Tirana Design Week 2013

TIRANA

DESIGNWEEK

2013 1

Š Tirana Design Week 2013 & POLIS University

Curators: Elvan Dajko & Ledian Bregasi Collaborators: Saimir Kristo, Gjergji Dushniku Socia Jojiç, Joana Dhiamandi, Eranda Janku Design: Eranda Janku & Julia Janku

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OPEN LECTURES

Letizia Martinelli Urban open space in Mediterranean countries, even within a wide typological, morphological and use variation, still represents the privileged field where numerous outdoor activities take place.

It therefore appears important to define intervention strategies that, a part form satisfying basic needs related to use and aesthetic qualities, to safety and air quality, have the aim of improving environmental compatibility and users’ multi sensory comfort, paying special 4

attention towards thermal and hygrometric comfort. The latter is, in fact, a key aspect that affects the actual use of outdoor spaces mostly during summer time when maximum use occurs; period during which overheating is common and the effect of UHI, Urban Heat Island – that is the difference in temperature between urban areas and low anthropization level contexts – becomes relevant. For these reasons, different models have been developed to assess the variability of microclimates due to retrofitting transformations and the related comfort state.Thus the relationship between urban morphology, microclimate and comfort will be explored,presenting a number of retrofitting strategies that integrate thermal and hygrometric comfort issuesin addition to the usual functional, design and economical considerations and showing how evensmall variations in the choice of materials, vegetation and shading devices, applicable to strongly consolidated urban contexts, can considerably contribute to the improvement of thermo hygrometric comfort and to UHI phenomenon mitigation.

Balkan Emergent Design Round Table One of the most notable activities of Tirana Design Week 2013 was the gathering of a number of emergent designers and design-related cultural operators in a round table with the intention of discussing the challenges of bringing forward independent researches in a region that produces more design than it can consume. Most difficulties faced by emergent designers mainly derive from the contradiction of pretending to freely express personal creativity in a free market that only pretends to be free. Dealing with common difficulties, the participants had the opportunity to hold an Open Lecture for the public of Tirana Design Week, discussing their strategies and achievements.

This series of Open Forums and the Round Table was meant as a first step in the recognition of

similar situations to Tirana in the region. Further actions need to be undertaken in order to share ideas, instruments and energies in a common effort of promoting creativity as a tool for the emancipation of society.

Lectures included speakers such as Maja Lalić Founder and Creative Director of the Mikser Festival and Mikser House, Belgrade Gjaurova the representative of Sofia Design Week shared the experience of One Foundation for Culture and Arts Ivana Borovnjak President of the Croatian Designer Association Cristian Farinella and Lorena Greco are two young Italian architects, digital artists and founders of Atelier Crilo Marin Myftiu is a young Albanian Product Designer 5

ry work. Her field of work is urban and regional planning and development with a praticular focus on the (participatory) planning process and she is passionate about the interaction between the formal and the informal. In 2009-2010 she was based for four months in the Global Land Tool Network secretariat at UN-HABITAT in Nairobi, Kenya for an assignment on gender responsive land management and participatory enumeration.

Saskia Ruijsink

Saskia has participated in international workshops and has research and working experience in The Netherlands, Albania, Kosovo, Croatia, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Angola, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, El Salvador, Bolivia, Brazil, the United States, Canada and China.

Saskia Ruijsink has a background in the field of urban planning and urban development. She has a Masters degree (2005) in Urban Planning (magna cum laude), obtained at the Post Graduate Institute for Human Settlements (Leuven, Belgium) and she studied the MSc programme Technology and Society at the Technical University in Eindhoven (2004).

Before entering IHS, Saskia worked as a consultant in the Netherlands.

She worked in teams on development plans for urban areas, housing needs assessment, coaching of civil society organizations and organizing interactive workshops and conferences contracted by (local) governments and social housing agencies in a variety of cities and regions.

