Ethnocratic urban informality: Brodarski Institute as a harbinger of Novi Zagreb

This article shows how elites can drive urban development with political aims rather than those of sustainability. It shows how Croatian political elite sought to develop Zagreb, a capital city of a nation without a state, as an instrument of nation- and state-building. The article uncovers how the Croatian marginalized elite, in ethnocratic post-WWII Yugoslavia, pushed through Novi Zagreb, Zagreb's large southward housing expansion, using urban informality. It elucidates the role of the Brodarski Institute and Zagreb's architects in its realization. Employing Yiftachel's theory about gray spaces, the development of Novi Zagreb is viewed as a process that involved three phases: the first conceptual phase (1945–1952) when the city was a “gray space,” the second “whitening” phase (1953–1962) and the third “blackening” phase (1963–1971); these three phases coincide with three distinct historical periods demarcated by constitutions and changes in power structures: Sovietization (1945–1952), decentralization (1953–1962), and economic reforms (1963–1974). This demonstrates that political processes largely shaped Novi Zagreb. Substantiating Yiftachel and Yacobi's theory concerning ethnocratic urban informality, this Zagreb case study shows how a marginalized nation used urban informality to resist the state. It delineates how architects' agency may be political and how architects contribute to societal change. • The Informal plan for Novi Zagreb was an outcome of ideological conflict occurring on formal structures. • Yiftachel's theory of “gray spaces” helps to disclose how Novi Zagreb came about. • This article advances Yiftachel and Yacobi's theory on ethnocratic urban informality. • This article shows that the agency of architects may be political. • In gray spaces Foucauldian “politics of society” may overpower “politics of state.”