"Architecture is too important to be left to
architects alone".
This
sentence of De Carlo came to my mind while following the news about the meeting
of the candidate for mayor of Vlora, Mr. Dritan Leli, with the architects and
engineers of the city. This kind of collaboration clearly embodies his vision
to engage the world of urban planners and architects, through a discussion to
identify how to work together with those who share the same sense of
responsibility for the opportunities and challenges of our cities today.
In this
article I am trying to bring attention to the fact that the city is an evolving
creature that can be organized without being recreated from scratch. It can be
improved with better technology, becoming more efficient. Our cities still have
a lot of potential. The work should focus on urban improvements, interventions
from micro to macro scale and, of course, on new types of sustainable
buildings. Today it must include energy producers, infrastructure, consumption
points, housing, the city, the landscape... Architects must know how to manage
the earth's resources to build a better city, instead of focusing only on
buildings. isolated, which do not contribute to the improvement of the
environment around them. Construction is not an isolated island, as it turns
out so far. Leaders of new units should try to develop the mentality of
managing cities, turning them from static units into dynamic and efficient
units that draw on the energy of their communities, to have a cooperative,
energetic, social and conscious community. for Environment. We must be looking
for new architectural and urban solutions that will reduce our contribution to
global pollution
Of course,
the challenge of cities, including our beautiful Vlora, cannot be met only by
architects, urban planners or builders. Our cities are going through a special
phase, which, in order to bring their development from spontaneity to
sustainability, necessarily requires the participation of citizens in the
territorial planning process.
Why is this
phase of the development of our cities classified separately?
First at
the national level: The phase that is now in progress, in almost every city,
also dictated by the territorial reform, is classified as the phase of
"urban decentralization" or "urban distribution." The
previous pattern of urbanization through progressive expansion towards
concentric rings is in crisis. Thus ends the period of narrowing of spaces,
investment in the suburbs and the remaining strips of cities, where it becomes
more and more difficult to meet the demand for space for factories, for
warehouses, for settlements, for the traffic that the city generates, for car
parks, for green areas and for collective services. In this aspect, the
advantages of the previous phase, related to the peripheral areas, also tend to
fade, due to the improvement, to some extent, of the road network , narrowing
the differences in travel time and cost within suburban areas as well as
intercity, regional or even between neighboring regions.With the increase of
residents with good incomes, their demand for higher quality of the environment
increases, which urban neighborhoods and the surroundings find it impossible to
fulfill it. Therefore, the production and residential facilities are reoriented
at this stage in the smaller cities, physically separated from the first ones,
forming, with the big cities, large "metropolitan" areas, it is meant
by building the continuity in the direction of the outer perimeter of the
center "metropolitan". Outside this perimeter, the availability of
space is greater, local transport easier, but also the conditions of the urban context
and the environment in general are more attractive.
Second on
the global level: This moment of change on the national level coincides with a
global historical moment, where on the one hand we live a global crisis and on
the o ther hand we "go global", eliminating space and time through
the iPhone, iPad and other technological developments. At this moment many
individuals try to take control of their time and space. We are increasingly
witnessing the processes of increasing interventions, of citizens, in their
cities, where they, driven by the desire to produce an alternative different
from what the city offers them, feel the need to (re)define the space. This, of
course, is where architecture comes into play.
An
architect, when planning, firstly studies the context to understand the
environment and the physical space of a territory, secondly researches the
relationships between the people who live in that space, their desires, their
dreams. He needs some indicators as well as the answers that the city gives to
the citizens for their problems. Calvino in the work "Invisible
Cities" wrote: "Even the cities believe that they are the work of the
mind or chance, but neither one nor the other is enough to keep their walls. In
a city we are not happy with seven or seventy seven wonders, but the answer he
gives to our questions". Today more than ever we need to reclaim place,
space, time, human relationships and respond to this need through the
contemporary culture of co-design. This is the true architecture that can solve
the crisis that has gripped our cities, occurring exactly as in the situation
in which Calvino describes (imagines) OLINDAN (Invisible Cities): "OLINDA
is certainly not the only city that grows in concentric circles, like the tree
trunk that every year adds a circle... But in other cities the spaces are still
squeezed and narrowed between the walls of the old city, while the new
neighborhoods revolve around them like a looser belt". This is the trap
from which they are needed save our cities.
