Tirana
ALBANIA
«TIRANA WITNESSED A FIVEFOLD INCREASE OF ITS POPULATION IN THE PAST COUPLE YEARS, WITH URBAN PLANNING ACHIEVED IN AN ANARCHIST CLIMATE. WE ARE TRYING TO RESOLVE THIS URBAN CHAOS»
Edian Meçe,
Architect for the Municipality of Tirana.
Tirana, capital of Albania, has witnessed important and quick changes in the last thirty years. After the end of the communist regime (1946-1991), the city of Tirana has seen its perimeter expand more than five times its initial size. This quick evolution generated numerous issues in terms of urban planning and development. The main issue Tirana had to face was informal urbanization. In recent years, the municipality of Tirana has implemented new laws and initiatives, in the aim of foreseeing such uncontrolled developments.
During the 2018 annual conference for the Network was presented the “Nothern Boulevard” project regarding an axis crossing the city from North to South. In the past two years, the municipality of Tirana has started the broadening of the northern part of the Boulevard in collaboration with the international Grimshaw architects practice.
The key elements in the Northern Boulevard project
The project has two major aspects: its continuity with the public space as well as the existence of private spaces within the same urban complex.
The Northern Boulevard project will include four public squares, each fulfilling a specific function:
- A rally point
- A City council square alongside with other administrative infrastructures
- A square dedicated to the Arts and Culture
- A square for the youth and students.
According to Edian Meçe, architect for the municipality of Tirana, «the best way to measure the success of a project is the number of users making the public spaces as their own. If we witness a public space becoming essential after being put in place, it means the project was conceived and executed the right way. ».
Tirana’s growth goes along with a profound negligence in terms of green spaces and parks. Therefore it became essential to introduce green spaces, such as the “Central Park”, which will result from the reunification of different smaller pre-existing green spaces alongside the Boulevard. “Central Park” will be separated from the Boulevard by mixed use properties.
Right at the north of the Boulevard is located Tirana’s river, an abandoned and unused area. At the intersection of the Boulevard and the river, the Municipality of Tirana wishes to allow inhabitants to have access to this zone thanks to its arrangement. After an environmental intervention upon the river in the first place, the revegetation of the banks is set in order to make it, in the long term, a space open to the public
As of today, the project is 70% done and the renovations are expected to be done for the end of 2019. The Northern Boulevard project is a real novelty: it is the first time that a public infrastructural project is being done before the construction of housing.
Today, in the realm of operations of the Boulevard, any housing construction has been stopped although about thirty urban planners have shown their interest. Once the construction permit is delivered, urban planners will have to follow certain guidelines in order to keep a homogenization of the constructions alongside the Boulevard.
