3rd Croatian Conference on Earthquake Engineering 3CroCEE

The second half of the 20th century was marked by the rise of prefabricated concrete systems used as the best solution for fast construction after the vast devastation of the building stock after the WWII. In Yugoslavia, several innovative structural systems were used for mass construction of multi-family housing blocks. Two large groups of prefabricated systems were: 1) large panel and 2) dual frame-wall systems. Some of these systems were adapted from other European countries by local construction companies, such as Rad-Balency, but over time engineers developed new ones, the most famous being the IMS building system developed by Professor Branko Žeželj at the Institute IMS in Belgrade. A construction boom from 1964-1980 brought new urban projects and developments, such as Novi Beograd (New Belgrade) in Serbia, Novi Zagreb (New Zagreb) and Split 3 in Croatia, Nova Gorica in Slovenia, and the reconstruction of Skopje, North Macedonia after the 1963 earthquake. This paper presents a case study on the systems used in New Belgrade, which was the largest urban development in Serbia and Yugoslavia, and a polygon for experiments in architecture and construction technologies. Architectural and structural features of selected prefabricated systems will be described, with the focus on features that may influence seismic performance of these systems, as well as their failure mechanisms. Studies on seismic evaluation and performance of these prefabricated systems are very scarce, and they have not been exposed to the effects of damaging earthquakes to date. The paper is expected to be of interest to engineers and architects interested in seismic behaviour of these prefabricated systems.