The most vulnerable of Serbia – refugees and internally displaced persons, who had been mainly accommodated in collective centres, the Roma and post-war returnees – are the main beneficiaries of this project in Vranje, near the border with Kosovo. Future tenants were consulted through workshops in order to make sure that the design met their needs. Two four-storey buildings house 40 apartments which differ in size in order to ensure a mixed social structure and social integration. Special attention was given to common rooms for social contact among the inhabitants and their neighbourhood, to apartments accessible to the disabled, and to common outside areas. The programme has proved to be replicable with over 1,000 units having been built by mid-2014.

Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture