THE INFLUENCE OF “NON-PLACES” THROUGH DECONTEXTUALIZATION AND RECONTEXTUALIZATION OF HIGH-RISEBUILDINGS IN POST-SOCIALIST TIRANA

Abstract

This study examines the development of high-rise buildings in the post-socialist period Tirana. These buildings in majority were constructed at the expenses of sites which were public space. In other cases, they were built on sites which were public land, but were returned to the pre-socialist period owners. These high-rise buildings were planned in the master plan of Tirana, conducted by the French company “Architecture studio” and after that for most of the building were organized international competitions by The Albanian government or Tirana municipality, which at some point worked as an international cover to undertake such urban operation. The competitions were won by well-known international design studios. This study focuses on the impact that the high-rise buildings have in de-contextualizing the existing context and examine the newly created urban context. To achieve this, we select five high rise buildings which are: Forever Green Building Tirana, Downtown Tirana, Air Albania Tower, Garden Building Plaza. Apart from analysis of the building’s adaptation to the urban context which conducted in architectural and urban level, the study measures the de-contextualization and re-contextualization by interviewing 125 Tirana citizens, 25 per each high-rise building. The results in overall show that the interviewed dwellers are divided as most of them (three buildings) has reported as positive the newly created context after the construction of skyscrapers. On the contrary in all the buildings, (except one who reported differently) the dwellers have reported them not to be the best solution, pointing out the de-contextualization they create with their surroundings.