Urban development», Kosovo Foundation for Open Society

european magazine
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INTRODUCTION
This edition of “European Magazine” will deal with spatial
urban planning and development at the local and regional lev
el. The aim of this sixth edition is to contribute to raising of wider
public awareness in relation to these very important concepts
for planners worldwide, but hardly known by the Kosovar pro
fessional wider public. This is particularly important when deal
ing with European integrations and influence of planning for a
sustainable development of a space, economic, environmental
and social development.
European integration visàvis spatialurban planning; spatial
urban developments
Concepts of planning and spatial and urban development, as
form and notion, to most population look the same, they do not
see any essential difference.
Challenges of spatial and urban developments deal with daily
challenges, starting from political, development, environmen
tal and energy ones, challenges of interneighborhood and in
ternational cooperation, those in the field of development of ed
ucation, habitation, infrastructure development, as well as is
sued of capital and budgetary investments.
Urban development visàvis requirements of the European Union
are: Inclusiveness and urban developments; Publicprivate
partnership and urban developments; Management of immovable
property and urban developments; Urban development for met
ropolitan urban regions; The role of architecture in urban de
velopments; Free public spaces; Cultural heritage and urban de
velopments; Control of urban developments; Habitation and so
cial developments visàvis surging urban developments; Urban
and sustainable growth; Illegal constructions and legalization
process; Urban life and civil society; Urbanization and tourism;
Influence of daily politics in architecture and urbanism; Ur
banization and climate changes in Kosovo; Urban identity else
where and in Kosovo, and many others.
We are all aware that the European Union is about to become
an undivided continent, where territories are faced with simi
lar economic, social and environmental challenges, but who know
no borders. This happens while, at the same time, these terri
tories are governed institutionally and administratively through
traditional borders.
While there are no borders in the European Union territory, it
means that there should be rules in place agreed by all that ad
here there, in order to make it function that way, for an inher
ent economic, social and environmental cohesion.
So, European integrations raise the issue of TERRITORIAL CO
HESION between many territories, already a new objective for
the European Union, based on Lisbon Treaty, cooperation between
territories, beyond borders and various respective institutions, by
becoming more important for their governing way, multifold gov
ernance for new functional regions (Seider, M., 2010).
Spatial planning is very important to make an entrance into the
same yard of the European Union, since it functions as com
munion of states without borders (with freedom of movement
of people, goods and services).
To manage to move freely all over Europe, one should feel safe,
European Regions 2010 Economic welfare and unemployment
whereas in order to fell safe, everybody should follow the same
rules of the game, so including knowing what is happening and
what will happen in respective territory – of the neighbor and
further.
In order to know what will happen further in territory x in the
EU, the future should be projected through long term plans, which
ensures that respective countries will respect the common rules
of the game. This includes spatial planning!
Due to different changes, the European Union has in its terri
tory regions that possess similar development features, which
are supported by development funds and are presented
through maps because of many important issues. One of the maps
currently important (if you search in the internet by writing “Eu
ropean regions” nor ESPON.eu ) you will come across to is the
EU map related to issues of economic welfare and employment.
Soon you will see maps, which many ministers in the EU con
sult, discuss about, agree on, talk about present and future. So,
the future presented in space!
In conclusion, in this issue of the magazine it will be elaborat
ed on many challenges of urban developments by different lo
cal and international experts, from different viewpoints, various
dimensions, just like SPACE, HUMANS, SOCIETY, LIFE, DEVEL
OPMENT, FUTURE, GENERATION OF THE NEW, PRESERVATION
OF THE OLD, that are multidimensional.
IDA. Elvida Pallaska, masters degree in urban management
and development
This Magazine was initiated and realized by the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society. Opinions expressed by the authors of published articles do not represent
positions and attitudes of the Foundation. • Editorial Board: Luan Shllaku, Agron Bajrami, Venera Hajrullahu, Iliriana Kacaniku, Fatmir Curri, Ilir Deda
and Alban Zogaj. Coordinator for this edition: Vera Pula, Design & Layout: Sami Kçiku. • Kosovo Foundation for Open Society Address: Ulpiana, Imzot Nikë Prela, Villa No. 13, 10000 Prishtina; Phone no.: +381 38 542 157; email address: [email protected]
IN THIS ISSUE
URBAN DEVELOPMENT
PRIVATE-PUBLIC PARTNERSHIP
VIS-A-VIS URBAN DEVELOPMENTS
Ark. Agron Sallova
Page 4
URBANIZATION AND CHALLENGES
OF URBAN PLANNING IN KOSOVO
MSc. Besim Gollopeni
Page 6
INFORMAL CONSTRUCTIONS AND
BETTER ADMI-NISTRATION OF THE
TERRITORY
Dr. Besnik Aliaj
Faqe 8
COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING AS
MEANS FOR INTERRELATION AND
RELATIONSHIP OF COMMUNITY
WITH THE PLACE
IDA. Eliza Hoxha
Page 10
PLANNED SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT – AN
INDICATOR OF COLLECTIVE AWARENESS –
SOCIAL PROGRESS
IDA. Elvida Pallaska
Page 12
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN KOSOVO
IDA Faton Deva
Page 15
QUEST FOR URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Flamur Kuçi
Page 18
IMPORTANCE OR NEGLECT OF SPATIAL
AND URBAN PLANNING IN KOSOVO
Ark. Hidajete Zhuri
Page 21
DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC SPACE IN
KOSOVO THROUGH HISTORY
Ark. Ilir Gjinolli
Page 23
ADVANTAGES OF INTER-BORDER
COOPERATION TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT OF WESTERN BALKANS
Ark. Ilirjana A. Mejzini
Page 27
CARTOONS
Page 30-31
THE CITY IN TRANSITION: ARCHIS
INTERVENTIONS IN PRISHTINA
Florina Jerliu, Kai Vöckler
Page 32
HERITAGE AND PLANNING
Luan Nushi
Page 35
JUNIK, AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH
OF SPATIAL DEVELO-PMENT, BASED
ON CULTURAL HERITAGE AND
SELF-PLANNING
Mirian Bllaci
Page 37
KOSOVA – WITH “DISTURBED”
URBAN-ARCHITECTONICS
Architect Nexharije Buçinca
Page 40
A VISION FOR KOSOVA
Përparim Rama
Page 42
THE GIS ROLE IN URBAN PLANNING
AND MANAGEMENT
Rizah Murseli
Page 45
URBAN DEVELOPMENT VERSUS REAL
ESTATE MANAGEMENT IN KOSOVO
Visar Hoxha
Page 47
LEGISLATION IN URBAN DEVELOPMENTS IN KOSOVO
Vjosa Vela
Page 49
ARCHITECTURE OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS
INFLUENCE OF WESTERN-EUROPEAN
ARCHI -TECTURE ARCHITECTURE
OF PRISHTINA 1878 – 1912
IDA. Vlora Navakazi, Mrsc
Page 51
URBAN IDENTITY IN KOSOVO
Arch. Ylber Vokshi Ylli
Page 60
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Urban developments
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Urban development
PRIVATE-PUBLIC
PARTNERSHIP
VIS-A-VIS
URBAN
DEVELOPMENTS
Arch. Agron Sallova
Public private partnership needed for effectiveness
Advantages and novelties introduced by
legislative reform in the area of urban
planning are already visible in many
Kosovo cities. Majority of municipalities
have met their legal obligation to issue
UDP. Whereas managing of the process
of drafting of these documents endured
positive advancement, it seems that
rarely was anticipated that the most sig
nificant investments come from the pri
vate sector. These investments are always
directed towards development of busi
ness capacities, whereas all this happens
by construction of growing capacity.
This is the reason why it cannot be con
cluded that there are scarce investment
capacities, but quite the opposite, lack of
adequate instruction based on plan
ning and coordination of interests be
tween the private and the public sector.
A critical period to be achieved in entire
this process is opening of the dialogue
to balance private and public interests
and declaration of medium and long term
projects by both.. Until reaching this pe
riod, private sector is acting vehement
ly, whereas confused administration
without having a policy on how to act.