She joined the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies in 2007, where she works on and manages training and adviso6

or constructive: a critical analysis of the presuppositions of each project [context, final objectives, restrictions] constitutes the foundation of a method by which the unavoidable tectonic dimension must confront typological and functional innovation, together with the even more essential theme of social responsibility.

FOR AN ARCHITECTURE OF REALITY

FAREstudio Founded in Rome in 2006 FAREstudio operates preferably in social architecture, where action on built environment that could enhance the condition of underserved communities is unfortunately countless. FARE wishes to innerve social sensitivity with the experience and approach of a professionally organized team. In an era when design appears to oscillate dangerously between the virtualization of products and the narcissism of protagonists, FARE pursues a concrete and material approach to architecture, an inherent objective rendered explicit in the name of the office.

The confrontation with reality sought by FARE is not, however, the sign of an adhesion to a [presumed] neutrality of technique, be it economic, programmatic

WE as FAREstudio are not much interested in showing off what we are doing, in a place like a university we are much more interested in discussing why we are doing what we are doing. The contribution we can give you is not a further collection of images, but the matter for critical thinking. Our reality is generically peculiar. We come from the country with highest ratio of architects over the population [by far], a circumstance that affects the nature itself of being an architect in terms of approach, mentality, perspectives. It is generic because is not specific of Italy, it is peculiar once combined with an ageing country [again, the country with the lowest birth rate in the world], a structural recession, a completely post-industrial society.

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Kengo Kuma_Viral Ecologies

In the last few decades, in the renovated scenario of the Balkan Region, Albania has stood out for its rapid economic development and the strong will to exit from a relative condition of isolation from the world community. The socialist regime has profoundly changed the Albanian society in every aspect and a long time autarchy has leaded the country to a progressive impoverishment not only in terms of wealth but also of prestige.

Tirana, as capital city, heart of the economic development and location of the most prestigious institutions of country is at the centre of a debate seeing its renovation in terms of image as one of the key point in the renovation of the entire country. In a world where global competition between cities is considered essential to attract interests and assets, Tirana must be able to select a precise and original strategy. Counting only on a massive production of iconic buildings and structures (like in the case of Barcelona, Bilbao, Dubai, Shanghai, London) as a form of urban regeneration could be hazardous; such operations could risk not to be able to compete with more develop and accomplished examples while turning the managing of public expense into a critical matter. Moreover all southern Europe countries must take into account several form of exploitation and speculation related to such public strategies and find alternative ways in order to prevent them.

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EXHIBITIONS

Contemporary Croatian Design in a Nutshell

Albania-NOW Expo, Lawrence Tech. Detroit

“GLASSES FREE” by Alla Simacheva 10

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EVENTS

Thrift Shop Fashion Show

Geodesic Dome Opening Scanderbeg Square

AUA Award for Albanian Architecture 12

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WORKSHOPS

Provo[ac]tion 1

Lead: Juljan Veleshnja (Albania)

Geodesic Dome

Lead: Antonino Di Raimo (Italy)

Urban Snakes & Ladders

Lead: Fiona Imami (Albania) 14

Provo[ac]tion 2

Lead: Ledian Bregasi (Albania)

Urban Debate Game

Lead: Mario Shllaku (Albania)

Packaging Design “Designed in Albania” Lead: Luis Kaçmoli (Albania)

provo...[ACTion]3

Lead: Juljan Veleshnja (Albania) 15

provo...[ACTion]4

Lead: Juljan Veleshnja (Albania)

Polis Grows Green

Lead: Laura Pedata & Letizia Martinelli (Italy)

Thrift Shop - Fashion Workshop Lead: Sonia Jojiรง (Albania)

Design Action in Urban Space Lead: Loris Rossi (Italy) 16

Provo[Act]ion 5_Gum Game

Lead: Juljan Veleshnja (Albania)

City for citizens

Lead: Elvan Dajko (Albania)

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