Workshop in Tirana – Suburban Exchange, 18 th

The public space of intervention

Students from the course of urban design were divided into groups of three, four, people and began a research and analysis of urban territory that brought them very soon, into conflict with the issues of space to which they had not thought of before. Each group was then asked to think, together with the coordinator, of an intervention¹ that could be realized in the investigated space; an intervention that was a metaphor for the current situation and a look towards a possible future offered by their architectural projects; an intervention that was a key point of contact for citizens; an intervention that spokes of potential, something that belongs public space in general as area of sharing and conflict. What it is derived is a new place, not physical, but mental. A space of reflection in which going into with the unconscious fear of not recognizing what we are looking at. Losing references leads to feel dizzy, what we’re not able to recognize forces our brain to make us look differently, in a new way, inside the image in a far and wide journey towards a new perspective, a new reality , a new poem; a journey through a global space, along with urban and natural, real, realistic and imaginary.

At the end of the course we had prepared 33 different interventions, one for each group of students, choosing between these, 6 one to realize.
The choice was made on behalf of different aspects, the cost for the realization of the idea, the time for its realization, the collection of necessary materials, etc ... In fact, the idea was to carry out interventions in the months of June and early July in order to have a background for the first Regional Workshop of the project, held in Tirana in July.

The interventions were five in Tirana and one in Durrës, interventions through the spaces of the city, talking in a different way and a different operational mode, of different problematic.

Intervention #1 – Tableaux Vivants

This intervention was developed starting from the architectural project of the students:
Olti Shabani - Fatjon Devollaj - Andri Pope
The area they examined was an area of Tirana, where is the Centre for the Artwork Production (large-scale sculptures), along the “Lana” canal. The Centre still works and the area outside it was occupied by a Rom community. The architectural project of the students, starting from the survey of the area and its characteristics, included the construction of a multipurpose cultural centre; centre that would, in their idea, has to incorporate the community in some way by giving them an opportunity to work.
The artistic intervention that we planned to realize was precisely focused on the Rom community, which somehow was the glue between the current situation in that area of the city and the students' project. We thought

we'd ask them to pose for us, a practice much used by painters of past centuries, a practice very used for example from Michelangelo Merisi (Caravaggio). The idea was to create a collective portrait no longer through the use of brushes and colors, but of a camera; a portrait that would highlight their group characteristics, the bright colors of their clothes, their smiles and their faces marked by life. The involvement of the community was the hard work for students and for all the people involved in the project. The Rom people were suspicious, they thought we were behind other purposes, other reasons they could not understand. They accepted at the end and the "picture" was composed, the usage of the video has allowed us to capture all the spontaneity and to have in the overall picture also unexpected moment that helped make it even more clear the character of the subjects, as individuals and communities.

Intervention #2 – On the bridge

This intervention was developed starting from the architectural project of the students:
Neada Bullaj - Sanjola Mahmutaj - Mario Shllaku.
The area examined by the students in this case is a space of transition, the bridges over the "Lana" canal that connect the parts of a city cut off by the passage of the canal.

The architectural project involved the creation of artistic and cultural spaces under bridges, but to realize this project we had to first deal with a habit, become a social problem. In fact, some people go around the canal to sleep and

urinate, the image of “Lana” canal is hereby amended in the negative, making impossible the realization of any project of change of the surrounding of the canal.
The thought of artistic intervention in this case was an action of "displacement" of the problematic to obtain a direct comparison with people who daily use the bridges, in particular was chosen one of the bridges to pedestrian use, in the heart of city. Seven students were lying on the cardboard and "slept" on the bridge, just shifting the problem to the level of other citizens, that just using the bridge could no longer ignore it, but had to crash with it, bypassing around the students to pass the bridge, commenting what they had unexpectedly encountered, showing a thought sometimes negative, sometimes inst showing that they understand the challenge and the fact that we need to find a solution to avoid this "habit" which literally blocks the possibility to think about the surrounding of the “Lana” canal as a possible space to use for the life of the city.

Intervention #3 – The courtyardgarden

This intervention was developed starting from the architectural project of the students:
Refation Dobi - Dashnor Poci - Donisela Mamani.
The area investigated by the students was that of a former factory "Uzina Enver" active during the regime and now abandoned. The architectural project conceived included the creation of a flower market in the blank area to be developed that links the two buildings of the factory. The students had thought that a part of that area could be left open for citizens to grow the flowers that later would be sold in the market. The architectural concept was very "simple" but showed the possibility to reuse the space in a very alternative and effective way.
The artistic intervention that we developed was a performance that had to do with the idea of a plot of land transformed into a garden; in this case, a "living" garden. Sixty volunteers have occupied a rectangle of land holding a vase with a flower, an offering made to the people who live in the buildings across the space of the factory, to show them the positive potential that space still has. Flowers as a metaphor for fragility, but also as an element of color in a yet too gray area left to itself. Flowers need care and attention to grow up, and this metaphor has been used to tie the present moment and the possible one thought by students with the flower market. Perhaps an utopia but what would we be without dreams and without colors?

