Preservation of a Porous City; Strategies for Tirana Urban Fabric: Fid-Bau Portal

Preservation of a Porous City; Strategies for Tirana Urban Fabric

Branko, Irina

Every day and more, the sustainable development of the metropolitan area is becoming a keyword in Albanian reality as well. The country, and in a particular way Tirana the capital, is facing many challenges as per adapting its old and new developments toward more sustainable and resilient urbanism. Declared the capital city only in 1920, mostly has been low-rise and porous development, with a strong physical, and also visual communication to the surrounding natural environment. It continued to be so even during the socialist regime. The city has undergone some drastic changes these last 30 years, mainly resulting in footprint enlargement and an intense and chaotic process of urban filling. In 2017, the General Local Plan was finally provided for Tirana, having as its main strategies: (1) The definition of the city boundaries, by implementing a Ring Peripheral Park; (2) The densification of the urban fabric, thus having a leading focus on the buildings. Looking at the latest developments, also the presence of a broad pressure for new buildings, the preservation of porosity, and urban green space becomes a priority. Through the applicative methods, by analyzing the most representative, existing, and planned urban fabrics, this paper aims first to evaluate, for later emphasize the importance of the urban green space. Preservation of existing spatial networks and their connections to the natural environment could contribute to a desirable level of sustainable development not only in terms of the qualitative physical environment but also in terms of a qualitative life as well. As a result, possible strategies and recommendations are proposed and focused on in the future implementations of the existing regulatory plan.