Skopje – European City of Tomorrow

Minas Bakalčev, Mitko Hadzi Pulja, Saša Tasić

The question concerning the future of the European city is an important issue in the light of the less certain, heterogeneous, incoherent urban formations of the modern city. We are confronted with changes to the European historic city as an exclusive entity, with changes not only to the territory of the city and its new regional disposition but even more to the questioning of the actual paradigm of the city itself, and its physical composition. The former homogeneous entities have become inconsistent landscapes, once distinctive urban elements are now hybrid spatial phenomena. This research questions the way in which the new inconsistent base of the city can now be projected into its future. To achieve this, we will first start with the progressive prototype model of the future city promoted in the controversial book ‐ manifesto “The City of Tomorrow” by Le Corbusier. Then we will explore the effects of modernization processes in the physical structure of Skopje. In the last part through a comparative review of selected European city‐icons we are going to try to draw the new spatial reality of the European city through which we can base a hypothesis on the new inclusive, creative and integrated city of tomorrow.