Boeri Architetti, with both iconic proposals held up as evidence that the government is improving Tirana, in turn increasing voter popularity. Yet, in Albania’s flawed democratic context with chronic corruption, concerns these initiatives are greenwashing a type of urban development propelled by money laundering put designers like Boeri in an awkward position and belie their claims that their work is headed toward a more habitable and inclusive future. Explicitly, there is no legitimate reason for the demolition of the 05 Maji community. Construction is not condemned and the world has dozens of convincing examples of in situ upgrading for self-built communities alongside the infill of new public greenspace. There is
also a missing logic in promising housing to those impacted by the earthquake while causing a new humanitarian crisis by displacing current residents. As urban scholars, we found ourselves asking what it would mean to acknowledge this community’s existing strengths, respecting residents’ desires for the future and basic human rights through tenure security. This question brought us to the temporary on several fronts from the suspended violence of a neighbourhood gradually in the unmaking, to the perversion of mass expulsions leading the way for a future of ecological urbanism in flux, and the reality that such iconic urban proposals are themselves often temporary, frozen amidst politics and changes in government.
all images Harris-Brandts + Goci
Location of the new TR2030 Master Plan and Tirana Riverside Project over 05 Maji.
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on site review 43: architecture and t ime
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