[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

Keynote speakers:

MASSIMILIANO FUKSAS, FUKSAS /IT/
WINY MAAS, MVRDV /NL/
KENGO KUMA /JP/ TO BE CONFIRMED
FRANCINE HOUBEN, MECANOO /NL/
RUURD GIETEMA, KCAP /NL/
SRDJAN JOVANOVIĆ WEISS, NAO /USA/
JASON PAYNE, HIRSUTA /USA/
ANTONINO SAGGIO, LA SAPIENZA ROME /IT/
MINAS BAKALČEV, ARCHITECTURE FACULTY-SKOPJE /MK/
BOŠTJAN VUGA, SADAR + VUGA /SL/
PENEZIĆ & ROGINA – PENEZIĆ & ROGINA ARCHITECTS /HR/
STEPHAN PINKAU, ANHALT UNIVERSITY /DE/
October 9-12th -conference

Polis University, Highway Tirana-Durres km.5, Tirana, Albania

1. Introduction

POLIS University launches the 1st international conference of architecture TAWC_01, as one of the key events of the Tirana Architecture Week. TAWC_01 shall take place in Tirana, from October 09 to 12, at the premises of the POLIS University. The theme of the TAWC_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 TAWC_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

program info: awrcompetitions

Registration opening March 1, 2012
Project submission deadline Juley 15, 2012

The main goal of the international competition is the re-appropriation of the city of Tirana in terms of mobility and rail transportation. In collaboration with the Tirana Municipality, the competition event in Tirana will gather ideas from students and young architects all around the world, in response to the need for a complete renovation of the city. Tirana multimodal station will be the title of the international competition. Even in this case, the head of the jury will be an internationally known architect from the Netherlands. This event of the Tirana Architecture Week requires the following time frame: starting from March 1, 2012, with the registration of the participants and continuing in June with the registration deadline. From July through September, the jury, composed by representatives of each promoter, will give early assessments and will later announce the winners. The work and ideas generated from the event will result in a series of possible solutions. The strong international impact and success of this competition will be guaranteed not only by a jury of architects and field specialists of international importance, but also by the fact that this is the first competition of ideas regarding an intermodal station ever organized in Tirana.

Jury:

TU-Delft Holland: Winy Mass/MVRDV (chairman)
POLIS University: Besnik Aliaj, Rudina Toto
Municipality of Tirana: Ulrike Bega
HSH Albanian Railways: Zamir Ramadani
ANHALT University of Applied Science: Stephan Pinkau
Albanian Union of Architects A.U.A: Ledian Bregasi
University of Ferrara: Antonello Stella

The work and ideas created during the competition will be presented in a public exhibition.

areal view