The topic of this article deals with some aspects of the new image that the new capital of Kosovo, Prishtina, wants to give in the European context. After 10 years of independence from the state of Serbia and the gradual consolidation of Kosovo's government structures, it is now the time of the capital to consolidate (or perhaps still to create) its image. The new state of Kosovo already has a National Spatial Plan (yet unapproved), but Prishtina, as the capital, still remains without any real vision for the future and still without any strategy at the territorial level. The purpose of this research is to give a basic structure in order to develop in the future guiding lines for a contemporary vision, which will orient the development of the capital of Prishtina for the next 20 years. This vision will be based on four main issues: infrastructure, environment, unused space and culture. This research will focus on the culture issue and will try to clarify first the existing situation and then to propose some hypothetical interventions. To structure a development vision for the capital of Prishtina the methodology was the sequent: • Preliminary study of the proposed national spatial plan for Kosovo and further consultation with available information sources. • Field visit to compare the cartographic information with on field reality. On field survey and interviews with residents and other actors operating in the city. • Conclusions from the analysis, brainstorming and the first proposals related to the strategies. • Final workshop to detail the urban scale strategy for each specific context and to overlay all the strategies together into a general vision at regional territorial level. What was found from initial analysis, field visits and interviews, was that many different cultural realities exist in Prishtina, but not all of them can find its corresponding space interpretation. In Prishtina there are 6 different ethnic communities (where the biggest one is the Albanian), some religious beliefs (where the biggest is Muslim) and very different social layers (for example, there is a significant difference between the educated layer and uneducated). All of those realities are mixed in an urban conglomerate, which rarely clearly shows its cultural belonging. This, in essence, is a positive aspect, but the study did not make clear whether each of the communities, or social strata, had equal rights in an urban space, or was equally represented in it. And those are principles which are now promoted by the contemporary European society. The population of Prishtina is quite new and energetic, which fact is also reflected in spontaneous artistic (visual and performance) manifestations in certain urban contexts. This fact is a great potential, since in essence the new population is also the most open minded and with its energy provides real opportunities for a cultural evolution. The strategy, that was chosen to build the new cultural image of the capital of Prishtina, is to define in urban scale all the spaces and buildings which can play (even if unconsciously) an important role in Prishtina's cultural life and then, the re-evaluation of that heritage through some interrelated interventions (some physical/tangible, some not) which emphasize in this way the need to promote social inclusion and sense of belonging for each socio-cultural community.
Prishtina Cultural Patches; Re-evaluation of Ulpiana’s late modernist heritage through interrelated cultural interventions
Ermal Hoxha
Primo
Writing – Original Draft Preparation
2019
Abstract
The topic of this article deals with some aspects of the new image that the new capital of Kosovo, Prishtina, wants to give in the European context. After 10 years of independence from the state of Serbia and the gradual consolidation of Kosovo's government structures, it is now the time of the capital to consolidate (or perhaps still to create) its image. The new state of Kosovo already has a National Spatial Plan (yet unapproved), but Prishtina, as the capital, still remains without any real vision for the future and still without any strategy at the territorial level. The purpose of this research is to give a basic structure in order to develop in the future guiding lines for a contemporary vision, which will orient the development of the capital of Prishtina for the next 20 years. This vision will be based on four main issues: infrastructure, environment, unused space and culture. This research will focus on the culture issue and will try to clarify first the existing situation and then to propose some hypothetical interventions. To structure a development vision for the capital of Prishtina the methodology was the sequent: • Preliminary study of the proposed national spatial plan for Kosovo and further consultation with available information sources. • Field visit to compare the cartographic information with on field reality. On field survey and interviews with residents and other actors operating in the city. • Conclusions from the analysis, brainstorming and the first proposals related to the strategies. • Final workshop to detail the urban scale strategy for each specific context and to overlay all the strategies together into a general vision at regional territorial level. What was found from initial analysis, field visits and interviews, was that many different cultural realities exist in Prishtina, but not all of them can find its corresponding space interpretation. In Prishtina there are 6 different ethnic communities (where the biggest one is the Albanian), some religious beliefs (where the biggest is Muslim) and very different social layers (for example, there is a significant difference between the educated layer and uneducated). All of those realities are mixed in an urban conglomerate, which rarely clearly shows its cultural belonging. This, in essence, is a positive aspect, but the study did not make clear whether each of the communities, or social strata, had equal rights in an urban space, or was equally represented in it. And those are principles which are now promoted by the contemporary European society. The population of Prishtina is quite new and energetic, which fact is also reflected in spontaneous artistic (visual and performance) manifestations in certain urban contexts. This fact is a great potential, since in essence the new population is also the most open minded and with its energy provides real opportunities for a cultural evolution. The strategy, that was chosen to build the new cultural image of the capital of Prishtina, is to define in urban scale all the spaces and buildings which can play (even if unconsciously) an important role in Prishtina's cultural life and then, the re-evaluation of that heritage through some interrelated interventions (some physical/tangible, some not) which emphasize in this way the need to promote social inclusion and sense of belonging for each socio-cultural community.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