Nevertheless, there are examples that
may be followed, phenomena that re
quire attention and possibility for “par
allel progress” to intercross more often
in future.
ticipatory planning brings, when, apart
from realization of public interest,
achieved through intensive eighteen
months long negotiating, it enables the
private sector to capitalize new urban val
ues. We are talking about a project of free
area for pedestrians in the center of the
city, in my opinion, the only one in
Kosovo with adequate attributes. A good
example to be followed in this case is the
stand insisted on by municipal adminis
tration that for one of the most frequently
used roads to be turned into pedestrian
area.
The second example deals with the
project of releasing a segment of the riv
er bank and ensuring free access there.
The objective of engagement of private
and public capital in strategic municipal
projects was articulated very simply by
municipal authorities through exchange
of municipal property with the private
one. A specific issue in this case is the ap
proach towards the private sector, which
was requested to buy properties that ob
struct project development, whereas
properties that do not obstruct any cap
ital public project and that represent valu
able development asset for the private
sector were offered in return. Exchanges
were formalized through relevant deci
sions of the Municipal Assembly.
Examples to be followed
Concentration of activities –
phenomenon that seeks attention
Both examples come from Peja and
have to do with positive effects that par
Howsoever in low level, our cities also
suffer from the syndrome, which occupied
the entire globe, of high level of increase
of urban territory and economic global
ization. In majority of cities “industrial
zone” was defined according to urban
plans with the functional zoning of the
city as part of urban part. These zones
have served to establish socially owned
enterprises which after the war were sub
ject to privatization. In most cases, in the
beginning, privatization failed to bring ex
pected economic growth mainly due to
lack of investments declared by new own
ers. But, we can often come across sit
uations when new owners have sold or
rented considerable parts of these assets
which mainly result with opening of small
businesses within an area. No matter
how naïve they may look, with passing
of time these developments prove to be
very reasonable mainly because this
whole process brings concentration of
commercial, service and handicraft ac
tivities in a certain area, where there are
multiple advantages, such as better con
nection to the city and highways, easy ac
cess for customers with vehicles to serv
ices, sufficient space to travel and park
within the area, variety of offers and serv
ices, more stable power supply, etc. De
spite the scheme that functions in a nat
ural manner, because the variety is a
magnet for a customer, often proposals
of plans require their transfer to greater
distance or opening of a new area?!
This development offers an expartent op
portunity to “populate” these areas,
with proper management of the planning
process, with all those businesses which
Urban development
in most cases are noisy and cause bad im
age in dense urban areas. Tire repairers,
car washing, vehicle mechanics, markets
with articles that cannot be transported
by car, etc. with a proper program based
on privatepublic partnership could be
transferred to this area. Current trends
show that customer’s visit is not simply
the need for supplies or services, but also
entertainment, therefore we often notice
recreation functions, sports and catering
in these areas which provide free trans
port centerzone due to frequent visits.
Systematic and structured
communication
Public hearings for medium term budg
etary plans of municipalities are more
meeting of a legal obligation than prag
matic approach of identification of points
of common interest. On the other hand,
these draft budgets do not approxi
mately reflect recommendations of urban
plans, whereas the private sector is re
quired to develop its capacities in com
pliance with approved plans. It still is not
a practice of any municipality in Kosovo
to invite private sector to explain in de
tails the budget for the future and at least
listen to the opinion from perspective of
the entrepreneur on how this budget can
bring more projects of the “winwin”
concept. This communication should be
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planned, systematic and wellstructured,
in order to create a long term platform
of cooperation, so that the draft budg
et always declares anticipated invest
ments from the private sector.
Partnership programs in the area
of habitation
In current conditions, planning of domi
ciliary fund cannot be carried out with
out the involvement of private sector and
the support of the banking sector. Main
tenance of density of habitation recom
mended by urban plans for an area is of
ten contradictory to perspective of the
profit of project developers. In both
cases investments are carried out in plan
ning and its result is conflict of ambitions
in the same space. Habitation, as primary
function, is not developed according to
widely supported development policy,
concerning legislative aspect it failed to
determine relevant entities in the private
sector that have the right to conduct habi
tation planning and development visà
vis the requirement for habitation space
in conditions of accelerated urban de
velopment. In this situation, outlining of
enterprises for this activity, joint planning,
which could be financed by private sec
tor, involvement of crediting banks in the
process of habitation space planning may
create better conditions for better bal
PPPpublicprivate partnership, for more functional and attractive city
european magazine
ancing of parties involved in the process.
The quality of habitation space, infra
structure and services, supplementary
functions, etc., all of them should be de
termined through intensive negotiations
of a residential ensemble or compound,
whereas implementation plan should
specify investment parties for each cat
egory specifically. This is possible only
through partnership on contractual ba
sis between involved parties.
Reasonable social, environmental
and economic study
Every capital project, private or public re
quires beforehand a study of investment
justifications (feasibility), then draft pro
posal, respective evaluation of impact, etc.
To date, I have not come across any case
where a municipality has pledged mon
ey from its budget for something like this.
This is the reason why often, even when
opportunity arises for realization of any
project, which requires a feasibility study
in advance, long procedure of pledging the
money for this study postpones its real
ization for at least one year. On the oth
er hand, it seems that the private sector
started to realize more serious projects in
last three years and almost in every case
investments are based on advanced plan
ning and at least prefeasibility. This prac
tice should be understood as the oppor
tunity of the public sector to, in a certain
period of time, address private sector with
request for professional consulting, bor
rowing of means from contractual basis
up to allocation of pledged means or sim
ply request support for the project. This is
especially valid in case of realization of
capital infrastructure of the city, such as
the implant that manages black water, reg
ulation of river bed, territorial reregulation,
urban regeneration, etc.
The post war reconstruction brought a
new experience, which means that uni
lateral action causes great damages to
everybody.
(Author is construction and engineering
architect, ShPK “Dukagjini” – Peja)
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Urban development
URBANIZATION
AND
CHALLENGES
OF URBAN
PLANNING
IN KOSOVO
MSc. Besim Gollopeni
Urbanization and living of urban life in
Kosovo, together with its pattern and di
mension, is new, although it is known
that some cities possess a relatively
long history and tradition. Natural basis,
specific socialhistoric heritage, late in
troduction of elements of capitalist
economy, colonial position of Kosovo dur
ing the entire past century and absence
of economic development in general have
created a special type of population. In
sufficient and late socialeconomic de
velopment and slow spatial transfor
mation of Kosovo enables a special lev
el and development of urbanism.
At the end of XX century, differences be
tween the population growth and func
tional dimension of urbanism grew big
ger because secondary urbanism as im
portant indicator of the process of ur
banism had difficulties, whereas the
primary urbanism grew even stronger.
Until the beginning of the second half of
the XX century changes in spatial and so
cial mobility of population were small, in
concentration and underdevelopment
of cities, as well as in territorial expan
sion of urban structures. After these
years, especially in the first decade of the
XXI century there were big changes in de
mographic concentration and spatial
expansion of urban areas and suburban
urban areas. In this time moving of
population from villages and small towns
to big cities turned into every day phe
nomenon and everybody that was given
the chance used it, where the aim of es
pecially the youth (students) was and still
is Prishtina. This city became generator
of concentration of population and so
cialeconomic developments, as well as
Photo: Besim Gollopeni, Prishtinë, 2010
a place that gave hope to population, be
cause the possibility to have a better life
(education, a job, etc.) was greater than
elsewhere. This happened due to the fact
that the entire state (central) adminis
tration, international organizations, em
bassies, big centers of Kosova and foreign
business etc. settled in Prishtina and vicin
ity. In the last decade, uncontrolled ur
ban and suburbanurban (unplanned) de
velopments took place throughout the
territory of Kosova, mostly in 7 big urban
centers, particularly in Prishtina. While in
stitutional preparations for good man
agement of spatial development espe
cially urban and suburbanurban areas
are at a modest level. In this undesired
spatial situation there are several different
factors that influenced this and below we
will provide some of them that are be
lieved to be among the main ones:
1) Lack of human capacities – is one
of the most influential factors in the area
of spatial/urban planning. After 1999,
apart from the absence of profession
al planners, there were also big prej
udices among profiles that dealt with spa
tial planning. But this situation is not
something to be surprised with due to the
fact that there is still no faculty on spa
tial/urban planning in Kosovo. Another
problem is absence of proper organiza
tion in the field of local spatial planning
in two aspects:
a) there is still no proper organization in
local government. In this situation com
petences of directorates are mixed. Dur
ing the research carried out in spring
2011 it was found that most of Kosova
municipalities call spatial/urban direc
torates with different names.
