press conference of RCSBC at Polis University - Tirana - 1 June 2011

Revival Of City Squares in Balkan Cities

On 1^st of June at 10.30 am at Polis University, Autostrada Tiranë-Durrës, Km 5, Kashar. Will take place the presentation of the project Revival of City Squares in Balkan Cities. The project aim to reflect on a new creative idea of the public spaces questioning people who use and live that spaces about values and problematics to re-use in order to create new vibrant, creative and livable spaces to use as city squares.

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.

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. As its overall goal, our project 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 project is proposed by 4 organizations 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.

The mission and modus operandi of all three NGOs is to work with and for grass root levels and each has an established track record in this respect. The Polis University experience with regards to development of creative cities workshop and examination of city squares is a valuable support to project action. The project envisages engaging with the citizen and professional groups as well as with local authorities, further building on the successful initiatives already achieved by the project partners.

On 1^st of June will be presented the result of the first part of work made till now and a calendar of art performance birthed from some architectural projects made by the students of the University involved in the project and that will be realized in June, in different areas of the cities of Tirana and Durrës.

For info:

Stefano Romano: stefano_romano@universitetipolis.edu.al

Universiteti Polis: Tel:+ 355.(0) 4  240 74 20 / 240 74 21

Co-Plan: tel: +355.(0) 4 24 07 423/4

The project Revival of City Squares in Balkan Cities is supported by