Infrastructural Railway Barriers and Spatial Segregation in Sofia

Abstract

The history reveals that in the pre-industrial years Sofia plain regional urban metabolism was almost fully circular. This rapid urbanisation processes at the end of 19th and throughout the 20th century have unfolded large industrial and extraction activity and concentrated around one third of the country’s population in the capital city. With the industrialisation  and the development of the railways its connection on international level the urban metabolism then turned into linear. The destruction of environmental qualities have affected mostly the poorer neighbourhoods and residents. Infrastructures began to divide the city but as well have implications on the social fabric. Sofia is segregated by its main infrastructural division line – the railway corridor connecting Belgrade and Istanbul – on a poorer northern part and richer southern part. The case of Hristo Botev neighbourhood shows an extreme segregation of a residential zone from its urban environment and welfare infrastructure via total enclosure by linear and spatial infrastructural barriers. The activist mobilisation of the Gradoscope collective, described in the paper, creates a platform for an open-ended process for an expert and civil conversation about the future urban development of the railway corridor as well as for spatial and climate justice.