This situation cause mixing of compe
tences and difficulties of non (coopera
tion) nature –non (cooperation) be
tween municipalities. Take for example
Prizren region, which is composed of five
municipalities (with the exception of Ma
musha Municipality), spatial planning di
rectorates of all of them are called dif
ferently.
b) during analysis and researches in lo
cal government it was realized that to
date no municipality had drafted a mu
nicipal and urban development plan
with its human capacities. All munici
palities that have and are in the process
of drafting spatial plans have contract
ed private local and international com
panies/organizations, whereas unfortu
nately many companies that deal with
spatial planning in Kosova do this not be
cause they are professionals in this area
but because this area, in the form and the
model they draft development plans, is
very profitable. On the other hand, with
in the process of drafting of development
urban plans there are many manipula
tions of professional, technical and oth
er nature that are carries out by the com
panies themselves, whereas due to lim
ited capacities the local government
(most of municipalities) are unable to
control in the best possible way the work
of private companies during the drafting
of urban plans. Therefore, the quality of
urban plans is questionable.
2) Lack of finances – huge amount of
finances is needed to draft a municipal
development plan, therefore, in most cas
es, local management structures due to
Urban development
7
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lack of means (finances), knowingly or
unknowingly, put drafting of develop
ment urban plans at the end of the pri
ority list, by concentrating more on
physical projects (road asphalting, wa
ter system network, sewerage, buildings,
etc.), which are visible to wider popula
tion and by carrying out this manner of
governance (policy and decision makers)
aim at gaining more voting (electorate)
for themselves. But, there are some
municipalities that have drafted urban de
velopment plans for four years now, such
as: Peja, Ferizaj, Gjilan, Gjakova etc., but
nevertheless implementation of plans in
practice is not satisfactory. On the oth
er hand, some municipalities are more fo
cused in drafting regulatory urban plans
(for certain smaller neighborhoods),
such as Prishtina, and this causes diffi
culties when it comes to harmonization
of development urban and municipal
plans. In such situation social inequali
ties, urban deintegrations, etc. are un
avoidable.
3) Lack of political will – there is lack
of political will to deal with drafting of
urban development plans and regulation
of the territory, work that will give its first
fruit (result) after a relatively long peri
od of time. As said above, policy makers
and implementers of those policies are
more engaged in physical projects, which
are more directly visible to the popula
Chalenges of urban development
tion rather than draft local plans and
strategies for a short, medium and long
term. But something like that happens in
most of the cases because of the absence
of understanding of the role and impor
tance of urban development plans. This
is supported even more so by the analy
sis/research conducted during the gen
eral campaign (at the central level) in
2010, when not even 1% of all the in
terviews, draft proposals, promises, tel
evision debates, etc. of Kosova politics
leaders and their representatives men
tioned the area of spatial/urban planning.
Due to lack of knowledge and acceptance
of spatial planning in a desirable level,
the spatial chaos continues to degrade
the space of Kosova in all parts. See the
following picture.
As a consequence of everything that was
elaborated above, we come to conclusion
that uncontrolled developments are
present in all municipalities, especially in
big urban centers, thus causing loss of
agricultural land, unbalanced spatial
developments, degradation of natural
and cultural values, social inequalities, ur
ban deintegrations, etc. and bringing the
country to a spatial chaos the conse
quences of which will be unpredictable
and long term.
(Author works in the Institute for Spatial
Planning as spatial planner/sociologist)
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Urban development
INFORMAL
CONSTRUCTIONS AND
BETTER ADMINISTRATION OF
THE TERRITORY
Dr. Besnik Aliaj
Illegal constructions
Presently, Albania is experiencing rad
ical changes of territory and ownership
similar to the situation in England and
the United States two centuries ago.
During the last decade, at least 1/3 of
the nation’s population, which lived in
arduous mountainous terrain, has aban
doned the traditional way of life in or
der to move from these isolated rural ar
eas to major urban centers and labor
markets. The population of Tirana has
tripled, that of Durres has doubled,
Kamza and FushKruja’s population
have increased 10fold, and the Al
banian coast is currently experiencing
a demographic boom. In the early
2000s, the World Bank estimated that
just in the Municipality of Kamza (95%
of which has been built in an informal
manner after 1990), the local commu
nities, within a decade, have invested at
least 100 million US dollars on buildings
that serve the purposes of shelter, busi
ness, and basic infrastructure, while in
many cases public investments have
been totally absent or, in the best case
scenario, have not surpassed the sum of
100,000 US dollars per year. Approxi
mately 67 out of 10 objects built after
1990 in Albania have been constructed
in an informal/illegal manner.
The “mysteries” that prevent Al
bania’s development The notion of
property includes a series of vital ques
tions which are genuine challenges for
countries like Albania. These questions
demand serious answers. Ignoring these
issues can cause their transformation
into frightening “mysteries” which will
seriously inhibit the administration of
the nation’s territory.
The poor have admirable abilities re
garding the accumulation of assets. It
suffices to look at the permitless build
ings in our cities. Their volume is ex
traordinary but the majority of these
constructions are practically “dead cap
ital”. In the world, the monetary value
of constructions without permit ap
proximates at least 10 trillion US dollars.
About 70% of construction in Albania
after 1990 is considered to be (partly or
completely) without permit. A statement
from the government resources states
that after 1990 in Albania, at least
200000300000 buildings have been
built without permits, equaling a mon
etary value of 6 billion US dollars. This
is an understated value because only the
physical investment value has been
calculated and not the market value. In
these conditions, precisely in the poor
est neighborhoods filled with permit
less buildings, exist millions of dollars,
ready to be used if the authorities in
charge can discover the mystery of
transforming assets into “living capital”.
The inhabitants of these areas are not
the problem. They are precisely the so
lution!
The mystery of property – Actually, the
notion of property has been compared
to “the hen that lays golden eggs”. But
no one could show where this “hen” is:
What is property? How is it produced?
What is its relationship with money? At
the end of the Cold War, a number of
countries like Albania sought help from
developed countries. The advice they re
ceived was to imitate the West but, even
today, the fact that the real reasons for
the success of developed nations lie
much deeper than the surface has not
been understood. Indeed, the widely ac
cessible systems of lawful property are
the engine that enables economical de
velopment and a successful adminis
tration of the territory.
The mystery of the awareness of politics
– If there is such a great amount of dead
capital in the power of the extralegal
population how is it possible that such
potential for prosperity is not taken into
account? This oversight results from the
absence of necessary information, from
lack of understanding the results of the
population’s relocation, and the fact that
the poor have changed their way of life
from small to wide scale is neglected.
When it surfaces that the “unlawful” in
habitants of our cities control a con
siderable amount of real estate and the
economical units of production, it will
become clear that a great number of the
nation’s problems result from the dis
crepancy between existing laws and the
actual way in which society functions.
If the written laws are in conflict with
the “laws” that concretely guide peo
ple in reality, then surely poverty and dis
satisfaction will rule. The fundamental
problem is not that people conquer and
build their cities without permission, but
the fact that “unlawful” inhabitants cre
ate extra legal social contracts, which
impose an essential redistribution of
wealth and wellbeing. When the au
Urban development
thorities accept this reasoning, then they
will no longer be objects of attacks but
a part of the solution.
