94 piazze minori nel centro storico di firenze • antonio capestro square rehabilitation and modernization on the inner city of tirana Florian Nepravishta ! Polytechnic University of Tirana Tirana: Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism Master Plan "[email protected] of Gerardo Bosio, 1936 Skanderbeg Square, Avni Rustemi Square and Piazza Italia (Source: AQTN). Urban space has always been subject to constant modi!cation. Depreciation, degradation, changes in people’s needs, and in particular politics, requires that city squares go through transformations. Rehabilitation and modernization have made it possible to establish continuity between city squares and their use by the community in space and time. In many cases, modernization has produced con"icting situations between the preservation of identity and collective memory of urban heritage and the demands of new functions or modernizations. Square rehabilitation on the inner city of Tirana is not a new phenomenon. The needs for the change and modernization of Italian heritage squares have arisen as a result of signi!cant political and socio-cultural changes and in many cases as a political will. Although nowadays central and local governments are increasingly focused on preserving and rehabilitating ur- ban heritage, including works by Italian architects and engineers, their interventions present a high degree of uncertainty. The ambiguity and variability that characterizes the relative so- lutions are evident in the operational phase. On the one hand, the historic squares of the Italian cultural heritage that have been recog- nized for the right of continuity, require to be regenerated, on the other hand, many mod- ernization interventions have enabled inappropriate transformations and major changes of matter. Modernizations, in some cases, have produced con"icting situations between pre- serving the identity of historic sites and the demands for rehabilitation. This article’s focus is the analyses of rehabilitation and modernization of public squares in the inner city Tirana. A descriptive study of the three cases Skanderbeg Square, Piazza Ital- iaand Avni Rustemi Square rehabilitation project have been analysed. The main problems encountered are inadequate urban solutions to preserve the historical memory of existing squares and the high costs of rehabilitation due to the inadequacy of in- terventions. 96 piazze minori nel centro storico di firenze • antonio capestro Historical background of urban planning of Tirana in the years 1920-1943 The !rst planned intervention in the city of Tirana was made in 1908 by Esad Pasha Toptani. The project opened and modernized the Old Bazaar by expanding the streets and reorganizing the shops (Aliaj, at al., 2003). The Bazaar in the western part was bounded by unused space that would later become the main square of the Albanian cap- ital. It is documented in the !rst maps of Tirana of the years 1917 and 1918 drawn up by the Austrians in support of military forces (Bakiu, 2014). With the proclamation of Tirana in 1920, the capital of Albania, it was necessary to de- sign a new urban plan that would transform it into a western capital. Tirana’s !rst regula- tory plan called the Austrian Plan of 1923 (proposed by Köhler), aimed at connecting the oriental city’s medieval road network with a new orthogonal network and would expand the city to the southwest (Aliaj, at al., 2003). pagina a fronte Fig. 2 In 1925 the Italian architect Armando Brasini, invited to carry out the plan of the capital The Skanderbeg Square with Tirana, went beyond that of the Austrian Plan of 1923 extending Tirana and delineating circular Fontana the city line forming the north-south axis (Dhamo, at al., 2016). Centrally located Skan- and Lower Garden designed in 1936 derbeg Square would contain the government corps with the ministries and the presi- by Florestano Di Fausto and dential palace at the end of the boulevard. executed by The Tirana regulatory plan of 1928, proposed by Köhler and Frashëri, re"ects Brasini’s Giulio Berté (Source: AQTN). ideas for the Skanderbeg Square and the North-South axis of the boulevard where the buildings have administrative character, and there is proposed the development of the ar- ea from the Old Bazaar in the southern hills to the Royal Palace. These ideas have been improved in the Tirana Master Plan of 1929 with authors Frashëri, Di Fausto and Köhler (Nepravishta & Thomai, 2020). In the years 1929-1938, the government led by Ahmet Zogu directed the country’s policy towards neighbouring Italy, marking the beginning of an important period in the trans- formation of the urban and architectural structure of Tirana. From the planning and ar- chitectural aspect, Tirana had a qualitative urban development, building a large number of roads like Boulevard King Zogu I, Boulevard Mussolini, Skanderbeg Square and the Complex of Ministries, and many other cultural, social and administrative structures. The Skanderbeg Square with circular Fontana