Students: Dorothea Kind, Gianfranco Rossetti
Location: Group work in Belgrade
Date: July, 2006
Type: Research project, student work, river leisure

During the crisis of 1990s, river leisure in Belgrade has undergone a tremendous increase. Hundreds of riverboats with clubs, restaurants, floating beaches etc, were attached to the river embankments in stretches that go uninterrupted for kilometers. It was a ‘wild’ development of a sort. With permissions for temporary constructions, issued by the City Municipalities, these structures re-mapped the use of rivers in the city, much of which is now irreversible.
As traditional leisure areas of Belgrade, the riverbanks have a long history. In the beginning of the last century collective baths were developed very similar to the one on the Donauinsel in Vienna. In the 1960s the banks became more articulated in a modernist style, fitting the modernism of New Belgrade. In the 1990s the banks were completed with a myriad of houseboats and floating bars, clubs, restaurants and cafes.
The case study on river leisure gives an opportunity to investigate the changing idea of urban leisure over decades.