The Missing Lecture from the American
History – What is currently happening
in Albania has previously taken place in
Western Europe and the United States,
but until today no one has analyzed the
ways in which these successful countries
overcame this challenge. Recognizing
and integrating the right of extralegal
wealth has been a key element in mak
ing the United States the market’s
most important economy and the
world’s main manufacturer of wealth.
The American key to success has been
revolutionizing property rights. Even if
not always willingly and conscien
tiously, Americans gradually legitimized
the extralegal norms and regulations
of property that pertained to society’s
fringe elements by integrating them with
the land law and a new formal system
of real estate. Indeed, it was the inte
gration process that created the possi
bility of prosperity by substituting the
static nature of secured property, which
is protected against swift changes,
with the dynamic aspects of ownership
which directly serve economical growth.
The transition toward the formalization
of extralegal property in the United
States resulted from the line of thought
that legal institutions can survive only
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Informality in urban developments
if they respond to social needs. The best
lesson from the United States is that a
great mistake is made by pretending
that the extralegal sector does not ex
ist, especially if this sector is formalized
without a clear strategy. Thus, the du
ties of the authorities in charge are: i)
the identification of the real social
contracts of ownership; ii) the integra
tion with the official law; iii) the de
Demolished illegal buildings
velopment of a strategy that provides
legal regulations in this area.
The mystery of the law’s failure – Since
the 19th century, different nations has
imitated Western laws with the inten
tion of providing their citizens with a le
gal outline that stimulates the cre
ation of wealth and wellbeing. But of
ten, they have failed. The majority of
present day Albanian citizens still can
not use these laws to convert their sav
ings into material wellbeing. The miss
ing piece that makes the law function
al remains a mystery. However, the
drafting of the legislation on the le
galization of illegal/informal construc
tions must aim at the creation of a real
estate system that is accessible to all.
The final aim of the urban legislation
and that of the real estate system is not
the drafting of elegant statues and
regulations; nor is the aim the invest
ment in amazing computer networks or
the printing of beautiful, colorful maps;
above all, the aim is the legal guaran
tee of property and its placement in the
hands of the rightful citizens.
(Author is rector of the University
POLIS in Tirana)
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Urban development
COMPREHENSIVE
PLANNING AS
MEANS FOR INTERRELATION AND
RELATIONSHIP OF
COMMUNITY
WITH THE PLACE
IDA. Eliza Hoxha
Participatory planning in Africa
We have listened everywhere that com
prehensiveness is a value of democratic so
cieties. Different social, ethnic, gender, age
and cultural groups have various needs and
requests within a neighborhood, city or re
gion. In order to answer such a vast
range of requests of these groups for an
alternative future for everybody, it is very
difficult for a small group of planning ex
perts to accomplish that from the office,
as it used to be done in the past.
Involvement of different groups of inter
est in the process of planning and urban
development known in the world as
“comprehensive planning” has started in
the seventies, when modern paradigm was
fading and when new communication and
planning platforms would appear as a need
to include many different voices for joint
future.
Involvement of community in making the
country was something that started to re
awake the city and its sleeping spirit. It was
something that gradually started to rebuild
the feeling of communities’ affiliation to
the country, considering that they al
ready had the opportunity to be part of a
common journey of development of pieces
of their city. But not only this, local busi
nesses and other social groups were able
to find their place in the visionary frame
work for the future of the country, the
neighborhood or their city, by putting in the
framework their investments and interests
for common public interest. The idea to in
volve in the process of planning and urban
developments communities that have an
influence on the plan and those affected
by the plan caused creation of a commu
nication platform for a consensus on the
future and the common interest, where
everybody has things to say and give.
Within the new context, local authorities
move their focus from service suppliers to
managing of resources and opportunities
for services, even beyond institutional
frameworks, in order to enable common
development of the city.
Kosovo is late in this journey being that
these open and comprehensive process
es for the city started to be promoted only
after the last war. The new legal framework
for Spatial Planning in 2003 promoted
strategic planning as possibility to direct
and manage urban and municipal devel
opments throughout the territory of Koso
vo. According to this law and other bylaws,
the planning process should be open and
inclusive, starting from identification of is
sues and urban diagnosis to the vision for
the future. It often happens for the process
to be open and to have a public debate in
relation to any plan for development of the
city or regulation of a neighborhood, but
they are over by oneway communication,
with a technical professional language and
an exhibition of maps and sketches which
are often distant, unknown, illegible and
sometimes incomprehensible to citizens.
On the other hand, it is important to men
tion that Kosovar legislation on planning
lacks a link that would make it compulsory
for the architect and the planner to be in
volved in partial developments of small
er urban scale, which are more tangible to
the community. Given that the Urban De
velopment Plan is a futurist document,
which guides developments of a city for a
longterm period, it is the regulation
plans that, in a lower scale, bring rules and
criteria for directions of future development
or regulation of former neighborhoods that
are undergoing transformation now.
These plans are the legal basis to issue con
struction permits at the city level, but when
the plan of urbarchitectonic level emerges
the process has difficulties and often im
plementation of plans is also impossible.
This causes loss of urbanism in our cities
every day given that “we have legged far
behind in making places, running after big
constructions”, as White used to say.
Local authorities seem to have given in to
this new pattern of uncontrolled devel
opments, which have started to hinder the
light of the city by an increasing mini
mization of public space at service of com
munity.
“How do we regain the place”?!...
It seems that people have forgotten that
life in the city has a bigger value and weight
in common spaces, in public spaces where
the city celebrates, whirs, breathes and
lives. And they are not involved exactly in
these processes of making these spaces,
where they socialize, fall in love, entertain
or anything else. Usually the design of pub
lic spaces, parks or boulevards in Kosovo
was done through companies engaged by
local authorities, which are more focused
on design and its elements than on the
process. There are cases when urban
landscape in general is determined by a city
“cleaning company” or any other company
that cultivates young plants, which is
also engaged by local authorities. The sec
ond case is more outrageous since apart
Urban development
from citizens, professional community is
also out of the process.
Nevertheless, situation is not all black and
white. There are cases of some movements
in Kosovo cities, where with the initiative
of the civil society or the community itself
partial developments for improvement
of public spaces and creation of a new ur
ban landscape have started.
I would like to share with you my experi
ence with the NGO “Project for Public
Spaces (PPS)” from America, since 1975
“they have helped communities to create
active and vital public spaces” throughout
the world, through open process of vi
sioning and their development. They be
lieve that “ the process of public involve
ment, which defines and responds to
conditions of communities and needs
from the very beginning is one of most crit
ical factors in designing public space”
(PPS). This approach seems very important
for them since at the same time “through
years it strengthened the tradition of
public participation in issues of governance
as democratic practice”.
Supported by the Rockefeller Brothers
Fund, PPS came to Kosovo in 2009, after
a 15 year experience in the region. The PPS
idea for Kosovo was development of ca
pacities and pilotprojects. Two projects
were conducted, the one in Peja with the
NGOs from Dukagjini region and youth
center “Zoom” as a one day workshop on
the PSS platform as a planning platform
or framework and implementing possibility
in the Kosovar context, as well as the pi
lotproject in Gjilan, park “Arbëria”.
Park “Arbëria”
The process for park “Arbëria” has start
ed in March 2009, when together with the
PPS we conducted a filed observation since
the mayor of the Gjilan Municipality com
municated to us the designated area. Lo
cation “Arbëria” known in Gjilan as “for
mer cattle market” was wasteland, every
body’s and nobody’s space at the same
time. The first analysis in the field con
tributed to our being aware more closely
about space features, its relation to neigh
borhood and the city of Gjilan.
