![Sample our Urban Studies journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110826/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Urban-Studies.jpg"})
Abstract
This article recounts the history of urban design in the centre of Tirana, the capital of Albania, during five political periods (Ottoman Empire, Italian domination, communist regime, post-communist anarchy, and Western-style planning). Starting in the 1910s, successive governments have imposed their urban design visions for a grand city centre and tried to erase the built heritage of their predecessors, thus creating an eclectic space. In the post-communist era, the city government has made attempts to develop a new grand vision for its use but has met with failure. The author argues that the reasons for this outcome lay in the contemporary nature of the state, as well as the nature of development in a market economy.
Notes on contributor
Dorina Pojani is a postdoctoral fellow in the Spatial Planning and Strategy group of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. She previously taught urban planning in Albania.
Notes
1. Kolevica, Arkitektura dhe Diktatura and Koha Jone 2010.
2. The research was undertaken in the National Library of Albania and the publishers' online archives, where available.
3. See debate between Lekbello 2012 and Tafaj 2012.
4. Castiglioni, “Tirana: Appunti sulla Capitale dell'Albania all'Alba del Nuovo Regime.”
5. Robinson, Albania's Road to Freedom.
6. Aliaj, Lulo, and Myftiu, Tirana, the Challenge of Urban Development.
7. Todorova, Balkan Identities and Pantelič, “Designing Identities.”
8. Hastaoglou-Martinidis, “Urban Aesthetics and National Identity.”
9. See van der Wusten, “Dictators and their Capital Cities”; Sonne, Representing the State; Vale, Architecture, Power, and National Identity.
10. After the Albanian national hero, Skanderbeg, a 15th-century Albanian lord who organized a resistance movement against the Ottoman expansion [author's note].
11. Frashëri, Shqipëria Ç´Ka Qenë, Ç´Është e Ç´Do të Bëhet.
12. Among his achievements were the abolition of polygamy and the outlawing of muslim women's veil.
13. Godoli et al., “The Presence of Italian Architects in Mediterranean Countries.”
14. Qyqja 2009.
15. Santoianni, “Il Razionalismo nelle Colonie Italiane 1928–1943.”
16. Driver and Gilbert, “Imperial Cities” and Vale, Architecture, Power, and National Identity.
17. Wright, cited in Jenkins 1999.
18. Cohen and Eleb, Casablanca.
19. Capolino “Tirana, a Capital City Transformed by the Italians.” At the time, Italy too had abandoned futurism and was experiencing a return to the Novecento Italiano in architecture and the arts – see Sampò, “Perspectives on Modern Movement's Architectural Heritage of the Early XX Century in Western Balkans.”
20. Aliaj, Lulo, and Myftiu, Tirana, the Challenge of Urban Development.
21. Bleta, Influences of Political Regime Shifts on the Urban Scene of a Capital City.
22. Giacomelli and Vokshi, Architetti e Ingegneri Italiani in Albania.
23. Bleta, Influences of Political Regime Shifts on the Urban Scene of a Capital City.
24. Millon, “Some Smaller Italian Cities.”
25. Baxa, Roads and Ruins.
26. Nicoloso, Mussolini Architetto and Ciucci, Gli Architetti e il Fascismo. Architettura e Città 1922–1944.
27. Giacomelli and Vokshi, Architetti e Ingegneri Italiani in Albania.
28. Giacomelli and Vokshi, Architetti e Ingegneri Italiani in Albania.
29. Godoli et al., “The Presence of Italian Architects in Mediterranean Countries.”
30. Capolino, “Tirana, a Capital City Transformed by the Italians.”
31. Sudjic, The Edifice Complex.
32. Sampò, “Perspectives on Modern Movement's Architectural Heritage of the Early XX Century in Western Balkans.”
33. Giacomelli and Vokshi, Architetti e Ingegneri Italiani in Albania.
34. Menghini, Pashako, and Stigliano, Architettura Moderna Italiana per le Città d'Albania.
35. Quoted in Lekbello 2012.
36. Castiglioni, “Tirana: Appunti sulla Capitale dell'Albania all'Alba del Nuovo Regime.”
37. Quoted in Vickers, The Albanians.
38. Hoxha's communist allies were in turn, Yugoslavia (1950s), the Soviet Union (1960s), and China (1970s). Eventually, he cut relations with them due to their introduction of more liberal policies, and by the 1980s Albania became fully isolated.
39. Abensour, “De la Complicidad.”
40. Nizan, “Du Probleme de la Monumentalité – 1934.”
41. van der Wusten, “Dictators and their Capital Cities.”
42. McKernan, “Politics and Architecture.”
43. Ibid.
44. Hobsbawm, “Foreword.”
45. Arentd 1958.
46. Colton, Moscow.
47. Miller Lane 1968; Aman, Architecture and Ideology in Eastern Europe during the Stalin Era; Crowley and Reid, Socialist Spaces.
48. Sudjic, The Edifice Complex.
49. Tolic, Dopo il Terremoto.
50. Hoxha, “Nga Fjala e Mbajtur në Komisionin e Ngritur për Çështjen e Urbanizmit të Qytetit të Tiranës dhe të Qyteteve të Tjera të Vendit, 19 shkurt 1948.”
