Revival of City Squares in Balkan Cities
Implementation period: 2011 – 2012
Donor: Swiss Cultural Program
Fund: 115,303 CHF
Implemented in: Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia
Implemented by: Co-PLAN, EXPEDITIO and Coalition for Sustainable Development
The project was financed by SCP, and implemented in collaboration by Co-Plan, Polis University in Tirana, Albania; – Coalition for Sustainable Development – CSD, from Skopje, Macedonia and EXPEDITIO Centre for Sustainable Spatial Development from Kotor, Montenegro. Revival of City squares in Balkan cities reflects on a new creative idea of the public spaces questioning people who use and live that spaces about values and problematic to re-use in order to create new vibrant, creative and livable spaces to use as city squares. However, over the last two decades, the urban transformations of Balkan cities under the duress of neo-liberal rebuilding projects and globalization desires in continuation demonstrate a remarkable neglect of the public functions of city squares as public spaces. With this in mind, the project seeks to meaningfully add a share towards creating solid bridges between various actors and facilitate a community-based process that engages a full range of local stakeholders (citizens, professionals, policy makers), and brings people with diverse ideas into dialogue in an inclusive process that produces workable recommendations with significant impacts. As its overall goal, our project aims to contribute to revival of city squares as viable public places that foster cultural identity and promote diversity through enforcement of public policies and active community participation.