Then, in May 2009, the first workshop was
11
european magazine
Participatory planning in Kosovo
organized where different representatives
of community, local business and social so
ciety took part. They worked in three
groups and produced lists of issues, needs
and their requests to be addressed in fu
ture. In July 2009, the second meeting of
community and other actors was held, with
the purpose of discussing the final list of
issues and their spatial extent. The spatial
diagram or the vision for park “Arbëria” was
presented in the third public meeting in Sep
tember 2009, after consensus between par
ties was reached. After a six months long
process, the Gjilan Municipal Assembly ap
proved the vision for park “Arbëria”. For the
PPS this was simultaneously fulfillment of
their aims and conclusion of their project,
since their work is focused on the process
until consensus on the vision of space is
reached and program of content based on
issues identified together with communi
ty. This document or program framework
could serve now to the Municipality of Gji
lan as a guide to further develop the tech
nical process with professional local actors.
The process of visioning of the park with
community enabled them to be articulat
ed and active in their request to continue
the second stage of the project, which is
ongoing now. During this journey, other ac
tors have expressed their interest to be part
of it. The Muslim community intends to help
the implementation because of their interest
for the space of the boulevard opposite the
mosque, which has a small and insufficient
yard. At the same time, actors of local busi
nesses have shown interest in participat
ing and the Gjilan Municipal Assembly in
tends to carry out some partial investments
there through framework of PublicPrivate
Partnership (PPP). Involvement of banks
through their community fund to crate
spaces – and children playgrounds will also
be present. Lastly, “UNHabitat” will also
be part of the journey of this park to pur
sue the idea of promotion of development
of sustainable spaces in process of its im
plementation. The entire process has many
impacts in respect of relationship of com
munity with the place, increase of re
sponsibility in relation to it, maintenance
and love for it. This kind of process
strengthens and helps development and
promotion of open and democratic insti
tutions, which are close to the citizen and
for the citizen. A success story as this one,
in relation to visioning process and creation
of park “Arbëria”, could be a good lesson
for all of us that participate in planning and
development process of our cities. Only this
way we would be able to build a common
future, where each of us has his role, im
portance and responsibility in the mosaic
of an environment that meets our re
quirements as a community, in the face of
the process of creating an image that would
identify us satisfactorily and in a dignified
manner as a state also. In order to enable
this process to take place in other cities too
and help municipal planners in this respect,
the PPS manual called “How to revive a
place” was translated into Albanian in
March 2011, by the NGO ”UrbaniaK” from
Prishtina.
(Author works in the Faculty of Architec
ture / Department of Urbanism/Prishtina
University)
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Urban development
PLANNED SPATIAL
DEVELOPMENT –
AN INDICATOR
OF COLLECTIVE
AWARENESS – SOCIAL PROGRESS
IDA. Elvida Pallaska
Space is the most valued resource of all
times, which made people fight over it and
which causes fights with modern means
even today. One cannot call manipulations
with space now as accidental, not even un
der justifications for its planning. Al
though this is the twentyfirst century, only
means are different from the ones of the
past used to achieve ownership/possession
over space, from fighting to peaceful
means of electronic format and daily po
litical zigzags today.
I support the theory which says that spa
tial planning is and could be used as in
strument to measure the level of collective
awareness, good governance and level of
democracy in a country.
I support the theory that spatialurban plan
ning/development is politics and vicea
versa, and if spatial and urban plan
ning/development is efficient then prop
er politics is being conducted in that
place, there is good governance and
democracy, and the opposite!
How should it be!
Let us feel good, happy, safe! As far as de
velopment of surroundings we live in is
concerned, we see positive results every
day, that we touch, experience, while go
ing to school, home, work, on foot or by
car.
We should have unhindered view from
windows every morning, a view that
Prishtina 1965
gives optimism, with the sun getting inside
the rooms without being hindered by build
ings, smoke and sooth, and hear birds
singing.
Let us feel safe for our small and teenage
children, old parents, who have a place to
go out to, play, leave behind melancholy,
in the morning, noon or afternoon, be it
summer or winter, in urban open nature
or not.
Let the only challenge of our family be:
Where to spend the afternoon or the week
end, in which park of the city, by rollers or
bicycles, trotinette or on foot, in this na
tional park or the other one, in this lake or
that swimming pool, in this theatre play
or the other one, at the cinema, should we
engage on this voluntarysocial activity or
the other one that makes you be proud of
what you have done!
Let the roads beside our houses be wide
for all cars and let us be free to walk on
pavements, push baby prams to go to nu
merous parks and squares of the city, let
us be able to warm our houses without
feeling guilty of cutting wood, let us
have lights on roads allover, let us see faces
of our fathers and our faces beaming with
pride for achievements of the Kosovar so
ciety, dignified life…, without fear, with
out suffering, without pollution.
Let our officials gather us in numerous halls
of local community offices or municipali
ty in order to ask us about needs, requests
and possibilities to built a beautiful and safe
future together for everybody in the city.
We speak freely and motivated, listen with
attention and are aware that taken deci
sions are the best possible … for all of US!
“The plan” is completed; it has been done
according to our measures, requests and
needs. We pledged to support such im
plementation of the plan and to contribute
while people we chose have carried out
their work, implemented projects with ex
actness and full responsibility!
Everybody in the planet feels good, hap
py and safe in the environment we live in!
What about today?
We are every day discontent with unex
pected situations in our neighborhood, city
and municipality. We feel unsafe and dis
gusted every day about and with the sur
rounding we live in, with those that can
protect our living surrounding but do not
see it as their priority!
Roads and pavements overwhelmed by
cars, lack of security to cross the road, plen
ty of concrete and asphalt instead of green
areas, uncontrolled restrictions of power
supply, broken traffic lights, buildings
that occupy pavements, cutting of trees in
city roads up to their trunk, cutting of en
tire trunk because of a kiosk located
nearby, cutting of a decade old forest in or
Prishtina 2008 (Origin IPH)
Urban development
13
Aerial photo of Prishtina
der to build a collective block of flats, over
all wood cutting only for heating not for
any wood processing factory, diversified en
vironment pollution, immense space swal
lowing … In the name of development
(read: construction).
Nowadays in Kosovo we experience enor
mous and quick changes of city views, AD
HOC and inertia driven changes….
Nobody asks the citizen, whereas public
debates as an instrument of transparence
and inclusiveness prove, where the best
possible version of the plan should be out
laid, are very formal and mismanaged and
are done only for the sake of reports and
minutes, which is a legal obligation.
On the other hand, we cannot even speak
about implementation of plans that are not
applicable, for example spatial plans, al
though they should have been an overview
of municipal development plans and used
to draft municipal development strategies,
annual work plans, creation of annual draft
budget plans as stages of plan imple
mentations, they are used only to meet a
legal obligation and have one more ten
der at disposal …
On the other hand, while plans are not
used, they are abused in Kosovo and are
subject to change under the pretext of dy
namic and strategic planning and oppor
tunities to change them based on “ground
ed multiple justification” which is usual
ly “absent” in Kosovo….
Of course, when it comes to an AD HOC
change of plans, we will conduct an anal
ogy with good lawyers who use gaps and
ambiguities of laws in order to win judi
cial cases, whereas planners together
with municipal officials change greatly spa
tial and urban plans, in an unprofession
al and intentional manner for concrete gain.
This happened in most municipalities of
Visioning of the future
european magazine
Kosovo, by using the Law on Spatial
Planning, lack of other legal acts supporting
the law, ambiguity and lack of clarity of
spatialmunicipalurban plans, through
their “dignified” use to conduct numerous
changes for private interest, the interest of
the political elite, thus by greatly chang
ing plans APPROVED by their municipal as
semblies.
In a meeting of planners’ forum with the
topic “What about the legalization process
of illegal objects in Kosovo”, where after
plenty of facts emerged an urgent need to
determine a measure of allowing changes
of spatialmunicipalurban plan and reg
ulation urban plan by the Law on spatial
planning in the name of the same “spa
tial and urban plan”.
The same informal meeting of planners’
community came forward with the need
for greater support of politics, as the first
measure, as well as setting of instruments
to measure the percentage of changes in
a plan together with their implementation!
Referring to Kosovo, this is a very acute and
important problem, but it is beyond any
doubt that this happened in other coun
tries in transition too!
