Industrial Heritage in Albania: Architecture and Landscape. A New Resource for Fier

Abstract

This paper proposes the research lines of a teaching experience developed in a laboratory degree carried out in the a.y. 2013-14 at the Politecnico di Bari, that is engaged since 2006 in many studies of the Albanian architectural heritage. In particular this study concerns the recovery and enhancement of the industrial landscape and architecture of the twentieth century in Albania. The specific case-study is the industrial area of Fier, one of the largest production sites created in the sixties in Albania, that includes a nitrate fertilizer plant and a thermal power station, a zone now almost entirely abandoned and degraded, but with great potential for transformation and reuse. The Laboratory involved various disciplines: Architectural and Urban Design, Urban Planning, Environmental Technical Physics, Architectural Restoration, with the aim of highlighting the environmental resources of this site, at territorial, urban and architectural scales. This study designated this area not as a large abandoned site available for new functions, but as a place with specific characters of space and landscape, rich in historical memories, that must be interpreted and recovered through the project. It was assumed as a possible heartland for the architectural and social redevelopment of the city and environmental enhancement through the redesign of the agricultural landscape with which it compares powerfully. So we could verify the possibility to establish here productive activities compatible with the environment, scientific research activities, cultural and recreational facilities for the city and the territory and housing functions, connected by extensive green areas organized as a large agricultural and technology park. Beside this mix of functions, this area preserves its original specificity of energy hub on a national scale, addressing towards renewable energy. The topic was considered with a multidisciplinary and inter-scalar approach, in relation to the issues of sustainable and eco-friendly development, the environmental remediation, the territorial and urban regeneration, up to face the problem of conversion and reuse of large industrial containers and some significant buildings. Particular attention was dedicated to the foreshadowing of spaces and architectural forms that may characterize this place, bringing it back to life and transforming this problematic area in a new resource for Fier.