‘NEW CULTURES OF SPATIAL PLANNING’
NAI Debates on Tour in the Western Balkans
Once known for their strict government-controlled spatial planning, many former communist cities in the Western Balkans have been transformed by feverish uncontrolled urban growth. How to create new cultures of spatial planning in a region where not only residents, but even architects and urban planners may feel excluded from spatial developments?
In collaboration with Polis University, Co-PLAN, EXPEDITIO and ASA, the NAI is organising a Debate on Tour to Tirana, Podgorica, and Sarajevo from 4 to 6 July 2011 to address these issues.
NAI Debates on Tour
The NAI is one of the largest architecture centres in the world. It produces exhibitions, organises debates and lectures, conducts research, and implements world-class educational programmes. It also boasts an unrivalled architecture archive and library.
For several years the NAI has been working with partners abroad to organise debates on location under the title Debates on Tour. Dutch speakers are invited to join in debate with their local colleagues. The aim is to promote the exchange of knowledge on a global scale by discussing topical, global themes in architecture and urban planning at the most diverse locations in the world.
The Western Balkans: Uncontrolled growth in an institutional vacuum
In spite of great regional differences, the urban developments in cities of the Balkans have followed very similar trajectories after the collapse of the ‘communist empire of friendship and brotherhood’. Once known for strict government controlled planning, their transition to market oriented economies left institutions at the sideline. The power vacuum was filled by an energetic population, which fuelled an uncontrolled urban growth based on informal processes, and resulted in an extreme mixture of architectural typologies.
The recent economic slowdown provides the opportunity to assess the current urban condition and the process of urban development. Which role can architects and urban planners play, and how to engage individual inhabitants, business, civil society, and the public at large? Moreover, how to ensure implementation within an institutional vacuum?
The Netherlands: Releasing its firm grip on spatial developments
Renowned for its great tradition of formal spatial planning, Dutch governments have been retreating from economic and spatial activities for the last two decades. The current economic slowdown has left many buildings vacant, and many architects and planners out of work and questioning their role. Debates in the Western Balkans provide the opportunity to see what can be taken from a context in which cities have developed outside of governmental control. Can emergent spatial and social structures abroad inform the strictly formal and top-down system of spatial planning in the Netherlands? Can architects find inspiration from spaces that were created outside of strictly formalised relations? Or perhaps the lack of planning shows us that the Dutch tradition is worthwhile to hold on to?
Tirana, Podgorica, and Sarajevo
On 4, 5, and 6 July, NAI Debates on Tour will be organised in Tirana, Podgorica, and Sarajevo respectively. Architect and urban planning consultant Marcel Musch, and cultural planning advocate Hans Venhuizen will debate with their local counterparts under moderation of Besnik Aliaj, rector of Polis University.
The tour will start in the Albanian capital of Tirana. Especially in Albania, the toppling of the communist regime unleashed powers beyond the control of consecutive governments under the influence of the so-called free market paradigm. After its feverish uncontrolled growth in the 1990s, the municipality tried to regain public control with several beatification campaigns in the 2000s. Streets, parks and riverfronts were cleared of illegal kiosks and thousands of trees were planted. Architecture has even become the battlefield of politics, with several high profile architecture competitions strategically timed during political campaigns.
Secondly, the tour will head to the Montenegrin capitol of Podgorica. Like in Albania, space is under a great pressure in Montenegro, as is reflected in increasing real estate prices. The quality of the current urban plans is incompatible with the challenges and requirements that the valuable and limited space of Montenegro makes. Unfortunately, municipalities and planners lack the vision and power to protect spatial and environmental assets. The establishment of a new and more effective system of spatial planning and management is therefore urgently needed.
Finally, the tour will visit Sarajevo. The Yugoslav war resulted in a significant devastation of urban structures. Not only a large percentage of buildings in Sarajevo where destroyed, almost all of them where functionally transformed. In the post-war period, the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina migrated towards Sarajevo, resulting in uncontrolled growth and development. The construction of inappropriate urban structures has violated the existing environment and urban qualities, highlighting the need for planning guidelines and strategic interventions.
Speakers
Besnik Aliaj, Tirana
Architect and urban planner Besnik Aliaj studied urban management and development at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam before earning his doctorate at the Polytechnic University of Tirana. He has worked for local and national governments, is co-founder and former-director of Co-Plan, and co-founded Polis University where he now serves as rector. He has also authored a number of professional publications.
