Pilot project presentations: Design and Heritage Empower Communities

Speakers meeting link: https://bit.ly/36uVRwF | Meeting attendants: Facebook live at https://www.facebook.com/designscapesproject/

17:30-17:45 Welcome and introduction
(Besnik Mehmeti, ANCI Toscana)
17:45-18:15 Presentation of the pilot project
(Nedi Petri, CHWB Albania)
18:15-18:30 Q&A and Discussion
18:30 End

(*) Other winners of the Designscapes call with similar thematic orientation will be invited to contribute

Our speakers

Besnik Mehmeti has a distinguished expertise and a winning track record in securing and managing EU funded projects. He provides strategic advisory and funding opportunities to local and regional administrators, communities and businesses. His core areas are the promotion of innovation, technological development, entrepreneurship, creative and cultural industries. His ability to master complex and multilateral partnerships and initiatives led to the successful development and implementation of several innovative actions and partnerships at local and regional level.

Nedi Petri is an architect with experience in working with cultural heritage, historic landscapes, and urban development. He has been part of important pilot projects, dealing with re-conceptualization of former communist era landscapes and sites; restoration and revitalization of unique monuments; the design and implementation of projects for the improvement of urban development processes. He is part of the support teams in the development of management plans for some of the most important cultural heritage sites in Albania and the Balkan region. He has been also working with awareness raising and community participation in cultural heritage, through interpretation techniques and use of innovative educational models. Nedi has graduated in Architecture at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, then he has followed the MATRA program courses on Sustainable Urban Planning and Land Development, a collaboration between Erasmus University, Rotterdam / Polis University, Albania. He also holds a second Master’s degree in Landscape and Urban Design.

“Design and Heritage Empower Communities” is a hands-on audience engagement experience aiming to communicate, raise awareness, and educate about the significance of Tirana’s architectural heritage, about the importance of secondary public spaces, and the need for creating lost community values.

For the past 30 years, the city of Tirana has been rapidly growing, leading to an increasing demand for a higher quality of living and meaningful public spaces. At this stage, the city requires delicate, flexible, and smart ideas as well as puncture-like interventions which answer the inhabitants’ needs. The project Design and Heritage Empowers Communities is a prototype that seeks to be a smart answer to the delicate and multi-layered social challenges of Tirana and urban environments with similar challenges.

The project interpreted four iconic historic structures of Tirana through a set of playful interlocking urban furnishings. During the activities the community becomes a co-creator of the individual architectural icons and a builder of the urban visionary configurations. Through active participation, the community made their own places and spaces that are necessary to improve the public life of the city.

Two secondary public spaces were selected to test the prototype creation in collaboration with the Municipality of Tirana and the residential unit administrators. The temporary momentum became an educational playground for families and presented a creative, community-scale activity as an alternative to the private businesses and parking spaces which often occupy the already insufficient secondary public spaces in the city.

All models were made 100% from cardboard and can be assembled and disassembled using only the hands. The principal tool and its variations are based on a cardboard lattice that can be folded into three-dimensional building blocks. These blocks are connected to one another through cardboard joints, of which several of them are integrated into the lattice itself.

The project is an initiative of CHwB Albania and Noa Haim. The collaboration designed the unique community engaging events by combining the vast experiences of both CHwB Albania’s educational game series “E Ka Kush e KA” and Noa Haim’s designs for pop-up participatory spaces.