Urban Transformation of Authoritarian Spaces within the Framework of Urban Planning

Abstract

The modern history of Albania has undergone through different epochs of totalitarian regimes, which have influenced in different ways the urban texture of the cities. Today there is an emergent need for Conservation and wise management of dissonant heritage of 20th century. This study deals with the transformation of some of the main squares in Tirana in order to understand and evaluate the architectural aspects of totalitarian architecture, which in Albania consists in coexistence between Fascism and Communism. How did ideology affect their architecture, how did they affect the city and how they are managing the changes of their initial program and adapting in a transitory economy, are some of the questions that is dealt with. The city squares were the first, which were submitted to democratic changes, although they were constructed following a different political ideology. After over two decades of democracy, the totalitarian past is slowly fading in memory of the citizens. Cities try to reinvent their self’s and adapt rapidly to the new circumstances often by ignoring the existing contexts, which during this period has been systematically alienated. In particular analyzing Scanderbeg Square architecture emerge facts that demonstrate that this alienation happened also in the totalitarian past that somehow has affected the present conditions.