“Revival of City Squares in Balkan Cities”, was conducted in partnership with the organizations Co-PLAN and U-Polis from Albania and the Coalition for Sustainable Development form Macedonia.
As its overall goal, the project “Revival of City Squares in Balkan Cities” aims to contribute to the revival of city squares as viable public places that foster cultural identity and promote diversity through enforcement of public policies and active community participation. The action intends to achieve two major specific objectives: to promote national and regional policy discourse on how city squares can be transformed into pulsating community places and develop a platform for transforming open public spaces into vibrant places that serve community needs.
As the final result, the project should provide policy makers and local officials with tools on how to carry out city square transformation process collaborating with the community.
Project activities
The main activities envisaged with the project are designed to create an overall framework that encompasses elements of systematic approach:
- Examination and analyses of the current use of city squares in 4 cities: Tirana, Durres, Kotor and Skopje and an assessment of potentials for their transformation, through a Survey and a Comparative analysis
- Three Regional workshops for students and young professionals, including architects, spatial planners, artists, etc., one in each of the partners’ counties.
- Consultative process on validation and support of guidelines with the key stakeholders (including public officials, segments of civil society and citizens) through meetings and round tables
- Elaboration of a set of viable guidelines on city square transformation
- Development of local policy documents on city square transformation
- Mapping and networking with organizations/actors that operate nationally or/and in the Balkan region
- Dissemination of practices and knowledge gained in pushing actions forward for the transformation of city squares, through
-Local websites on revival of city squares
-Project/event pages on interactive social platforms
-Project E-newsletters
-Articles in the Forum A+P
-Publication “Roadmap for Liveable Cities”
-Regional Closing Conference
The lead partner of the project is Co-PLAN, Institute for Habitat Development from Tirana, Albania ||·while other partners are: the Coalition for Sustainable Development (CSD) from Skoplje, Macedonia; EXPEDITIO from Kotor, Montenegro andPolis University (International School of Architecture and Urban Development Policies from Tirana, Albania |.
The project is funded by the Swiss Cultural Programme in the Western Balkans (SCP) under the Regional Cooperation Projects programme line. ||
The duration of the project is two years, until December 2012.
City Squares in Balkan Cities - Background
Blog address of the project Revival of City Squares in Balkan Cities is·
The project has its facebook group·
Keep informed about what is going on in the city squares in Montenegro, Albania and Macedonia and how we all can contribute to their revival.
Your comments and suggestions are welcome!
Project activities
