Ranko Radovic (1935-2005) was one of Serbia?s most notable architects, urbanists, and professors, with a prominent influence on European scholarly discussions on planning urban centers and public spaces, which have come to light not only through his research design proposals but also through numerous publications, seminars, conferences and lecture notes. The importance of Radovic lies in his profound and early understanding of urban issues that became common across Europe in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He focused on the composition, ideologies, traditionality and innovation of cities, while striving to create paradigmatic shifts in urban design with the parallel retainment of strong cultures. Radovic, strongly influenced by his European experiences, created urban schemes based on his strong ideals that were a product of deep urban perception and collective criticism deriving from his experiential research. As a result, this paper seeks to show and discuss how his time and practice in Finland, and particularly his research designs for the areas of Herttoniemi and Vuosaari in Helsinki (1995-1996), shaped how he perceived the concepts of urban spatial identification, geometry, and historicity, and how these elaborations evolved through his urban planning and design schemes in Serbia?s northern province of Vojvodina (1997-2000).

Rwanda?s plots and housing plans featured a circular shape until the time of colonization by Germany and Belgium, when-beginning with the house of Dr Richard Kandth in 1909-a new configuration of buildings and plots having a square or rectangular base was introduced. Today, some of Rwanda?s contemporary public buildings seem to recall traditional circular forms, merging local building tradition with the aesthetics of global architecture. With a population of more than 12 million and an annual growth rate of 2.8%, Rwanda aims to accelerate the pace of urbanization by making significant investments in urban infrastructure and the construction sectors of the capital city Kigali and secondary cities. This includes the recent revisiting and development of Rwanda?s master plans and the creation of strict guidelines for plots sizes dedicated to individual housing. This paper reconsiders the shapes that may emerge from these frameworks and raise the possibility of a re-emergence of traditional configurations that would reinforce Rwandan identity and transform rapid urbanization into a mechanism of cultural significance. This paper provides an overview of the historical, technical, cultural, and aesthetic values of pre-colonial architectural circular shapes, while also tracing those influences on twenty-first-century public buildings in Kigali and other cities of Rwanda. Authors consider as well how these traditional shapes may potentially be used in housing solutions given the current master plan requirements. Although the circle is not commonly used at present as a plan for single-family housing due to the technical challenges and higher construction costs involved, it nevertheless remains a historically and culturally important design having significant potential for future applications.

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