Urban Development Center

Urban Development Center is voluntary, non-governmental and non-profit association, established with an aim to create and implement initiatives in the area of urban development of cities and regions and environmental protection.

The main objective of the Centre is promotion of the past, present and future urban living and development in Serbia and promotion of culture and arts within the urban areas. The Center devotes special attention to the arrangement of public and exhibition spaces and protection of urban units in Serbia, including the cultural and historical monuments that bear witness to the development of the city.

The Center advocates the improvement of living spaces in urban environments, the advancement of the living culture and the cultural values of urban art. Particular focus of our work is developing innovative solutions in presentation and communication of cultural heratage with the aim of offering a novel, immersive and social cultural experience.

According to our Statute, the organization's Assembly elects 5 Steering Board Members algonside the Steering Board President and 12 collaborators in specific fields. With  a large number of external collaborators, the Center has a flexible organization that enables a diversity and constant flow of ideas.

Past porjects:

Techcooltour

Techcooltour is a cross media platform created within the Tech Tour project with the aim of offering innovative and engaging experiences at archaeological locations and cultural heritage sites. Financed by EU Commission, the project “TECH-TOUR / Technology and Tourism: Augmented Reality for Roman and Byzantine itineraries” aims to promote two historical trans-national EU cultural routes exploiting developed ICT tools and exploring new media potential in presentation of historical heritage. The Techcooltour platform represents an innovative approach that brings together traditional and new media in presentation of archeological sites, bridging the gap between physical and digital in order to enable memorable, interactive and novel experience to the visitors.

The project has been presented at numerous conferences Digital Heritage Expo, Marseille France 2013, AWE, Santa Clara California June 2013, Museums and Web, Hong Kong, China, December 2013,  Athens Congress, October 2013, Athens Greece, October 2013,  InsideAR - Miunich Germany, October 2014, Best in Heritage - Dubrovniik, Croatia, September 2014.

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UNDERГРАД (UnderCity) – cultural heritage 

Exploration, documenting, and presentation of Belgrade underground facilities (passages, dungeons, caves), which can, after reconstruction, increase the overall cultural offer.

This research shall provide information about the dynamic history of the city, and contribute to presentation of Belgrade`s cultural and historical heritage. The aim of this project is to record objects, as many as possible, and to give them utility value. These underground spaces attracted attention of citizens and tourists.

The project consists of two segments: exploration and presentation of the Belgrade`s underworld. The survey is designed to consist of analytical and field work. Analytical research consists of a review available bibliographic, historical and archival material about Belgrade`s underworld. Collected material would be systematized and digitized, and would present a first database of its kind in the area. Field research involves visiting certain locations and documenting baseline data, and it will be starting point for the study. During the fieldwork, a series of photographs of underground facilities states will be taken. All recorded material will be included in presentations.

The second segment of this project requires processing and presentation of research results and data received from the survey. For this purpose, and with a goal of looking at the problem of exploitation of the underground spaces from different perspectives, several work groups of the scientists and experts from different fields will be formed.

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The project’s main goal is education of young people and stimulation of research and problem solving within the ecology and sustainability. Through actions that the project team takes, we encourage a stronger involvement of youth in grass root activities that address ecological and environmental problems within our community, and empowering the youth to self organize and launcht their own projects and start-ups.

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 VIsionAR

The aim of the project is to offer innovative solutions for promotion of cultural heritage in urban environments. Using Augmented Reality and smart devices the aim is to create a platform for visualization of historical layers of a city. The project examines the potential of mobile solutions and AR  in bringing cultural content to new audiences in a new way.

Communicating Archaeology  - education

Training archaeology students for efficient communication with the factors crucial for the success of the cultural heritage promotion.

B CARE  (Balkan Cultural Aid Response for Emergencies )

The aim is to create a comprehensive regional program, building on this Albanian-Serbian partnership. These objectives are: To create the basis for a regional programme by compiling a document including all the information needed for understanding the risks to heritage in the region and formulating strategies to address them in case of disaster (a comprehensive programme document). Coordinating with and among national disaster response institutions and cultural institutions on effective strategies for cultural emergency response conducting one pilot training programme for emergency first aid volunteers.

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MILD HOME

Participation in the project MILD HOME - ’My Modular Intelligent, Low Cost, Do it yourself, Nearly zero energy House for our Eco Green Village'' within South East Europe Transnational Cooperation Programme. Urban Development Center has been involved in this project through a tender. The task was to organize a competition for the best architectural solution that will meet the highest environmental standards in construction.

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STRATONIK

The 3D interactive presentation of ancient tomb from Brestovik has been completed. During the year, promotions aimed at students, scholars, and journalists were held. The project was successfully completed and the evaluation has shown very favorable assessment of the project.