On July 26, 1963, the city of Skopje was struck by a powerful earthquake which left behind almost nothing but ruins. Financially precarious, technically unprepared and politically non-aligned, the Yugoslav government needed neutral, long-term and specialized technical assistance if the Macedonian capital was to be rebuilt. Thanks to mediation of Ernest Weissmann, an architect of Croatian origins and a UN officer at ECOSOC , the United Nations joined in the reconstruction on October 14, 1963, and, in the following years, some of the most renowned contemporary architects and urban planners were invited to present their vision for the New Skopje. According to Weissmann, the city was to became nothing less than a “world city,” providing solutions to the contemporary “urban crisis,” prescribing a cure for “sick cities,” and showing the way for the “humanization” of the built environment. Even though mostly unattained, these ambitious goals gave birth to an international debate about the future of both cities and city planning, which was decisive for the definition of the UN ’s later interventions. The goal of this paper is to deal with Skopje’s reconstruction, highlighting Ernest Weissmann’s role in it, and to describe the city as a node of knowledge within a network of specialists in urban matters established by the United Nations during and – most of all – in spite of the Cold War context.

中文翻译：

---

欧内斯特·魏斯曼的“世界城市”

1963 年 7 月 26 日，斯科普里市发生了强烈地震，几乎没有留下任何废墟。如果要重建马其顿首都，南斯拉夫政府在财政上岌岌可危、技术上毫无准备且政治上不结盟，需要中立、长期和专业的技术援助。1963 年 10 月 14 日，在克罗地亚裔建筑师、经社理事会联合国官员欧内斯特·魏斯曼 (Ernest Weissmann) 的调解下，联合国加入了重建工作，并在接下来的几年里，一些最著名的当代建筑师和城市规划师加入了重建工作。受邀展示他们对新斯科普里的愿景。根据魏斯曼的说法，这座城市将成为一个“世界城市”，为当代“城市危机”提供解决方案，为“生病的城市、”，并为建筑环境的“人性化”指明了方向。尽管大多未实现，但这些雄心勃勃的目标引发了一场关于城市和城市规划未来的国际辩论，这对联合国后来的干预措施的定义具有决定性意义。本文的目标是处理斯科普里的重建，强调 Ernest Weissmann 在其中的作用，并将这座城市描述为联合国建立的城市事务专家网络中的一个知识节点——最重要的是——尽管冷战背景。