temporary urban ideals: election cycles and frozen development
Initiatives of the magnitude of TR2030 and the Tirana Riverside Project will require decades to realise, a whole generation of time stuck in temporary construction while a new layer of the city is built up incrementally. During this time, there will be electoral changes and shifting political will. New politicians will make new promises and nullify the existing projects of their predecessors, leaving behind frozen development and a scarred landscape. Our increasingly uncertain existence on this planet likewise means that today’s buzzwords such as ‘smart city,’ ‘zero-emission polycentric neighbourhood,’ and ‘pandemic- proof design’ refer to architectural ideals that, too, are temporary, soon rendered obsolete by technological advances and increasingly deficient understandings of what constitutes resiliency. Re-designs, re-calculations, and adjusted goals will all be necessary. There is a risk that the areas seized by the government to realise these projects will be privatised in the future. Once added back to the public land bank to create green corridors, there is no promise these areas will stay public territory. In a few years time, they may be sold-off to new developers keen to
profit from idyllic riverfront views. This reality means that the mirages of the Tirana Riverside Project and TR2030 are temporary while having incredible consequences. They are subject to continual alteration as their computer-rendered images are translated into built reality. The value of these projects thus lies less in forging new, stronger communities and more in propping up Albania’s elite. So long as current flawed governance structures remain in place, politicians will continue to turn to these types of iconic urbanism to bolster their wealth and popularity. For now, the multiple realities of 05 Maji sit uneasily side-by-side in a state of the temporary: the vernacular buildings of a once thriving self- built community are juxtaposed with the violence of demolition sites and new sterile, mass-built, vacant mid-rise apartment blocks. Children play amidst the rumble of nearby bulldozers; families hang laundry adjacent to the destroyed houses of their neighbours; tall orange trees grow beside freshly poured concrete. In 05 Maji, the true costs of formalising Tirana are on display for all to see. g
all images Harris-Brandts + Goci
The multiple realities of 05 Maji sit uneasily side-by-side in a state of the temporary.
SUZANNE HARRIS-BRANDTS , OAA, is Assistant Professor of Architecture & Urbanism at Carleton University. She holds a PhD in Urban Studies from MIT and is a founding partner of the design-research collaborative Collective Domain. https://architecture.carleton.ca/archives/people/suzanne-harris-brandts ERVIN GOCI is a lecturer at the University of Tirana’s Department of Journalism and Communication, and an urban activist engaged in Albanian grassroots movements for tenure security, public space, urban commons and environmental justice. https://www.fhf.edu.al/wp-content/uploads/cv_Ervin_Goci.pdf
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on site review 43: architecture and t ime
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