Podgorica: from the lastest to the next generation of european capitals

Podgorica, a name that means “city under the mountain”, is one of the Europe's youngest capitals. As its long history has shown, it is the result of an ongoing rebuilding process: Greek colony, Roman crossroads of rivers and trade, Ottoman fort-gate. After suffering conquests, wars, more than seventy bombings during World War II, it was completely reconstructed in the form of a 20th century soviet city. Based on a floodplain, it shows a hybrid morphology by matching compact urban fabrics to the scattered icons of political and economic power. Today, Podgorica is a dynamic growing city sustained by a close-knit network of international funds in order to become a city in the 21st century. Nevertheless, the rapid transition from a post-socialist model to globalization caused a loss of identity and sense of place. The aim of the research is to bridge the knowledge gap of a relatively recent city and to understand its developing dynamics in the name of innovation and continuity: how can Podgorica represent the next generation of European capitals? Through an integrated approach between morpho-typological analysis and design experimentation, this study attempts to figure out new spatial matrices of urban growth taking into account the traditional home living, the surrounding landscape nature, the functional and economic site vocation. Planning a third-millennium city still means acknowledging the architecture as a vehicle of regeneration and cultural connection between past, present, and future. Keywords: Rebuilding Process, Identity, Innovation and Continuity.