Terminal Dorcol: Rearticulation of Belgrade’s railway transit routes

Dorćol[1], being the city’s crossroad for as long as it had existed, both with the industrial area along the Dunavska street, initiated the main research topic that was supposed to lead to an ideal model of reactivation of the Danube riverside. The main goal of the research process was to generate urban content which would emphasize a different experience and a new scenery of the city, from the river perspective. It would also create new walkways and cycling paths, which would help the city breathe again. The research consisted of an exploration of sustainability methods and efficiency of urban regeneration of industrial zone on the right Danube riverbank. By studious analysis of the great impact that railway traffic had on the industry in Belgrade, and by understanding the relation between Dorćol and the rest of the city, as well as its position in contemporary socio-economic development, it has come to cognition about the optimal means of the site rearticulation. Consequently, the main subject of research is located in the Belgrade river port, above the port pool, which is the intersection of three different traffic paths: roadway, railway, and the river. By reaffirmation of these paths, the location would become a unique terminal for the river public transport. Furthermore, it would become a means of connection – a pedestrian bridge linking the walking and cycling paths along the Danube docks.

By crossing the directions of different types of traffic (car, pedestrian, tram, river) and their vertical stratification in the part above the port pool, the main intersection in the city was created. in the middle of the traffic, the intersection is the terminal facility, which aims to activate the industrial zone. Turning the port pool into a port for river city traffic, and the existing directions of railway corridors into walking-bicycle routes, would represent a modern functional, social, and economic, but also the aesthetic spark of reviving that part of the city, old industrial facilities would become accessible to the general public, and thus they would gain in importance with their newly formed practical function.

Although the original idea of ​​the project was to connect the shores of the port pool, the river traffic terminal facility connects the river with the mainland, the city with the river, the inhabitants of the city with the Danube, but also the culture of industrial heritage with the present.

Keywords: industrial heritage, railway, terminal- connection, Danube, syncretism

[1] Dorćol (tur. Dört-jol, Dört – number 4, jol – crossroad, Dört-jol – four path crossroad)