QUESTIONNAIRE IN TIRANA AND DURRES

Beginning of the work on the questionnaire, after some training...

Here we are in Durres, working...

A Quest For Public Space

Divna Pencic &Jasna Stefanovska & Biljana Spirkoska  

The transition from one organisational system to another fundamentally alternates the context in which the planning operates while leaving an undeniable mark on cities and their urban tissues. Parallel to the processes of transition from one system to another following the collapse of the socialist state there was a long and painful recession that affected the planning profession that had to operate in a context that was in making. The governments aimed at projects that are market driven and tried to initiate investments that did not necessarily protect the public interest. While promoting such projects beating primarily with the pulse of the capital, a fragmentation of the tissue of the cities was inevitable, the public space was ignored and the position of the planner was undermined.

The processes of urban change and restructuring had different dynamics and pace while remodelling the city and had a direct impact on the societal changes in the country. The public spaces and public life in the city of Skopje as a result of such processes are slowly disappearing and the newly proposed ones represent more of a left-over spaces designed to connect rather than to provoke interaction. Such spaces do not contribute nor enhance city’s qualities, but are empty and unarticulated spaces emerging in the in-between realm producing permanent strangeness questing for an immediate rethinking and action.

Skopje - The Phoenix City

Divna Pencic & Jasna Stefanovska & Biljana Spirkoska

The urban structure in Skopje is a result of the struggle between the imported models and the specific conditions of the place. Given that the inspiration in urban modernization was always coming from abroad, one can easily distinguish a set of foreign influences in each period of the city’s development. Starting with the artistic project for the city in the first Regulation Plan for the city of Skopje in 1914 developed by the Serbian architect Dimitrija Leko which introduced the expansion of the city on the right bank of the river and marked the beginning of the modernism in Skopje, followed by the garden city movement introduced in the 1929 Regulation Plan by the architect Josif Mihajlovic, then the concept of the modern city (CIAM) introduced in the Master Plan of the Czechoslovakian architect Ludek Kubes, the imposition of the foreign influences, followed by local reactions, soared with the 1965 Master Plan that was prepared by a group of urbanists assigned from the United Nations uniting experts from all over the world.

The 1965 Master Plan was a reaction on the earthquake in 1963 which resulted with destruction of 80.7 per cent of the built city fund and left 75.5 per cent of the residents homeless, and gave the opportunity for radical re‐planning of the City’s layout to the highest possible standard. However, this enormous task of rebuilding the city had to be accomplished in the same time with the preparation of the plans which supposed to direct it, and in the context of a society that just suffered a major catastrophe. In consequence, even though the concept was well laid down by the experts, it matched more the economic realities and situation in their own country than the ones in Skopje for which the results showed that it was pure futurism. The realization of the plan was slim even while Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia and enjoyed the advantages from being de facto included in central transfer payments, living space for a spontaneous chaotic development happening at the same time, solving the pressing‐issues pushed by interested groups while leaving the most missionary and most important issues not properly addressed.

In favour of the previous argument an example can be made with one of the most notable post earthquake works‐ the project for a Cultural complex designed by the Slovenian team Biro 77.

City squares, as places for democratic and cultural expression in contemporary cities

City squares, as places for democratic and cultural expression in contemporary cities and focal points for civil and social relations, are a vital stimulus to entrepreneurship and development of the cities.

However, over the last two decades, the urban transformations of Balkan cities under the duress of neo-liberal rebuilding projects and globalisation desires in continuation demonstrate a remarkable neglect of the public functions of city squares as public spaces. This neglect takes different forms. A common one is the physical neglect and neglect of the soft infrastructure: the role that different communities play in the city, the space where exchange takes place, the grounds where people express their identity through culture and arts. Another is: politicians using city squares for (personal) political experiments and a rehearsal for populist politics (best example of such behaviour of politicians is the latest decision about the City Square in Skopje (Skopje 2014 project) that provoked citizens to react or the ongoing debate between local and central government for the main square in Tirana).

The issue of city squares has to be understood in a much broader fashion. City squares (and here we think not only of the main square, but of all open public places /city squares) embody the energies of people and therefore we have to understand what city squares mean for the social and cultural expression of citizens and what is needed to bring life back to the city squares.

With this in mind, the project seeks to meaningfully add a share towards creating solid bridges between various actors and facilitate a community-based process that engages a full range of local stakeholders (citizens, professionals, policy makers), and brings people with diverse ideas into dialogue in an inclusive process that produces workable recommendations with significant impacts.

Revival of City Squares of the Balkan Cities INTRO

Revival of City Squares of the Balkan Cities aims to contribute to revival of city squares as viable public places that foster cultural identity and promote diversity through enforcement of public policies and active community participation. The action intends to achieve two major specific objectives: to promote national and regional policy discourse on how city squares can be transformed into pulsating community places (indeed, knowledge dissemination is the first step towards introducing new ideas and approaches) and develop a platform for transforming open public spaces into vibrant places that serve community needs.

The project is carried out by 4 organisations from 3 countries: - Co-Plan Institute for Habitat Development and Polis University in Tirana, Albania; - Coalition for Sustainable Development – CSD, from Skopje, Macedonia and EXPEDITIO Centre for Sustainable Spatial Development from Kotor, Montenegro.