Durres Seaside Promenade: Urban Public versus Private Space

Abstract

This paper explores the spatial transformations of Durres waterfront - focusing only on the seaside promenade - within a predefined timeframe: late socialist & post socialist era, covering mainly the period of transition from the centralized state socialism to a liberalized, free-market, capitalist economy, a transition phase which lasted for over two decades in Albania. Within this framework, a special concern of the paper is the examination of the impact of political, social and economic actors, the legal and institutional situation in Architecture and planning disciplines as well as the geography and landscape conditions, which have an important role in the space production and transformation process.Claiming that Durres City waterfront - its seaside promenade - constitutes one of the most important public spaces and elements of the city structure, this study aims to understand how the urban public space is used, (re)produced and transformed in a post-socialist political system, where the ownership and property relations highly influence the public / private use of space, as well as its unwelcoming or user-friendly features. Furthermore, the phenomenon of "space appropriation" (taking possession or jurisdiction of space and domains such as land, sea, and air; buildings, objects, etc, either temporarily or for a long term) occurring on the public space - mainly on the seaside promenade, will be elaborated from a social, economical, political and spatial perspective.Finally, by affirming the water-edge as a place, a city asset that continuously calls for users and grabs the attention of developers, the last section of the paper will focus on recent urban interventions and developments on the waterfront aiming its re-structuring and revitalization; and initiatives to enhance the public character of the seaside promenade, and to claim its identity as a public place.