21st Century (2000–present)

Split Master Plan

2006 · Croatia · Southern Europe · Post-industrial regeneration and waterfront urbanism · Planned by City of Split
Aerial view of the historic core (Diocletian's Palace) of Split, Croatia.
Aerial view of the historic core (Diocletian's Palace) of Split, Croatia. · CC BY 2.0

Core idea

Tourism/port interface & heritage

Why it matters

Balances cruise/tourism pressures

Description

A city master plan for Split, Croatia, adopted in the mid-2000s by the municipal government, guiding development of the Adriatic port city around its exceptional heritage core, the Roman Diocletian's Palace and its UNESCO-listed surroundings. Its central concerns are managing the interface between the working port, ferry traffic and the growing cruise and tourism economy, protecting the historic centre, and structuring residential and commercial growth on the constrained peninsula. It is a general urban plan at municipal scale.

Significance

Split's plan speaks to a wider Mediterranean predicament: historic port cities absorbing mass tourism and cruise traffic within tightly bounded, heritage-saturated territories. It is significant less as a formal innovation than as a case of post-Yugoslav planning adjusting to market conditions, coastal development pressure and the touristification of a living ancient monument.

What shaped it

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.