How is this
accomplished? Designing places and spaces not only and exclusively with a
pencil or mouse, with structures and mathematical calculations, but with any
tool or instrument that can be used to create a system of networks, both multimedia
and physical, made of people and human relationships . This translates into a
willingness to invest in the culture of bottom-up development through inclusion
and participation. In the world there are many examples that have followed this
path, where thanks to the foresight of an individual and the participation of
the whole community, a terrain has been completely transformed, "inventing
new ways of thinking, living and inhabiting". . So the need and desire to
challenge yourself and give life to an abandoned area, mainly on the outskirts
of our cities, invites every individual with ideas to participate. Of course,
cultural processes are, by nature, an investment in the community and need to
be made productive. I invite citizens and the young generation to reflect and
actively participate in the decisions and initiatives that affect the
transformation of their territory, their spaces. On the other hand, it is
necessary for the local administration to get out of the institutional norms
and bureaucracies to open up to a real confrontation with those who live in the
countryside and in the city to stop the fruitless planning of financing at the
last moment that has characterized the 25 years of last.
It is right
to ask ourselves what is and what should the city be for us? With an optimistic
view, perhaps the true meaning can be this: A livable city, a sustainable city,
not an invisible city. My interest in the sustainable city began when I was a
student at the University of Padua, the year in which Padua was declared the
most livable city in Italy. That's when I realized that we need to improve
people's lives, making our cities more livable. I tried to make my own
interpretation of sustainability, having as a reference the concept of the
cultural landscape in all its forms. Sustainability equates to something
simple, healthy, clean: a way to make a public space more adaptable, taking
care of the environment in which we are planning. Here comes the concept of
sustainable architecture, as architecture with common sense, in the form of
everyday architecture, which is typical of the buildings of a certain place
that is always adapted in the best way to the surrounding context, the
availability of raw materials and weather conditions. Based on the best
experiences, I believe that sustainability should become part of the compulsory
program in our school. Of course, it should be included, also as a subject of
study in universities. Ultimately, sustainability affects us all, although
perhaps most people do not consider it a real problem, conditioning our present
and future. Many think that "it's not about me, it's not my
responsibility, it will affect someone else." In fact the opposite is
true: our cities and buildings affect us, affect the environment, affect the
planet. Sustainability will become a widely accepted concept only when schools
and universities are able to provide the means to overcome this mentality. A
consistent approach is always a positive stimulus.
In short,
to create a sustainable and efficient city we must act to improve its
"performance" and to realize a combination that results in positive
indicators of the use of the city's basic resources: energy, materials, land
and water. How these are combined determines the types of urban strategies for
a better and more efficient city. Only with a sustainable urban project can
dynamic cities be created, where the environment is the focus of the citizens.
The users of cities are an important asset to succeed in building a sustainable
city. We need to cultivate participation to make the users of the city active
and to involve them in increasing their well-being. The community must be given
sufficient tools and information to achieve a stable environment, without which
its members are forced to make drastic changes in their daily lives. In new,
smart municipalities, information must flow and be accessible to all, as public
participation is a key tool.
With active participation we can have a better user-created architecture and future, both for the community and the city. Social participation is one of the three aspects that define a sustainable approach. The other two are economy and ecology. From my perspective, these are two aspects of the same idea that often don't work together, even when they should. Although the participation of citizens is a very important point, often in large projects more weight is given to the architectural firm that developed them. It is a moment for reflection and building a long-term vision for the development of the territory. I would like to think that, for young people and inventors, this is a good moment to realize their ideas, both in terms of creativity and the dynamics of participation, on the grounds that they are full of high-tech elements.
Luiza Hoxhaj
Tirana on 22/05/2015
Luiza Hoxhaj
Tirane me 22/05/2015
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