For example: A regulation plan in a mu
nicipality in Kosovo, recently approved by
the Municipal Assembly (electronically),
was subject to change two or three times,
depending on the need to grant urban per
mits for several collective buildings, where
as in the initial official version approved
by the Municipal Assembly the respective
space was a vacant green area.
We are aware of what one can do by us
ing programs CAD and GIS, if the final ver
sion of the plan approved by the Munici
pal Assembly is not preserved in hard copy,
is not printed, bound, sealed and archived
to serve as reference to any other later
changes, but granted permit always refers
to the “official” changed plan, whereas civ
il society is silent… and this suits officials…
Such phenomenon will maybe spread,
while renewaloverbuilding of plans has
been foreseen by law to be carried out
every five years. This plan overbuilding
should only adjust to alienated and created
situation every day..
I wonder whether, after some time, we will
be interested to know who gains and who
loses in these cases? I wonder whether
european magazine
14
Urban development
such phenomena caused the population to
fall in collective apathy, consequently
leading to refusal to take part in local and
central elections in future, with absence of
activity in an organized manner as civil so
ciety, because anyway nobody cares about
them?
Developed countries possess
advanced societies
Advanced societies are included from the
start of the planning process, require
transparency in fulfilling interests of majority
of society, are allies but also a mean or
“watchdogs” of their governments. This is
how it should be in Kosovo too, where ma
jority of society represented through or
ganized groups of interest or as individu
als have a role to play in every plan
change, implementation and monitoring.
If an unplanned thing changes the course
of development without the involvement
of society, it should not be good, neither
for planning managers nor for political
leaders.
In the context of implementation of plans,
accountability and influences on daily
politics, one of challenges of the developed
world nowadays is what has bigger impact,
daily politics followed by officials on dai
ly basis1 or of politicians with longer
course of action!
So, this is the reason why spatialurban
planning is efficient: proper policy that
chooses to conduct good governance, by
respecting democracy, its principles, oth
erwise where there is no democracy,
there is no good governance or efficient
Triangle of Economic Development in Kosovo
planning. In line with this, there is the tau
tology: “Efficient spatialurban planning
represents high level of democracy in a
country”!
In conditions of transition and political and
social uncertainty, Kosovo fails to institu
tionally support the planning process in the
country, starting from the fact that spatial
planning is NOT a priority yet, even one
decade after the war!
On an occasion Mr. Cendrowicz – official
for Kosovo issue in the Directorate for Ex
pansion of the European Commission, who
is responsible for the drafting of the
Progress Report for Kosovo, responding to
the question whether spatial planning is
an evaluation topic, gave a positive answer
adding that the (dis)course of priority set
ting by the Government of Kosovo is as
sessed too!
While a successful plan is progress, ful
fillment of interests and objectives it has
been created for, and comprehensive and
supported plan would result with 1+1=3,
therefore at least one more fulfillment out
of those planned, whereas in Kosovo
now we anyway have 1+1<2.
(Author is lecturer in the European Uni
versity in Prishtina and works as architect
urban planner in the Institute for Spatial
Planning)
Democracy in process!
1
For example: with the change of the plan without consen
sus or control, or (not) granting of permits as a daily task
Urban development
15
european magazine
REGIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
IN KOSOVO
IDA Faton Deva
(Scheme of Kosovo division into development zones of similar potentials and development characteristics)
Study from aspect of Strategic Spatial
Planning in Kosovo and of interest to ap
proximation and membership in the Eu
ropean Union (or observation of EU
regulations in member states)
Which are planning levels in
Kosovo?
According to the Constitution, there are
two administration levels in Kosovo.
Based on the Law on Spatial Planning no.
2003/14 and the Law on its amendment
no. 03/L106, on the entire and certain
territorial space, strategic plans are
drafted: space plans for the central lev
el and development and urban plans for
municipal (local) level.
What is strategic planning?
Differently from overall planning destined
at surfaces, strategic planning, like in all
developed countries, is drafted by con
sidering challenges and issues, namely
their certain indicators. These indicators
show attained level for certain informa
tion, from any thematic field (social, eco
nomic, environmental) or of different sec
tors within them. In Kosovo, like else
where in the world, such indicators are
more credible when secured and provided
by official census of population and
material goods, by central authority of
statistics. Credible indicators are also con
sidered to be the data deriving from re
searches – scientific studies and from dif
ferent surveys based on reliable official
information, which cannot be ensured di
rectly from the abovementioned au
thority.
Are there correct divisions of statis vision of territory of Kosovo in an exact
number of regions, in the beginning the
tical regions in Kosovo?
Fortunately or unfortunately, in Kosovo
there may be drafted strategic plans for
both mentioned levels (central and mu
nicipal), based on applicable legisla
tion and collection of reliable statistical
data. Kosovar planners (but also politi
cians), if they want to draft a plan –
strategic development project (positive
increase of the value of any indicator) of
a certain region (area), they cannot be
sure their data are reliable. The reason be
hind this further processing of data ob
tained from the municipal level, name
ly their inadequate (irrelevant) grouping
in regions designated by the Statistical
Office of Kosovo (SOK). Currently group
ings of data (information) in regions are
inherited and irregular because they
are divided in seven regions for several
certain sectors, whereas other sectors are
divided in 6 and 5 of them. It is neces
sary to mend this irregularity and this is
also verified by long announced SOK re
quirements that are addressed to the
Kosovo Government and Assembly, in or
der to conduct correct and official divi
sion of statistical regions.
How does this function in EU
member states?
From the viewpoint of approximation to
EU, like all member states of this Euro
pean family, activities of the Government
of the Republic of Kosovo should also be
in full compliance and accordance with
policies and regulations of this commu
nity. In this case, it is necessary to em
phasize the need and requirement for di
status of statistical regions, which in the
EU are known as NUTS – Nomenclature
Units for Territorial Statistics.
As it is known, information is obtained from
smaller areas (neighborhoods, local com
munity offices, the village, etc.), but offi
cially it is the municipal level that collects
data in relation to LAN (Local Adminis
trative Nomenclature). Data collection
and their division in statistical regions have
its hierarchy, starting from lower lo
cal/municipal cell towards the high
est/central one. So, from LAN, i.e. munic
ipalities, going up to statistical regions –
wider local space (meaning the district or
county), which is expressed by acronym
NUTS3 and is composed of several mu
nicipalities. Another level of information
sharing in statistical regions is the one ex
pressed by acronym NUTS2, which again
may be local, but is a little wider and is
composed of two (2) or more regions of
the NUTS3 level. Usually, the level de
termined by NUTS1 and NUTS0 is re
served for the central/state level as sta
tistical region, which is at the same time
the territory of entire country and is com
prised of several categorized regions such
as NUTS2 (or in cases when NUTS2 is also
reserved for the central level, then the lo
cal level ends with NUTS3). An exception
to this are countries that are bigger (pop
ulation and territory wise) or federations
belonging to the highest level of statisti
cal region NUTS0, which contain sever
al greater spaces or states (such as lands
in Germany) that are determined as sta
tistical regions by the acronym NUTS1.
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Urban development
Should such a division happen here
too?
By all means, as in all EU member states
and in candidate countries and those as
piring integrations in the EU, Kosovo also
should sooner or later get organized and
determine the division of statistical re
gions. As an issue of curiosity, Croatia has
formalized the division of its territory in
NUTS as an aspiringcandidate country
several years before Slovenia, which
was already member of the European
Union. Why shouldn’t the Republic of
Kosovo use the opportunity to prepare
draft projects for application in joint de
velopment funds, addressed according to
names of different EU policies, such as:
regional, rural, territorial cohesion, traf
fic network and capitals, balanced de
velopment, inter and transborder, in
terregional etc.?
First of all, this regional division should
be organized not only for the sake of ap
plication to joint development plans, but
also because it is an EU requirement, es
pecially of the European Statistical Net
work EUROSTAT (European Statistics) and
ESPON (European Spatial Planning Ob
servation Network), respectively the
network of providing an overview of the
situation of all spatial indicators through
out the territory of the European Union.
