This article gives an insight into the problem of climate change awareness in the process of architectural education. The course Urban Structure at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Architecture, is used as a case study that reveals a sensitive relationship between the university curriculum, teaching methodologies, students’ experiences/obtained knowledge and the local background. The course included Problem Based Learning method in order to increase applicability of up-to-date knowledge on climate change. The results were tested before and after taking the course, via survey based on the semi-open type of questionnaire, distributed among 246 course attendees. The testing was conducted twice, during the school years 2013–2014 and 2014–2015. The comparison between the knowledge acquire via theory (the test results provided at the beginning of the course) and the knowledge obtained by Problem Based Learning (the results obtained after the course ended) confirmed the increased level of student’s awareness of environmental problems, as well as the extended scope of their ability to respond to occurring problems caused by climate change. Furthermore, the results obtained by a questionnaire are used for setting of new educational guidelines.

The power plant “Power and Light” (1932, Belgrade) was the first one to generate alternating current in Serbia. Situated along the Danube river, it represented a part of an industrial area positioned in the Dorćol neighborhood, close to the urban core. Since 2005, the whole area has been exposed to a significant transformation into a luxurious residential and commercial complex, triggered by the intentions of private investors and directed by the ideas of changing city authorities. Considering the unpredictable local context created by the dominant post-socialist transitional economy, the article focuses on the sensitive relationship between the social sustainability of the ongoing urban regeneration plans and the emerging neoliberal forces targeting the areas of industrial heritage. Consequently, the case of the Dorćol ex-power plant and the anticipated changes in its urban surrounding are analyzed according to the selected principles of social sustainability. Revealing numerous controversies, both on the level of preferred urban policies and their questionable application, this case addresses the problems of heritage (re)use and regeneration in an environment of fast-shifting governmental priorities and financial flows, with reduced receptivity to sustainable solutions.

The main idea of this paper is to highlight the spatial and morphological potential of smaller settlements in Vojvodina, for their adaptation and transformation according to the principles of sustainable urban form and the concept of 'green' city. Because of its specific combination of rural and urban characteristics, both functional and morphological, the attribute 'rurban' is assigned to these settlements in the paper, stressing the importance of this duality in terms of their ecological transformation, but also their impact on the sustainability of the entire network of settlements in Vojvodina. Spatially-morphological resources of sustainability of 'rurban' settlements were observed in several spatial levels, and their importance at the level of a regional network of settlements is examined, as well as urban matrix and the level of the building plot. All of that was done in order to analyze and apply theoretical concepts of sustainable urban form for multiple spatial level, with emphasis on regional and local. From the perspective of urbanism and architecture, the possibilities for spatial-morphological adaptation of rural settlements were explored in order to respond to the needs of the population whose life requires a more 'urban' than what the villages are offering today. .

In this paper we will present compact city planning and design concept, which compared to other concepts of the sustainable urban form, most fully incorporates all relevant topics and urban policies, such as increasing the density of development, ensuring a mix of uses, containing urban 'sprawl' and achieving social and economic diversity and vitality. We will examine integrated shopping centre as a component of the compact city, and establish its relationship with the concept of the compact city and its characteristics. The shopping centre concept in historical city core areas is not originally a sustainable concept. Instead, the concept of adaptive reuse of old industrial buildings located in the vicinity of city centre into retail functions is considered more sustainable and can be considered as a component of the compact city planning. The aim of this study is to examine the importance of integrated pedestrian environment for urban realm within the framework of the compact city concept. In order to determine the level of compatibility between the principles of sustainable urban form and the integrated shopping centre (ISC) principles of design, we will examine several case studies of shopping malls in the Czech Republic and Poland which are designed with the ISC principles in mind.