51. Faja, Urbanistika.
52. Sivignon, “Tirana et l'Urbanisation de l'Albanie.”
53. Kolevica, Arkitektura dhe Diktatura.
54. Aman, Architecture and Ideology in Eastern Europe during the Stalin Era.
55. Popescu, “Introductory Argument.”
56. Sampò, “Perspectives on Modern Movement's Architectural Heritage of the Early XX Century in Western Balkans”; Kolaneci 2008.
57. Pojani, “Tirana. City Profile.”
58. See Kramer 2005; Winner 2006; Mansfield 2006; de Campo 2002; Vlahou 2002; Arosio 2003; Boeri 2005; and Fink 2006.
59. Cited in Cuyvers 2004.
60. Quoted in Kramer 2005.
61. Sudjic, The Edifice Complex.
62. Chaslin, Les Paris de François Mitterrand.
63. However, a low-rise luxury hotel and two high-rise office towers in the southern stretch of the boulevard were speculatively built in the 1990s and early 2000s, respectively. Along the more residential northern stretch, too, some new construction filled gaps between buildings.
64. Lila 2008a and 2008b.
65. Apart from the Bllok, no new, distinct centres appeared.
66. Velo 2004. While the “dead center” phenomenon is not unique to Tirana (i.e. North American CBDs are often described as “urban deserts” that shut down after business hours), in this case it was created by specific government policies, or lack thereof, rather than citizens' election to abandon this space.
67. On the occasion, the Emir of Kuwait became an honorary citizen of Tirana.
68. Young and Kaczmarek, “The Socialist Past and Postsocialist Urban Identity in Central and Eastern Europe”; Temelova 2007; Manoliu and Fartatescu, “Dream or Nightmare”; Marcuse, “Reflections on Berlin”; Gittus, “Berlin as a Conduit for the Creation of German National Identity at the End of the Twentieth Century.” However, some cities are acknowledging their totalitarian heritage, as demonstrated by the growth of “communist heritage tourism” (or, “red tourism” in China); various forms of nostalgia for that period are emerging.
69. The issue of post-communist demolitions mirrors the on-going discourse in Tirana surrounding current plans to tear down the dictator's museum, Piramida, which is shaped as a pyramid. In proposing the demolition, the Prime Minister (ill-advisedly) claimed that the building had been meant as the dictator's mausoleum (containing his embalmed body). Piramida is in fact a major landmark and its function has changed several times since the fall of communism. Press articles by design professionals and political analysts opposing the demolition were summarized in a book – see Klosi and Lame 2011, also Lame 2011.
70. Quoted in 51N4E 2011.
71. Greca and Koçi 2008.
72. An irony, given that the fascist heritage is not considered the most valuable in Italy.
73. Triantis, “Urban Change and the Production of Space”; see also Dervishi 2010.
74. Kramer 2005; Winner 2006.
75. Triantis, “Urban Change and the Production of Space.”
76. Këlliçi 2003.
77. AS 2004.
78. Tisnado, one of the project designers, quoted in Durmishi, “Competing Urban Visions for the Capital of Albania.”
79. Base: 160 × 160 m; height at apex: 2.25 m.
80. Reported in Fevziu 2010.
81. 51N4E 2008.
82. Ruby, cited 51N4E 2011.
83. Fevziu 2010.
84. 51N4E 2008.
85. Ndreca 2005.
86. Triantis, “Urban Change and the Production of Space”; Velo 2004; Velo 2012.
87. Rama 2010; BalkanWeb 2010.
88. Rama 2011.
89. Jano 2003; Jano 2004.
90. See Rama 2004; Jano 2004; Fevziu 2004; Durmishi, “Competing Urban Visions for the Capital of Albania.”
91. See Faja 2008 and 2010.
92. Triantis, “Urban Change and the Production of Space”; Cuyvers 2004; Tafaj, quoted in Kuçi 2010.
93. See debate between Klosi 2003 and Plasari 2003.
94. Faja 2008.
95. Sopoti 2004; Tafaj 2010; Bozdo 2010.
96. Zenghelis, quoted in Durmishi, “Competing Urban Visions for the Capital of Albania.”
97. See comments of the urban planning advisor to the Prime Minister, cited in Shqip, April 11, 2010.
98. Quoted in Kramer 2005.
99. Biçoku 2005.
100. Agalliu 2004.
101. Llonçari 2005.
102. Lubonja 2005.
103. Hall, “Representations of Place.”
104. Bineri, “‘Negative’ Cultural Heritage.”
105. Plasari, quoted by Lubonja 2004; Kadilli 2010.
106. Tema, August 15, 2003; Tema, August 13, 2003.
107. Lubonja 2010; Baze 2005; Zaimi 2010.
108. Xhaferri 2010; Stefani 2010; Bogdani 2010; Vata 2010; Shqip, April 11, 2010.
109. Baze 2011.
110. Lame 2010 and 2011; Mullaj 2011; Ypi 2011.
111. Dickinson, “Memories for Sale.”
112. Vehbiu 2011; Lubonja 2011; Stefani 2010; Zaimi 2010.
113. Panorama, August 5, 2011.