Adoption of the Model of Socially Directed Housing Construction in the 1970s: Challenges and Lessons from the Krnjevo Housing Estate in Rijeka

Abstract

The article examines the implementation of the socially directed housing construction (DUSI) model in Rijeka through a case study of the Krnjevo housing estate, conceived as a pilot project for a new approach to socialist housing construction in the 1970s. The DUSI reform aimed to ensure greater participation of citizens and labour organisations in decisionmaking on housing typology, standards, and location, yet the experience in Rijeka reveals a number of institutional and organisational weaknesses. The “high-rise” Krnjevo project – with its innovative urban concept of linear megastructures and egalitarian orientation of apartments toward the sea – faced public and investor resistance due to high costs, technical risks, and declining trust in city institutions. Following the rejection of the high-rise variant, a compromise “low-rise” alternative was developed, which, despite typological innovations, exhibited shortcomings in housing quality and infrastructure. The analysis demonstrates that a lack of coordination, political communication, and bureaucratic efficiency limited the reform potential of the DUSI model. At the same time, the Krnjevo case illustrates how citizens used opportunities for participation to influence spatial decisions, which can be seen as a rare example of the affirmation of the declared principles of self-management in urban planning practice in socialist Yugoslavia.