SWA’s role includes creating a detailed master plan, conceptual design, and preparation of design guidelines for a one-million-square-meter (100-hectare) site along the Sava River, next to the historic town center of Belgrade. The developer’s goal is to create a world-class sustainable waterfront development, as the single largest regeneration project in the country’s history. SWA is supporting RTKL in the design of high-quality civic and cultural attractions by forging human and physical connections where none existed before, with public transportation, stormwater and digital infrastructure, and walkable pedestrian-scaled neighborhoods and districts. The scope includes a 1.8 km-waterfront promenade and many urban areas adjacent to the promenade. Following the master plan, SWA designed and realized a 200-meter-long part of the promenade that currently serves as a full-sized mock-up to assess interest.

The area is already more popular than the city imagined and new construction, including a tower by SOM, continues to define the evolving waterfront at a pace of 50 meters per month. Careful attention to honoring the city’s unique culture may be seen in design details using cast-off railway parts from the site’s historic core and in the integration of existing floating restaurants and bars into the new vision, as well as improved areas for the cyclists and fishermen who have long populated this post-industrial edge landscape.

Work attributed to SWA/Balsley principal Gerdo Aquino and his team with SWA Group.