Newsletter No.2: Revival of City Squares in Balkan Cities

The project “Revival of City Squares in Balkan Cities” began in January 2011. The project aims to contribute to the 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 lead partner of the project is Co-PLAN, Institute for Habitat Development from Tirana, Albania | while other partners are: the Coalition for Sustainable Development (CSD) from Skoplje, Macedonia; EXPEDITIO from Kotor, Montenegro and Polis University (International School of Architecture and Urban Development Policies from Tirana, Albania.

The project will last for two years, until December 2012.

The project is funded by the Swiss Cultural Programme in the Western Balkans (CSP) under the Regional Cooperation Projects programme line.

As its overall goal, the project “Revival of City Squares in Balkan Cities” aims to contribute to the 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 and develop a platform for transforming open public spaces into vibrant places that serve community needs.

As the final result, the project should provide policy makers and local officials with tools on how to carry out city square transformation process collaborating with the community.     

A survey of the city squares

The survey, designed to “check the pulse” of citizens and other relevant stakeholders and to identify the significance, role and gaps in the use of city squares, carried out in 4 cities, Tirana, Durres, Kotor and Skopje, has been finalised.

(In total, 1195 questionnaires were distributed).

One issue that deserves to be noted is that this survey encouraged many people to think what a city square is and what specifically a city square means to them.

Survey - “checking the pulse” in Skoplje

The Coalition for Sustainable Development distributed questionnaires in Skoplje during the last few months.

A survey of Kotor city squares  

Over the last few months, Expeditio conducted a research on the current use of city squares in Kotor. For the purpose of research, a questionnaire was developed, which was distributed in the Old City Kotor and placed on the website of EXPEDITIO. The research was conducted from February until April 2011. The research was structured by the sociologist Miomirka Lučić.

The aim of the research was to: 

• Determine the current state of Kotor squares and other public spaces,
• Improve the treatment and use of squares in accordance with the ideas of their users,
• Identify the key stakeholders responsible for the good or bad state of public areas,
• Define guidelines that would take into account the needs and requirements of the respondents.

The entire sample included 280 respondents.

The research analysis has been posted on EXPEDITIO website and it can be downloaded here.

The public space of intervention-Tirana and Dures

In Albania, a total of 510 queastionnaires were distributed in Tirana and Durres. Information obtained from the questionnaires, responses and recommendations of the citizens served as the basis for interventions in public spaces inTirana and Durres.

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 of which they had not thought before.

Each group was then asked to think about an intervention 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 speaks of potential, something that belongs to public space in general as an area of sharing and conflict. What 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.

Additional information on this activity can be found here.

Research – a comparative analysis of city squares in 4 cities: Tirana, Durres, Kotor and Skoplje

In order to provide the basis for proposing possible solutions, the project envisages carrying out a comparative analysis of the city squares of Tirana, Durres, Skopje and Kotor and their importance as vectors for cultural and democratic expression and a vital stimulus to development processes.

Urban Notes: City Squares and Public Spaces, research prepared by Coalition for Sustainable Development

When talking about squares and public spaces, in order to be clear, first of all, we will have to define their meaning. In our communication we use the term "square" quite frequently, and it appears that we are pretty clear what does it mean. However, if someone, using any of the languages of the Balkans, tries to find the right word to indicate the great diversity of urban areas that rightfully deserve to enter the ranks of attractive (large or small) squares / public spaces, as pearls of the city space and urban life, they will definitely experience the problem of finding the correct word.

On behalf of the Coalition for Sustainable Development Arch. Divna Penčić prepared an initial research entitled “Urban Notes: City Squares and Public Spaces”, which served as introduction to the research on city squares. This initial research examined the following aspects of city squares: Definition, Names and Naming, Form and function, Squares through and today, as well as: Role of Public Spaces and Why they are Important, How to Make Great Public Spaces (Squares) and Who is Responsible for Public Spaces? It also considered the topic of Creating New Models for Public Spaces.

The research “Urban Notes: City Squares and Public Spaces” can be downloaded here.

Research conducted in Kotor

The research conducted in Kotor included analysis of all the squares situated in the Old City Kotor:

• their historical significance, location, contents and usage, the most important buildings (based on the old maps);

• their current state – their current use and interesting facts about each individual square;

analysis of terraces of coffee bars situated in the Old City.

Final results of the research are the maps which contain all the obtained information.

In addition, documents with complete information on all the quares in the Old City were produced.

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.

Workshop “Kotor City Squares”, 29  August- 4  September 2011

The workshop “Kotor City Squares” was organized by the NGO Expeditio in the period 29 August - 4 September 2011. The moderator of the workshop was Professor Ružica Božović Stamenović, currently teaching at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade. During the last 11 years, she taught at the Department of Architecture, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore.

The workshop was attended by 30 students of architecture and young professional from the Western Balkans

(Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo). The topics explored by the students during the workshop include: Reading the Space, FUNction, Connections, Walkscape (Zones through which we walk), the Poetics of Space. During the workshop, the students held

several performances in the Old City in order to examine how the citizens and tourists understand and respond to their ideas. Furthermore, at the final presentation, held at Bizanti Palace in Kotor, the students presented their ideas and possible guidelines for the improvement of Kotor city squares and their life. 

Mapping and networking with organizations/ actors that operate nationally or/and in the Balkan region

This project uses participative approaches and partnerships to build on the already reached achievements in each of the partners’ countries and to secure active involvement of all relevant stakeholders. In order to strenghten a cross-sectoral aliance with other relevant organizations and actors that operate both nationaly and in the Balkan region, the project partners pay special attention to identyfinig potential local organizations/actors that have already worked in the same field and can potentially contribute to this topic. The project team has already started contacting organizations/actors and making a database. An effort will be made to invite representatives of the identified organizations/actors to participate in some of the project activities (workshops, round tabels and forums, the Closing Conference) as well as to join the City Square Rivaval platform.

The upcoming activities: Regional workshop in Skopje, 14 – 19 October, 2011

The final workshop is taking place in Skopje (Macedonia). By this, we will round the series of 3 regional workshops aimed to provide creative ideas how to “give life” to the open public spaces as well as valuable input for the guidelines that will act as a reference material to local authorities to undertake concrete actions based on participatory principles for city square transformation. Not less important result from these workshops will be the contribution towards creating a network and “esprit de corp” of young advocates in the three Balkan countries to promote the discourse on how city squares can be transformed into vibrant community places.

Contacts:

• Dritan Shutina, overall project coordinator, Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
• Stefano Romano, project coordinator for Albania, Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
• Sonja Damchevska, project coordinator for Macedonia, Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
• Aleksandra Kapetanović, project coordinator for Montenegro, Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.

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