Martina Malešič, “Pomen

17. David Petelin, “Stanovanjske razmere v Ljubljani v letih 1945 - 1965,” in Kronika (1), 77-94. Accessed 8, December 2021, https://kronika.zzds.si/kronika/ article/download/518/757/

18. Mandič, Stanovanje in država, 137.

19. Malešič, “Pomen skandinavskih vplivov,” 45.

20. In Slovenia during Yugoslavia, until 1965, the “district” (slo. okraj) was a broader territorial-political unit that connected several municipalities.

21. Mihelič, Urbanistični razvoj Ljubljane, 55.

22. Malešič, “Pomen skandinavskih vplivov,” 46.

23. After 1955 a more extensive organisation of individual construction was established and with it the first cooperatives. As economic organisations, they united individuals and legal entities in constructing and acquiring apartments with the help of the social community. (In 1956, there were 35 cooperatives in Ljubljana. By 1959, their number reached 177.) In 1960, the Institute for Cooperative Construction was established to accelerate the construction of larger and more organised settlements. However, the general typology of cooperative construction became the terraced house. (Ibid.)

24. Ibid.

ii. 1953-1965: From a new financial system to economic reform

The fifties were the years of a shift to workers’ self-management. Economic policy was redirected from heavy industry to other economic sectors. In the mid-1950s, when the period of accelerated industrialisation came to an end, living standards began to rise, peaking in the early 1960s. Homes were filled with household appliances, refrigerators, washing machines etc., contributing to a changed lifestyle and housing culture.17 In Yugoslavia, decentralisation in the allocation of housing resources began much earlier than in other socialist countries. In 1953 the responsibility for housing provision was taken over by individual republics. In the same year, with constitutional law, municipalities became fundamental socio-political communities responsible for housing construction. In 1955, a mandatory housing contribution was introduced by law, paid by all employees from their income. It enabled municipalities to establish housing loan funds, which became increasingly important, independent organisers and clients of housing construction.18 In parallel with the changes within the financing of housing construction, the first larger-scale residential constructions took place (e.g. Sava settlement in Ljubljana). The emergence of organised housing construction also triggered the development and introduction of new housing typologies. In the mid-1950s, they started building residential high-rises and introduced the first prefabricated constructions, triggered by the desire for faster and more economical construction.19

From the mid-fifties, local housing institutes were established in all major towns and districts20 to organise mass housing construction (1955, Institute for Housing Construction Ljubljana; from 1960 also the Urban Planning Institute).21 They collected money in housing funds and searched for suitable construction locations. To a narrower extent, they also dealt with the design and programming of housing and accompanying facilities.22

23In the late 1950s, the housing problem was still unresolved. To obtain the largest feasible number of apartments as quickly as possible, the Federal Assembly in 1958 passed a law on the “third nationalisation”. Rental residential buildings and construction land were nationalised. In 1959, housing care obligations were transferred to municipalities that could now determine the manner and set the conditions of operation for the fund.24

In the early 1960s, Yugoslavia ran into severe economic difficulties, which prompted the introduction of the 1960 economic reform. It simultaneously

Opposite page: Figure 3: Litostroj settlement (built between 1947-51), Ljubljana