Intervention #4 – Inheritance

This intervention was developed starting from the architectural project of the students:
Visar Haxhibeqiri - Miranda Rashan - Rudien Cali.
The area investigated by the students was the home of an old Albanian family, the Toptanaj. Their idea was to transform the house, now closed, in an ethnographic museum able to increase the visibility of the whole area (already strongly marked by the ruins of the castle of Tirana) and help build an historic imprint to this city’s area.
The artistic intervention in this case insisted on the idea of responsibility that each of us has toward the common past of the place in which we live. The project was conceived as a performance in which people could be present

only in an active way, taking responsibility for an inheritance. An historian had been invited to tell the story of the Toptanaj’s house to a person, only one person, who was listening the history of the house from an architectural and historical point of view, of the developments and changes that the structure had suffered over time, influences etc.. at the end of the story, the historian went away letting that person the responsibility of telling the same story to the next person who would show up there to hear it. Obviously he would not remember all that the historian had told him, architectural styles, dates, would have passed as inheritance to that third person the memory of that story, perhaps even adding parts, wrong dates, telling his story of the Toptanaj’s house. The performance went on, leaving the history of the house as an inheritance from one person to another, one person at a time, to further increase the burden of responsibility, each of the participants as guardians and heirs of an history that they had the gift and the opportunity to maintain and transform, highlighting once again the importance that each of us has in the History of his own social past, historical and architectural.

Intervention #5 – Traces of the mosaic

This intervention was developed starting from the architectural project of the students:
Ana Shurdha - Ervis Lila - Gerti Delli.
The area they examined was the Mosaic of Tirana. The Mosaic is fenced and can be visited for citizens but many of them do not even know the Mosaic exists. Their project involved architectural changes so that the structure should protect the mosaic and make it more visible and attractive. This project was selected, even if it was investigating a monument and not a real public space, because the subject of their investigation was read as an interstice in the everyday lives of the citizens of Tirana.

The artistic intervention was conceived to make people understand that indifference would have led to the "deletion" of the Mosaic, without a plan for recovery, restoration and maintenance of the same. We thought to "occupying" without official permission, the square outside the Mosaic, students who conceived the architectural project reproduced on the road, the draw of the Mosaic using colored powders. With much difficulty traffic was temporarily diverted around the drawing slowly making more and more difficult the passage of the cars in the square. The curious pedestrians stopped asking and also realizing that students were just reproducing the same draw of the Mosaic. Once the drawing was finished, the square was reopened to the passage of cars and pedestrians, whom at first timidly and then more and more normally, with their passage, dragged, deleted the drawing, once again talking of personal responsibility of each of us to our History.

Intervention #6 – Lightsewing

This intervention was developed starting from the architectural project of the students:
Armalindo Petritaj - Shpendi Balilaj - Etrizena Ferraja.
The area examined by the students was Keneta the informal area of Durrës. The questionnaire highlighted as the inhabitants of the city did not consider as part of Durrës the area of Keneta and as the inhabitants of the informal area did not feel fully part of the city. The architectural project developed by the students included the creation of a new road that put in more direct communication the informal part with the city trying to tie furthermore the two areas.
The artistic intervention started from these areas, in architecture called "sewing areas." The contact points between two areas, areas of social tension and confrontation of problems many times. The artistic idea followed the

architectural project, the chance to "join" at least metaphorically, at least for a few minutes the two areas of contact between the city of Durrës and the informal are of Keneta. To achieve this union we have prepared a long sheet in which holes had been practiced in the middle of it, through which students and people who lived in the buildings along the "sew areas" have passed a light cord. The cloth has been spread through the two areas and the light line metaphorically linked them together. The light was chosen as moment of union, a light, not physical, element, however able to create a strong visual impact through its symbolism. The extraordinary thing in this action was the spontaneous involvement of people who gave electricity to realize the idea and actively participated in the act of "sewing" together the two areas.

The First Regional Workshop: Tirana – Suburban Exchange

After analyzing the space of interventions the project continued with the realization of the Regional Workshops the first of which was carried out in Tirana, conceived and directed by Ivan Kuçina with the support of the assistants of Polis University.

The workshop explored the potentials for creating public spaces along the highway Tirana-Durres, linear suburban conglomeration whose rapid grow during the last decade has been determined by infrastructure development and exclusive privatization. Design interventions produced during the workshop elaborate strategies of converting disintegrated private spaces into places for positive social exchange. Suburban disintegration could be considered a result of the imperatives of the speculative urban development which is orientated toward maximizing individual profit abandoning common interest. As a consequence, suburban space becomes collection of fragmentized, non related, self determined constructions that appear everywhere along the infrastructure corridors, at any levels, shapes and scales, encompassing the major territories of contemporary city.

Taking heterotopias of suburban space along the highway Tirana Durres as starting point, this workshop proposed a provisional design for establishing public space in the area around Polis University. Having in mind the importance of social, cultural and educational role of Polis University that established itself on the awareness of responsibility toward community, this proposal would serve as an activating model for a new way of understanding this vital road axes. Though the time this would result with creating continual public space along the highway.

In the beginning of the workshop, the selected case were scanned and mapped in order to expose the relations between social actors, their behaviors and their close environment. Using a series of diagrams from programmatic to spatial, participants conceptualized an intervention that can act to convert private property into public alternatives. Participants created a comprehensive variety of outcomes at a diverse scale of strategic intent. From portable devices and installations to public building and the formation of new types of public space, this workshop provided an intense bubble for experimentation and debate.

Stefano Romano