Workshop 1 _ Pola 2

May 8, 2009 at 23:13 · Filed under Tirana Express and tagged: city, photography, tirana

Tuesday, Tirana. First Workshop, first site visit and first results, another series of Polaroids.

The site we chose, is a, well you want to call it river, but the truth is, its completely covered in garbage! It stinks! There are no propper streets to get to the bank! The whole area consists of informal/illegal buildings, there are only very few paved roads.

Polaroid 1

There is a variety of characteristic sorts of boundaries. Some are natural, some man-made, some caused by qustions of burocracy etc.

Much more interesting is the question how far the people are willing to take care and feel responsible. Does it end at the property boundary? Could i.e. legalization encourage the residents to extend their field and area of responsibility into the public space?

Polaroid 2

The two sides of the Tirana river diverse significantely due to the height of the bank, the density of fabric and use of land.

Whilst the Tirana side is extremely dense and due to a higher bank can get very close to the water, on the Paskuqan wide stripes of land are threatened by flood and erosion. This causes severalt difference in the morphology, i.e. agriculturally used gardens toward the river.

Polaroid 3

There is a common rule, that only houses which have a roof will have any chance to be granted in the legalization process. In effect, you see lots of quickly built but unfinished buildings, which for us either express  an abstract hope (for legalization) or desparation (for living space) of the builder. Additionally the shortage of money in the beginning causes a phased building.

This again is connected to the question of responsibility and cooperativeness of the residents towards a nice river/city landscape.

Respect goes to Olesja and Poliksen – my team!

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