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Making Better Cities Together Municipal Spatial Planning Support Programme (MuSPP) Issue No. 05/02 • February 2008 Editorial Let’s talk about the spatial status of Kosovo! With political decisions taken about the Send us your ideas how to make future of Kosovo, it’s time to deal more seriously with the physical and social Kosovo and its cities a better place status of this part of the Balkans. “More to live, to work, to move about and seriously” means that sustainable de- velopment should be on everyone’s lips to express oneself and in everyone’s minds. Kosovo needs development and it has to be sustain- able in terms of economic growth, social welfare and well-being, and last but not [email protected] least environmentally. And to be clear, this is the opposite way of the current applied it to ourselves too. The focus international experience and promote trend; in other words, we have to break was-and still is-mainly on drafting the the role of public transport in sustain- the trend of the unsustainable develop- Municipal and Urban Development able urban development in Kosovo. Also ment of the past decades and particu- plans–but we also launched new tools the Kosovo-wide Workshop on Infor- larly the years after the conflict. like participatory visioning and “new” mal Settlements showed the readi- issues like sustainable urban mobility ness of many stakeholders, MESP, OSCE, The way we organise the limited space and “place-making”. We also supported Association of Kosovo Municipalities and of Kosovo–what we call spatial plan- firmly an innovative approach towards UN-HABITAT, for a multidisciplinary and ning–is crucial in this aim; the way we the challenge of Informal Settlements inclusive approach, marked by “heart” organise and manage growing cities in in Kosovo, and last but not least we to these settlements as living and liv- Kosovo–what we call urban planning is launched seven small urban projects to able communities. The large number of equally important, as more and more demonstrate urban planning in practice. participants in these events proves how people tend to live in cities and Pris- It’s too early for an evaluation, but there important these issues are for Kosovo’s tina remains the magnet for many. UN- have been indications from our Swedish present day and its future. HABITAT supports this great challenge sponsor, Sida, of its intention to provide You will also read about another Tri-Par- of sustainable spatial and urban further support to this innovative plan- tite Review meeting. Despite the overall development in Kosovo. But positive ning approach and we are looking for- satisfaction of the partners and donor changes can only be achieved if the cen- ward to it. with the progress made so far, there is tral and local level stakeholders of Koso- still work to be done, particularly with vo are committed and dedicated to this In this edition the focus is on public reference to Municipal and Urban De- goal. This also requires strong alliances space and urban design, with prac- velopment Plans. Therefore we need and partnerships among public authori- tices in Mitrovica (south and north), full commitment of our local partners to ties, the private sector, civil society and Gjakova/Djakovica and Ferizaj/Uros- implement the joint road maps towards international community. evac. Often those practices are rooted in the municipal approval of those crucial the field of transport and mobility, and planning documents. We count on a con- Municipal Spatial Planning Support Pro- it shows that urban design of public tinuous effort to have most plans ready gramme (MuSPP), which supports spa- spaces can bridge the “different worlds” by the end of MuSPP1 (end of April), so tial planning in the 6 secondary cities in of spatial planning and transport. Bridg- that we can start all together the next Kosovo, can be considered as a “warm- ing these worlds was also the aim of stage of the marathon of implementa- ing up” for the marathon of sustainable the first Conference on Transport and tion, monitoring, evaluation, revision, urban development. With the support Spatial Planning in Kosovo, jointly orga- project development, …in short the of Sida, UN-HABITAT introduced a chal- nized by the Ministry of Transport and “never ending planning cycle” with tan- lenging capacity building and strength- Post-Telecommunication and the Minis- gible results for citizens and with their ening programme with expert teams try of Environment and Spatial Planning, participation. based in the municipalities. We promot- with support of MuSPP. The Conference Frank D’hondt ed a “learning-by-doing-approach” and aimed to bring together Kosovar and Spatial Planning Coordinator MuSPP1 MuSPP NEWSLETTER 5/02 • February 2008 IN FOCUS THE NEED FOR URBAN DESIGN IN KOSOVO The Leipzig Charter on Sustainable Euro- perspective from which many of our day big decisions, to the people passing pean cities (May 007), considers “creat- to day experiences are gained. through a street whose smile or laugh- ing and ensuring high quality spaces…to ter momentarily lights