Guidelines for Determining the Concept of Institutionalization of Underground Planning in Developing Countries

It is obvious that underground spaces successfully contribute to the creation of a sustainable and resilient urban environment, which is proven by many researches and case studies. The construction of such spaces, from the aspect of technical and technological requirements, has advanced greatly in the last thirty years. In contrast, the implementation of underground spaces in the planning framework and the very institutionalization of underground urbanism take place much more slowly. It is necessary to create the controversy of the cause of this phenomenon, by taking back a few steps to the time of the first ideas of planning underground urban spaces, thus reexamining the very concepts of implementing underground urbanism in planning processes. The author analyzes the current results achieved in the world of the subject matter, and the current legitimate planning processes of a developing country (Republic of Serbia), which is still planning to lay the foundations for efficient planning of underground urban spaces. The goal of the paper is not to criticize the existing models of implementing underground urbanism, but to find optimal proposals and guidelines, that can be used in the future when forming and selecting the initial concept of planning underground urban spaces, and implementing underground urbanism into the inherited urban norms of the Republic of Serbia. Also, the work can serve as an encouragement to other similar developing countries that strive to institutionalize the planning of UUS in the future.