Multidimensional landscape. Interpreting and representing Tirana's accidental Landscape through an immersive perspective

This paper intends to reflect on the importance of considering different points of view and exploring all dimensions in landscape perception to understand the evolution of the relationship between people and nature and to define the importance of Landscape as a medium, for the city’s future development. Undefined urban margins in Tirana are dynamic and vital landscapes which cannot be fully understood and appreciated relying solely on aerial photographs, satellite imagery and maps drawn from an elevated point of view as through the latter the subjectivity of the viewer and its relationship with the environment is substituted by a collective subjectivity, where man is no longer immersed in and part of the landscape but rather a spectator-consumer and nature a distant and fascinating exteriority. Since the introduction of aerial photography at the end of the 19th Century and mass air travelling at the beginning of the 20th, the idea of landscape has shifted from scenic and pictorial imagery to highly managed surface best viewed, arranged and coordinated from above (Waldheim, 1999 p.121); but while the aerial subjectivity of new synoptic observation means made the latter suitable Urban planning tools, it was failing to consider the specificity and the spontaneity of the relationship between people and landscape.