up a space, or an be of crucial importance for strengthening Urban Design seeks to enable people to individual who drops litter or parks on a the competitiveness of European cities”. get more from their surroundings. footpath. Getting people to value shared Changing this unhealthy relationship re space, to recognise its contribution to This article considers this statement from quires intervening in the built environment peoples lives and to provide the demo the perspective of Kosovo, why it is just to reconcile competing demands and al- cratic mandate for cities to make and pay as valid here as elsewhere in Europe and low people to forge new links with each for improvements is essential. This may what it means. Recent years have wit- other and with their surroundings, while seem like a big ask but visionary leader- nessed a rapid growth in the population holding the negative influences of social ship and coordinated programs of infor- of Kosovo’s towns and cities, most no- exclusion, economic fragility and physical mation, education and public works have tably Pristina which has doubled in size blight at bay. changed the culture of cities (and found since the end of the conflict. This physi- economic benefits) in places as diverse cal change has been paralleled by social Urban design seeks to create places with as Bogota in Colombia, Copenhagen in upheaval as traditional bonds of clan and meaning for the people that occupy them Denmark, Melbourne in Australia and Ti- family are eroded with urbanisation and to provide people with opportunities to rana in Albania. Secondly, and very much infrastructure (roads, open space and meet their needs. However, defining peo- connected to the first point, is the devel- schools as well as water, sewers and elec- ple’s needs is not always easy. As individ- opment of a uniquely Kosovan sense of tricity etc) has struggled to cope with the uals and as a community people’s needs urban design. At the end of the day, im- demands of more people with increasing will vary significantly. They are likely to porting overseas urban designers is not expectations. These demands and ex- change over time and between people. sustainable, no matter how good the de- pectations are fuelling the competition What someone needs at any given time signers. for city space, with a desire to facilitate will be influenced by their gender, age, Beyond some fundamental ground rules personal mobility being prominent on the upbringing, experience, values, the time that relate to accessibility, comfort and agenda of most decision makers. Perhaps of day (they might be tired or hungry, safety, what is ‘good’ is to a large extent one of the principal expressions of this is etc). culturally specific, and the best people to the roads of Pristina and other cities in Designing places that are relevant to ev- understand that sense of place are the Kosovo which are clogged with traffic that eryone means designing places that can people for whom that place is their day to occupies nearly all the space from building be used in many different ways by many day experience. wall to building wall. With discontinuous people. Urban space is too precious to footpaths that are pot-holed, blocked by commit to a single use. In urban design, If these changes are made, the cities parked vehicles and with little landscaping as in nature, a monoculture is best avoid- and towns of Kosovo can become places they discourage any use other than ve- ed. Good design does not cost significant- within which the newly urbanised people hicles moving through them. ly more, nor take longer to complete than will have a better chance of thriving and poor design . The desirability of achieving reaching their potential. It is an essential This is a major issue when you consider these goals for Kosovo is self-evident, but part of making the most of Kosovo’s fin- that streets and open spaces typically the extent to which they can be achieved est asset: its people and helping them make up around 0% of most cities. They depends on two key factors: compete on an equal footing with other are the principal forum for social interac- Perhaps the most important is the ability European centres. tion, they connect the places we have to to create a culture of urban design. We all Jenny Donovan, get to in order to meet our needs (school, influence the quality of our surroundings, Expert in Urban and Public Place work, healthcare, shops, etc) and are the from the mayors and planners who make Design UN-HABITAT-MuSPP Kosovo MuSPP NEWSLETTER 5/ 02 • February 2008 MUNICIPAL CORNER TOWARDS URBAN DESIGN CONTEXT The work of the Mobility and Transport The ideas of creating a landscaped plaza in Working group in Mitrovica municipality has the center of the triangle surrounded with been strongly focused on developing a new seating areas in a sheltered landscape with project – the extension of the initial pro- lot of greenery, linked with continuous and posal for demo project, at the intersection coherent pedestrian routes and safe cross- of the South entrance to the city.

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