All the maps produced to date by ESPON,
which are used by all EU member states,
were based and compiled considering
statistical indicators (data) for the re
gional level NUTS2 and NUTS3. In
short, if we draw a parallel in relation to
the role, responsibility and tasks, such as
the ones that EUROSTAT and ESPON have
at the European level, then the KSO
(Kosovo Statistical Office within the
MPA) and the ISP (the Institute for Spa
tial Planning within the MESP) have the
same tasks at the Kosovar level.
Yet again, there should not be any hes
itation regarding the division of statisti
cal regions in Kosovo, which should
not, by all means, be administrative
too in the beginning, whereas meanwhile
they might assume responsibility and de
cision making role for projects and plans
determined for that region. Establishment
Scheme of the division of Kosovo into zones with similar potentials and characteristics of development
of mini regional assemblies, which is car
ried out by designating delegates from
respective municipalities, strengthens
the decision making role. Representation
of delegation of municipal assembly
members to a certain statistical region
from each represented municipality is
achieved by considering the number of
their population, as the only criterion for
division, which is also valid for EU mem
ber states.
What is the logical division of
statistical regions in Kosovo
according to the EU?
Division of Kosovo in eight (7 + 1 = 8) re
gions for level NUTS3 is based on EU reg
ulations and simple logics. First, due to ex
istence, regular functioning of seven biggest
cities of Kosovo with municipalities sur
rounding them and (plus) one urban cap
ital (with several municipalities divided with
in it), would meet the only criteria (division
of regions as per number of population),
which is used in EU member states.
What document may we refer to in
order to start this regional division?
In the document approved by the Gov
ernment and the Parliament of Kosovo –
Kosovo Spatial Plan 2010 – 2020+
(which is a review of KSP 2005 2015),
in Chapter III – the Framework of Spa
tial Developments that expresses desired
prediction for spatial developments in
Kosovo is built on concept and structure
of future spatial development and its or
ganization.
According to the concept of future spa
tial development (KSP, pages 121 and
122) Kosovo is divided in four typical ar
eas, which have been determined based
on some common features of these ar
eas. These features represent variety
and at the same time are unique for each
one of them, such as: development po
tentials, geographic features and social
and economic activities that are con
ducted in these areas. Names of these ar
eas represent a certain identity that in
clude some of their features, whereas
Urban development
they are presented with different colors
in maps, such as:
• Treasury of Kosovo (Green areas) in
dustrial, service providing and com
mercial– represents the northern part
of Kosovo composed of following mu
nicipalities: Mitrovica, as the main
center, Vushtrri, Skënderaj, Zveçan,
Leposaviq and ZubinPotok, as small
er municipalities, which are in the
neighborhood of Mitrovica.
• The port of Kosovo (Blue area) ad
ministrative, service, commercial, agro
industrial, touristic– represent the
northern part of Kosovo comprised of
following municipalities: Prishtina, as
Kosovo capital and the main center,
Obiliq, F. Kosova, Podujevo, Drenas,
Lypjan and Shtim, which are in the
neighborhood of the city of Prishtina,
regional.
• Kosovo bridges (Yellow spaces) – serv
ice and commercial, agroindustrial and
touristic – represent the southeastern
and southwestern parts of Kosovo,
composed of the following munici
palities: 1) Ferizaj, Shtërpce, Kaçanik,
Gjilan, Viti, Novobërdo and Kamenica,
in the center with the cities of Ferizaj
and Gjilan; 2) Gjakova, Deçan, Rahovec
and Malishevo with Gjakova city in the
center.
• Kosovo gardens (Orange spaces) – cul
turaltouristic, service and commercial,
agroindustrial
represent
western/northwestern and southern
parts of Kosovo, composed of the fol
lowing municipalities: 1) Peja, Klina and
Istog, with the city of Peja in the cen
ter; 2) Prizren, Suhareka and Dra
gash, with the city of Prizren in the cen
ter.
Conclusion!
Finally, apart from the interest of inte
gration in the EU, this regional statisti
cal division should also take place due to
injustice happening to municipalities of
Ferizaj and Gjakova, in relation to ap
plication and winning of development
projects in the Agency for Regional De
velopment, according to which Kosovo
territory is divided in five regions. Such
17
a division is not acceptable to majority
population because it has been inherit
ed by Serbian authorities, which being un
able to govern all regional centers, car
ried out such an adjustment with the pur
pose of ruling easier.
Thus, professional experts of relevant
fields (governmental sector, association
of municipalities, University, business,
NGOs and civil society in general)
should gather together and determine
territorial division of the Republic of Koso
vo in eight statistical regions due to fu
ture developments. Insistence to divide
NUTS3 regions (while the level of regions
NUTS2 remains an option to be deter
mined) that are handled by and belong
to local management and administration
level, does not require big changes of ap
plicable legislation. While the level re
served for the central level, for entire ter
ritory of the Republic of Kosovo and the
mass of its population, can and should
at the same time be the level of NUTS
1 and NUTS0, whereas again level
NUTS2 should be determined between
the central and the local levels, which
may be a division in two wider geo
graphical regions: Dukagjini and Koso
vo Plains.
Nevertheless, the Law on Spatial Planning
should be subject to slight intervention
and it should also be supplemented.
Apart from the institutional development
of the ISP, as the only central coordina
tion authority for spatial planning and de
velopment, rural development and re
gional division (of counties) should be in
cluded too as a level of spatial planning
and development. Then, regional plan
ning and development units will be es
tablished with the passing of time, with
professional selected experts and ISP rep
resentation and also relevant municipality
of the certain region.
Therefore, the division of statistical re
gions would look as follows:
1. The region of the capital with com
posing municipalities: Eastern Pr
ishtina, Southern P., Western P. and
Northern P. (or with their names ac
cording to biggest neighborhoods for
each areamunicipality);
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2. Prishtina region with composing mu
nicipalities: Prishtina, Obiliqi, F. Kosova, Podujevo, Drenas, Shtimje,
Lypjan, Graçanica and Novobërdo, to
which Prishtina is the main regional
center;
3. Mitrovica region with composing mu
nicipalities: Mitrovica, Vushtrri, Skën
deraj, Zveçan, Leposaviq and Zubin
Potoku, as smaller municipalities the
center of which is Mitrovica;
4. Peja region with composing munici
palities: Peja, Klina and Istog, with the
city of Peja at the center;
5. Gjakova region with composing mu
nicipalities: Gjakova, Junik, Deçan, Ra
hovec and Malishevo, with the city of
Gjakova at the center
6. Prizren region with composing mu
nicipalities: Prizren, Suhareka, Ma
musha and Dragash, with the city of
Prizren at the center.
7. Ferizaj region with composing mu
nicipalities: Ferizaj, Shtërpce, Kaçanik,
Han i Elezit, with the city of Ferizaj at
the center, as well as
8. Gjilan region with composing munic
ipalities: Gjilan, Viti, Kllokot, Partesh,
Ranillug and Kamenica, with the city
of Gjilan at the center.
Conclusion
Such strengthening of Kosovo in re
gions NUTS3 (districts or counties),
with their centers (Prishtina the capital,
the county of Prishtina, the county of
Mitrovica, the county of Gjilan, the
county of Ferizaj, the county of Peja, the
county of Gjakova and the county of
Prizren) would make easier the collection
and overview of data in a certain space.
Further, state, regional, sectional strate
gies etc., may be drafted based on these
data. Finally, reasonable, strong and
widely accepted plans and projects are
drafted – whose only aim is: particular
ly the improvement of situation of indi
cators that are at poor level and life of
citizens in general.
(Author works as professional planner in
the Institute for Spatial Planning)
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18
Urban development
QUEST
FOR URBAN
DEVELOPMENT
Flamur Kuçi
Sustainable development
Introduction
The theme of Urbanization is increasing
importance amongst the international
professional and political debate. Obvi
ously there process and the impact and
stress it causes over the limited re
sources are an increasing concern of the
worldwide societies.
The phenomenon is impacting signifi
cantly more in less developed countries,
which previously had lower levels of ur
banization compared to the developed
countries.
