On the left bank of the Sava, the blocks of New Belgrade rise like the ribs of a sleeping animal. For decades they were shorthand for everything that went wrong with socialist planning. Now a new generation sees something else in them.
The studios are small, often three or four people working out of converted ground-floor shops. Their commissions are modest — a courtyard here, a stairwell there — but their ambition is not.
Repair as a design language
Rather than demolish, they repair. Rather than hide the concrete, they clean it, seal it, and let it speak. The result is a quiet argument about what a city owes to the people who built it.