Tirana Architecture Week

[Re]appropriation of the city
The aim of Tirana Architecture Week is to promote international knowledge exchange among professionals and enhance public interest in architecture, art and design, as disciplines deeply concerned with the contemporary city development. Balkan cities have passed through radical social and economic changes, resulting in a diverse and often uncontrollable development. With great respect to their history, and also recognizing needs for future development, TAW is aiming at providing a platform, where several local and international participants can disclose useful and vanguard know-how, while the Balkan`s experience can radiate a unique and inspiring food for thought.

 

 

 

 

 

 

official website

TAW
Street Bylis 12, highway Tirane-Durres, 5 Km, Kashar
Postal Code 1051, Postal Box 2995, Tirana, Albania
Tel: +355.(0) 4 240 74 20/ 240 74 21; Fax: +355.(0) 4 240 74 22
E-mail: contact@tiranaarchitectureweek.com

SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE
[Re] appropriation of the city
Architecture as a tool for the re-appropriation of the contemporary city

1. Introduction

POLIS University launches the 1^st international conference of architecture TAW_{C_01}, as one of the key events of the Tirana Architecture Week. TAW_{C_01} shall take place in Tirana, from October 09 to 12, at the premises of the POLIS University. The theme of the TAW_{C_01} is “Re-appropriating the city: Architecture as a tool for the re-appropriation of the contemporary city”. Balkan cities are at the focus of the conference’s theme, looking forward to identify their position in the international platform of city performances.

Balkan cities have various unique experiences of space appropriation. Alike culture, space is also vivid and human and it is continuously transformed through a mutual process of human – space interaction. The space for all, the one we name as public, evolves in its interaction with several users. The users are the people, but from an ecological point of few, this could include other species, thus increasing the complexity of space appropriation. All in all, this would be a healthy space appropriation.

In Balkan cities, we have been witnessing plenty of devastating intrusions to the public space, made by privileged groups that just “grabbed the opportunity” in a given political and social economic setting. These intrusions have undermined the human-space healthy balances, by resulting in space capture. The latter has been extremely severe in the Balkan context of shifting from dictatorial to democratic societies, where the concept “space for all” was evilly manipulated into “space for my business”. This “laissez faire” psychology was justified with the “need for transition to real capitalism”, endorsement of consumerist ideologies and quick removal of legacies of the past, including fractions of social responsibility. Thus, the one that used to be the space for all was taken over for personal, narrow and selfish interests of the strongest, or the fittest.

Having recognised that, we also observe not to be free as yet of these unhealthy takings that often stand behind the well known business. Thus, we identify a need for getting space back to the public and also maintaining the healthy interactions. In our Balkan context, space appropriation has to enter a “[re]” phase, which encompasses processes of [re]claiming, [re]evaluating, [re]arranging, [re]using, [re]building, [re]shaping, [re]modelling, and at last [re]understanding and [re]developing space as a place of all. Re-appropriation of space in the city stands for a known method, but reversed model, fed into daily practices.

The aim of the TAW_{C_01} is to support a fertile debate on city/public space re-appropriation. The debate should disclose reasons behind the facts and bring innovative knowledge and tools for achieving re-appropriation. Professionals, academics, students and a broad public could participate and try to define, conceptually and physically public spaces, as a fundamental element in re-appropriating the contemporary city.

Architects, urban planners, designers, experts in sustainability issues and space psychology are invited to share their experiences, their knowledge and inspiration, cases from world cities and other useful insights. The contributions would at last provide a solid basis for Balkan cities in the endeavour towards sound and healthy re-appropriation.

Scientific Commitee:

POLIS University: Dr. Besnik Aliaj, Dr. Loris Rossi, Dr. Antonino Di Raimo, Dr. Vera Bushati, Dr. Arber Shtylla
Università “ La Sapienza” Roma: Prof. Antonino Saggio
Università Ferrara: Prof. Antonello Stella
ANHALT University of Applied Science: Prof. Stephan Pinkau
Technical University of Vienna: Prof. Marcus Tomaselli
Cottbus University: Prof. Raimund Fein
Erasmus University of Rotterdam: Prof. Peter Niented
University of Belgrade: Prof. Vladan Djokic

 

 

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
MOBILIciTY – Tirana multimodal station