Post-War Urbanism along the Contested Border: Some Observations on Koper/Capodistria and Trieste/Trst

The article presents observations from recent architectural historical research on the post-war construction of Slovene coastal towns. The urban planning concepts that formed the “Slovenian Coast” and followed the migration processes are explored. The solutions for the Slovenian Coast are compared with contemporary urban plans for Trieste, set in a larger historical framework. Certain interventions in “ethnically pure” locations (new settlements called ‘borghi’ on the Karst boundary surrounding Trieste; new construction in the Venetian core of Capodistria) are highlighted, and approaches in the design of new urban areas and two symbolic spaces of representations on both sides of the border are compared.
KEY WORDS: post-war urbanism, symbolic marking of space, Koper/Capodistria, Trieste/Trst, border