Tirana, the Capital of Albania. A Brief History of Regulatory Plans, Anti-Bombing Hideouts, and Its Climate Conditions: Fid-Bau Portal

Tirana, the Capital of Albania. A Brief History of Regulatory Plans, Anti-Bombing Hideouts, and Its Climate Conditions

Xhexhi, Klodjan

TiranaTirana, immediately after it was declared the capitalCapitalof AlbaniaAlbania on 11 February 1920, has undergone many changes in its morphology and cityCity context. The capital is located in the heart of the country. During its lifespan, Tirana has adopted four important regulatory plansPlans starting from 1923. The Western ideologies of the time influenced drastically the cityCity development. The influence of such ideologiesIdeologies was stopped immediately though the imposition of communistCommunist ideas, after the Second World War. Rational buildingBuilding forms were created which could be standardized in order to reduce constructionConstruction costs. Meanwhile, in Western Europe, this current was implemented during the 1920s, as a response to socialSocial problems. The communist regimeRegime established strict anti-urbanization policyPolicy that aims to foster the development of rural areas and the suburban industrial districts in order to control urbanUrban growth and demographic mobility. All the regulatoryRegulatorymaster plansMasterplansof TiranaTirana, climateClimate data of the city, the actual situation of the specific neighborhood, its orientationOrientation toward north, are considered in order to gather information and to implement the correct bioclimatic eco-renovation in the area. A special attention will be given to the undergroundUndergroundtunnelsTunnels which were constructed during the communistCommunistregimeRegime all over the cityCity (1945–1983) as a response to a hypothetic nuclear attack, in order to shelter the inhabitanceInhabitance against bombing. These reinforced concrete tunnels will serve not only as an area for waterWater collection and recycling strategies but also for cooling with zero energy expenditure for the inhabitants as a consequence of differences in temperatureTemperature and air pressure. This strategy benefits from the underground airAir temperature in both seasons (winter and summer). It envisages the handover of these tunnelsTunnels by the community. Nowadays, such structures are abandoned and denigrated. The realization of these structuresStructures required large amounts of money from the state budget. Considering that fact they need to be vitalized and reused, using different methodologies and strategies as part of the city. After the communistCommunistregimeRegime in the city of Tirana, two other regulatoryRegulatoryplansPlans were implemented which observe the cityCity from another perspective, determining and evaluating Tirana’s real values as a city of the future, but not defining yet TiranaTirana as an Ecocity. The ecologicalEcological potential of Tirana including its outskirts is to be considered. Its floraFloraand faunaFauna are very rich, containing a mixt of species and plants. Regardless, the cityCity of Tirana is suffering from different kinds of pollution such as airAirand noiseNoisepollutionPollution which are above EU and WHO norms. Tirana benefits from a Temperate Mediterranean climateMediterranean climate. Furthermore, the benefits of the solar radiation are enormous. Unfortunately, nowadays, the cityCityof TiranaTirana is not profiting much from it. This chapter is in search of an overall view of the cityCityof TiranaTirana, and its great potential discovering its undergroundUnderground and upper groundGroundhistoricalHistorical secrets.