To code or not to code? Investigating the urban-rural transect and other Smart Code instruments in the territorial development context of Albania. Case Study: city of Shkodra

Following the subtle tendencies of ‘europeanization’ of planning traditions in EU member countries, Albania has seen some drastic changes in the way it approaches spatial (territorial) and urban planning. The level of normativity has increased, and the responsibility to establish norms and standards is shared between the central and local governments. Even though the system is supposed to be more flexible, it adopts various concepts of the post-New Urbanism planning framework, including zoning, form based codes, etc. These concepts are part of a unified framework widely applied in the US states, called Smart Codes. This paper aims at investigating these morphology-based tools in the case of Shkodra city, as a way to discuss on the need for coding and normativity in land management.