Six Weeks in Belgrade : A Comic Book on Participatory Architecture and Citizen Initiatives in Urban Planning

Abstract: The project “Six weeks in Belgrade” is a comic book and an exhibition of our research on citizen participation in the planning process in Belgrade, Serbia.   The project discusses how participation can be used to improve the way we plan and build our cities: If, and how, participation can result in a more democratic planning, aiming at a more long-term sustainable and less market-driven urban development. It presents current planning conditions in Belgrade, and current actors and projects in Belgrade. It also introduces a speculative method for a participatory practice through fiction and the visual language of comics. The project maps both formal and informal initiatives in the field of urban planning.The research was done on the basis of interviews, books and articles. By mapping these initiatives we wanted to show their importance, hoping that people will get inspired and involved in the planning and making of the city, and also to strengthen already existing initiatives. The research is presented in the form of a comic narrative, presenting an alternative mode of communicating ideas in architecture and planning. Something which is of specific importance for the development of a participatory practice.