and Lower Garden (!g. 2) was !nally de- signed in 1936 by Florestano Di Fausto (Vokshi & Nepravishta, 2013) and executed by Giulio Berté when Mayor Nepravishta1 headed the Tirana Municipality (Kulla, 2017). The main square of Tirana has undergone various transformations over time. 1 Abedin Nepravishta, twice former mayor of Tirana, Albania, during 1933-1935 and 1937-1939 (Retrieved https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abedin_Nepravishta). square rehabilitation and modernization on the inner city of tirana • florian nepravishta 97 Italian fascists during the occupation period of 1939-1943 have implemented a special policy for urban development in Albania. Tirana, under the in"uence of Italian archi- tecture, took on the appearance of a modern city. The Regulatory Plan of Arch. Gerardo Bosio of 1939 envisioned the city’s development for 60 years when the population grew to 130,000 (Vokshi, 2013). Tirana was designed as a garden city with low buildings and a higher density in the center. The Regulatory Plan, included radial and ring road traf- !c schemes, urban conditions for the entire city. It proposes a new formulation of the Skanderbeg Square with rationalist architecture on the eastern side where the Old Bazaar was located, by preserving the Complex of Ministries and the National Bank of Albania building, work of Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo (Nepravishta, 2017). Parts of this plan are Piazza Italia, located next to the Stadio Olimpico2 and the Avni Ruste- mi Square3, one of the circular squares of Tirana, where the New Bazaar was situated. Public squares modernizations Different regimes and political bodies have imposed their urban design visions for the Tirana inner-city development and the public squares. The systems of power that have succeeded in the capital have tried to represent themselves in the space through the axis and the system of central piazzas (!gg. 3, 4), as the ideal projection of their organization (Zan!, 2008). The design of public square plans in Tirana, in their evolution: from the Austrian Plan of 1923 to Armando Brassini’s plan of 1925 and later to Frashëri’s, Di Fausto’s and Köhler’s 2 It was part of G. Bosio plan of 1939 for the Viale dell’Impero. 3 This is the name of the square today. 98 piazze minori nel centro storico di firenze • antonio capestro " Fig. 3 The Skanderbeg Square part of Gerardo Bosio Regulatory Plan of 1939 (Source: AQTN). pagina a fronte plan of 1929 during King Zog’s I Monarchy; from the Gerardo Bosio Regulatory Plan Fig. 4 Influence of of 1939 to the Urban Regulatory Plan of 1941 during the fascist occupation (!g. 3); politics in the from the Regulatory Plan of 1957 to that of 1990 during the communist regime (!g. Skanderbeg Square planning 5); has changed over time with the aim of modernization by maintaining a character during the communist that was largely festive and rhetorical and over-dimensioned. period (Source The political, economic and social changes experienced by Albania in the transition AQTN). Fig. 5 period to the market economy, have stimulated the capital city development. Skanderbeg New approaches were needed to support the growth and modernization of the city. Square in 1989 (Source: AQTN). Tirana has assisted a crisis of heritage identity that is evident in the speci!c urban situ- ations and the city squares. The French Master Plan of Tirana city centre of Atelier Studio-Paris proposes the redesign of a series of collective spaces assigning them some civic functions (!g. 6). Public squares will be reorganized and sometimes entirely re-designed and will accommodate cultural and shopping facilities in the future (Ar- chitecture Studio, 2014). It included the rehabilitation and modernization of Skan- derbeg Square, Mother Tereza Square with Piazza Italia and Avni Rustemi Square. The plan predicted that the main square will be surrounded by high-rise buildings. square rehabilitation and modernization on the inner city of tirana • florian nepravishta 99 Scanderberg Square rehabilitation and modernization projects The project for the restructuring of Skanderbeg Square is the result of an international architecture competition won by 51N4E in 2008. The competition’s proposal, conceived in collaboration with Albanian artist Anri Sala, reorganizes Tirana’s central square, a vast ex-communist space, in a simple yet radical way (Pintos, 2019). With the proposed new building situated between the museum and Tirana International Hotel, it was a variant that violates the idea of the main boulevard, which is designed to be alongside and un- interrupted from the PUT Rectorate building (ex Casa di Fascio) to the ex Train Station. This project started to be executed in 2010 under the Mayor’s Edi Rama administration and was abruptly halted when the new administration of Mayor Lulëzim Basha (2011- 2015) decided to abolish it. 100 piazze minori nel centro storico di firenze • antonio capestro The new plan for the rehabilitation of the Scanderbeg Square (!g.