PN g es A Re”) 5 5 SANE Lots Ahe take | ia) Obs hs)IN 1966, the United Nations Development Pro- gramme completed a large-scale programme of assistance to the City of Skopje, the purpose of which was to assist the local authorities in drawing up a new city plan for its future development. Because the execution of this project involved a number of unique features, of interest both to the population at large and to town planners and other profess als, the United Nations decided to publish the story in book form with maps, diagrams and photographs. ‘This book tells how the United Nations became in- volved in the reconstruction of Skopje, and how it helped the stricken city regain life after suffering a major disaster. The severe earthquake which struck Skopje in July 1963 killed over one thousand people and destroyed or severely damaged some seventy-five per cent of the city’s buildings in approximately seventeen seconds. Before this catastrophe, Skopje, the capital city of the Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, was fast developing as an important industrial and administrative centre. It had some 200,000 people and, with recent construction of a large steel mill, had begun its emergence as a major industrial city. In the months which followed the earthquake, help reached Skopje from all parts of the world. A. number of European countries sent temporary and prefabricated structures for immediate use as homes, ii MN ON ngschools and hospitals. Seismologists and earth- quake engineers came from as far away as Japan to investigate the causes and effects of the earthquake and to advise on precautions for the future, Equip- ment and supplies were sent by many countries for immediate relief as well as to help in the longer-term job of reconstruction. The role of the United Nations and its family of agencies at all stages was to advise the local authorities in the co-ordination of all these different forms of assistance and to help them mobilize their own efforts in the complex task of rebuilding their city, and in so doing, help them de- vise a blueprint for its future. For the central task of replanning the city, the United Nations appointed Mr. Adolf Ciborowski, Chief Architect of Warsaw, as the Project Manager. ‘This book describes the full scope of United Nations activities, which were essentially conceived as a joint operation with full Yugoslav participation. This scope encompasses the extremes of broad studies concerning Skopje’s present and future position in its region, and the preparation of detailed road de- signs, The project covers all activities essential to the design and execution of a plan for a city, but be- cause of the shortness of time at the disposal of the planners, a new methodology was devised to orches- trate the whole operation. Other interesting features include the organization of an international town planning competition by the Government and the Tiatbeck iting Gor Mie tential rex of the cli