The focus of this study is buildings for public purposes, specifically for higher education, planned in zones of spatial cultural-historical units. Sustainable urban planning in areas with cultural-historical heritage is a particular challenge since the higher education facilities themselves have their own functional requirements, which are much easier to fulfill in "softer" locations. The research objective is to prove the hypothesis that it is possible to indicate a prescription for the practical application of the theoretical model and define the necessary steps to achieve the best sustainable quality results in practice. The paper analyses the associated process, relational settings, circumstances, participants, and timelines, and it presents the results of final designs based on two parallel case studies of new capital buildings for the University of Belgrade. Methodologically it gives an overview of the context, referring to other research and examples, detailing chosen case studies, and describing their backgrounds, conditions and requirements, frameworks, chronologies, approaches, and results. The discussion concludes with theoretical models originating from the comparison of implemented steps in the process of creation and evaluation of architectural ideas and summarized similarities and differences, aiming that there is a common model suitable for further applications. The practical result of the research is findings about the pathway for the best original planning solution emphasized through the institution of urban architectural competitions as a mandatory step, recommending wider participation of experts in the process of evaluation.