Aliaj was invited to the Netherlands in December 2010 as part of the visitors programme of the NAI. As moderator of the three debates, he will ask if the main cities of the west Balkans, with their energetic development and desire for uniqueness, can serve as a model for Europe’s future.
Marcel Musch, Rotterdam
Architect and independent design consultant Marcel Musch was a researcher at the Delft University of Technology, has worked for various offices, and started MUS URBAN STRATEGY in 2011. In his focus on urban redevelopment and regional design, he aims for a relationship between urban design and development strategies. Musch has been a jury member for several design competitions and has published in various professional magazines.
He was also a speaker on the Debate on Tour to Pristina in 2010. In order to achieve implementation in a context of institutional vacuum, Musch will focus on the intermediate scale of urban design, placed between architecture and urban planning.
Hans Venhuizen, Rotterdam
Hans Venhuizen deals with the culture of spatial planning, aiming for specific identities for cities. He focuses on the culture of spatial planning itself, using the game as a means to involve participants and to clarify complexities. He published ‘Game Urbanism – Manual for Cultural Spatial Planning’ in 2010. Venhuizen will present his concept development game 'The Making Of', which he is currently staging in Istanbul, Turkey.
Sotir Dhamo, Tirana
Sotir Dhamo majored in urban Planning at the University of Tirana and earned his master’s degree in public administration from Syracuse University in New York. He is co-founder and administrator of Polis University. His main experiences are in project design and implementation, and institutional development. He has worked at Co-Plan since 2003.
Dhamo will speak about the interrelations between architecture and the city, focussing on the way in which the public and the final consumer can determine the architectural organism.
Elvan Dajko
Elvan Dajko studied architecture and urban planning at the Sapienza University in Rome, where is now a PhD candidate. He specialised in housing at the ETH in Zürich, is part of ATENASTUDIO in Rome, and works as researcher and lecturer at Polis University.
Dajko will speak of the urban morphologies and the housing typologies in Tirana, linking them to the cultural and social changes of the last twenty years.
Anila Gjika
Anila Gjika is an expert in urban design, management, and finance. She has broad experience in preparing urban regulatory plans, midterm budgeting programs, capital investment plans and feasibility studies. She is head of the Urban Economics and Finance Unit of Co-Plan and lectures at Polis University.
Gjika will speak about local challenges in urban development in Albania, asking if urban planning is a necessity or a mere alibi.
Podgorica, 5 July 2011
Jelisave Kalezic
Architect and urban planner Jelisave Kalezic graduated from the University of Belgrade, where she also was awarded her PhD in descriptive geometry. Her practical experience includes the fields of spatial and urban planning, and urban ecology. She is currently associate professor at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the University of Montenegro.
Kalezic will speak about contemporary spatial developments in Montenegro, focussing on the role of architects in the liberalised economy, and assess recent the architectural and urban heritage.
Sanja Ljeskovic-Mitrovic, Podgorica
Sanja Ljeskovic-Mitrovic works for the Spatial Planning Department of the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism in Montenegro.
Sarajevo, 6 July 2011
The speakers for Sarajevo are in the process of being selected.
Collaborating partners
Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI), Rotterdam
POLIS University, International School for Architecture and Urban Development Policies, Tirana
Co-PLAN - Institute for Habitat Development, Tirana
EXPEDITIO (Centre for Sustainable Spatial Development), Montenegro
ASA - Association of Students of Architecture, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Programme Tirana
Debate on Tour at Polis University on 4 July 2011
17.00 Word of welcome
Besnik Aliaj
17.02 Introduction to the NAI Debates on Tour programme
Chris Luth, curator of international projects at the NAI
17.07 Introduction to the topic
Besnik Aliaj
17.15 ‘The Interrelation Between Architecture and the City’
Sotir Dhamo
17.30 ‘Scales of Intervention’
Marcel Musch
17.45 ‘Urban Morphologies and Housing Typologies in Albania’
Elvan Dajko
18.00 ‘The Making of’
Hans Venhuizen
18.15 ‘Urban planning, necessity or alibi’
Anila Gjika
18.30 Debate
Moderated by Besnik Aliaj
19.00 / 19.30 Cocktail