Objective
The objective of this paper is to provoke
the reader through few questions trying
to generate reflections over the nature,
direction and dynamics of the urban
ization process that is marking the de
velopment process in countries like Al
bania and Kosova.
The article elaborates on the case of Al
bania, but across the elaboration it lays
some parallels with the situation in
Kosova. In fact, the objective is to see
whether some of the observation on Al
bania could be of any relevance to the
Kosova’s context.
Context
Albania has gone through a dramatic
change of the urbanization process in the
last 20 years. The political and econom
ic changes that followed the ‘wind of
change’ of the ’90 in the Eastern Europe
are marked by the most significant re
forms taken by a government oriented to
ward the free market economy. Indeed,
the most significant reforms of the dem
ocratic government of early ’90 were fo
cused on the privatization process of the
inefficient state enterprises, but also
the privatization of the land. The objec
tive was to establish the fundament of
the free market economy. The liberal
ization of the movement of the popula
tion within the country led to a frenetic
urbanization process oriented toward the
biggest urban centers in the central
western part of the country.
Obviously the process reforming process
toward a free market economy has rec
ognized also set backs like the crisis of
1997 originated at the failure of the ‘pyra
midal’ schemes and evolved in a politi
cal and institutional crisis.
However, in the last 10 years Albania has
entered a solid phase of stabilization and
integration to the European Union, rec
ognizing a new area of the economical
and institutional development of the
country.
Kosova has gone through a different spi
ral of events although there are signifi
cant similarities with the economic, in
stitutional and political format of Alba
nia. Kosova emerged out of the the dis
solution process of the former Yugoslavia,
(where, for historic reasons, was never
comfortably part) accompanied from
dramatic events such as a criminal eth
nic cleansing of the regime of Milosevic
toward the albanian population.
Kosova engaged in reforms that consol
idate the independence with a clear ob
jective of belonging in a near future to
the European Community.
Both countries face challenges in launch
ing a competitive economy based on pro
ductive sector as well as the sector of the
services. Both countries has almost
abandoned (although due to the last 5
years of the market changes of the
prime materials there are some signals
of reconsideration) the heavy industry.
The process of urbanization has been sig
nificant in both countries. Although the
starting points are quite different the ur
banization process has marked the de
velopment of the last 20 years. Obviously
the urbanization imposes considerable
challenges in reconstruction of the in
frastructure and restructuring of the
management system of infrastructure and
services. On the other side the urban
ization process has involved considerable
energies and investments in the central
regions
Quest for Urban Development; Does
planning really make a difference in
Albania
Indeed it would be fundamental to un
derstand whether planning does make
any difference in the development
process in realities like Albania and
Kosova? Has planning the right tools to
face the challenges of development? Is,
in fact, planning managing to influence
economic development of our cities? Or,
we should change and adopt the tools
for an effective planning system?
Albania and Kosova come from a system
of rigid planning centrally based. The eco
nomic resources and distribution, the in
frastructure and investment as well as ba
sic elements of the urban development
were planed at a central level. The com
munist system (although in Albania im
plemented in an orthodox way while Yu
Urban development
goslavia adopted more liberal policies
and instruments) was based in a rigid pe
riodic central planning obsoleting the ba
sic elements of the free market economy.
The approach adopted led to the failure
(especially the Albanian case) of the econ
omy due to impossibility of the socialist
economy to compete in the global econ
omy or at least to interact with the glob
al markets.
During the transition process not much
efforts were devoted to planning initia
tives. In fact the Albanian cities experi
enced the transition in almost total ab
sence of rules and guidance. A large part
of the population living until the 1990 in
the mountainous rural areas, aban
doned these areas heading toward urban
centers in search for better living, em
ployment and education opportunities.
Land. The land reforms undertaken in the
transition period aimed at privatizing
most of the agriculture and urban land
as well as the housing stock in the effort
of establishing the basis for a free land
market and real estate in the country. In
deed the reforms managed to establish
a vivid real estate sector mainly fueled
by the high demand of the urbanization
19
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Participatory planning for sustainable development
process. However, the fragmentation of
the tenure led to scattered, fragmented
and unbalanced nature of development.
The land use system has served mainly
in orienting and paving the way to the
construction process, not necessarily in
alliance with the public interest. Indeed
the system has accommodated the de
mand for construction and real estate, but
the entire process has deliberately neg
lected the public interest for public
Open competition for student ideas, organized from Tirana municipality for the lake park area of the city of Tirana
spaces, schools, kindergarten, sport
fields and recreation. It can be conclud
ed that the urban planning system has
provided for a model where the private
interest (in many cases subject to spec
ulation) has prevailed over the public in
terest.
Housing. Housing sector restructuring
aimed at shifting the role of the gov
ernment from a direct housing provider
into a facilitator of the service that at best
creates the basis for affordable housing
for especially low income people. The new
role implies better organizing capacities
of the government. In the absence of such
capacities housing has become less ac
cessible leading to an explosion of the
‘selfprovision’ approach, that results
mainly in low quality housing provision
mostly of informal and illegal nature.
Informal developments. Albania counts
around 320.000 informal/illegal
dwellings. Some 250.000 were addressed
through a legalization reform, which
failed, however, in stopping the phe
nomenon (only in the last 3 years there
has been built some 80.000 more). In fact
the phenomenon is the sole result of the
failure of the housing provision and the
urban planning system. Unless both
systems create an affordable housing and
balanced land development the vicious
circle of the informal development mod
el will prevail and will put at risk the sus
tainability of the urban development of
the country.
Infrastructure. Although lots of efforts
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20
Urban development
Ferizaj (Origin: IPH)
have been put in the decentralization
process, capacities of the local govern
ment remain low. Indeed the investment
and management of the infrastructure is
still a challenge especially for the local
government. In this context the fiscal sys
tem faces difficulties in providing for a
realistic coverage of the operational
costs, not to mention maintenance and
capital investments. The land develop
ment structure need to be changed in or
der to better distribute the benefits of the
development therefore to generate the
right resources to provide for the cover
age of infrastructure and services costs.
Environment. The dynamic and frenetic
urbanization process has been accom
panied by a neglecting attitude toward
the environment. Indeed the changes of
the 1990 meet the albanian society in an
total absence of education over the en
vironmental issues due to the back
ward economic format of Albania that
didi not face environmental debates.
Soon enough the albanian society learned
at own expense the dialectic, sometime
conflictual, between development and
environment.
Economic development. The reforms un
dertaken in the transition period have led
to the opening of the albanian economy
to the global markets. Obviously the re
structuring reforms have generated eco
nomic growth (at a beginning stage even
a two digits growth). Albania’s challenge
is shifting rapidly from generating into
consolidating the economic growth.
However, should be said that urban
planning has never been seen as relevant
to the economic growth. This miscon
ception originates at the narrow physi
cal physiognomy of the traditional urban
planning.
Conclusion
The transition from a centrally planed eco
nomic and political system into a free
market economy and democratic system
has been complex and, unavoidably,
complicated. The shift from a rigid plan
ning approach was followed by a ‘lais
sezfaire’ one. Both the models with very
different results, but commonly not pro
viding the sustainable economic wealth.
The tools of the urban planning system
are insufficient to cope with the in
creasing challenges of the urbanization
process. Indeed instruments of urban
planning need to be sustained with ap
propriate organizing capacities of the lo
cal and central government.
Urban planning exercises should be
abundant and should serve the pur
pose to lead public and private invest
ment, rather then serve only at the nar
row purpose of construction process.
Urban plans should provide compre
hensive models of organizing the
space, but even more; should be the
appropriate grounds to organize the ac
tions needed to create quality living
centers.
The emerging crucial point is the need
to address urban planning as a complex
tool (i) to generate economic growth and
employment (ii) protect and develop en
vironment (iii) provide the ground for bal
anced public and private land develop
ment. Integrating these dimensions in
the urban planning system through
comprehensive view for urban devel
opment will make sure that Urban Plan
ning will make a difference in the Eco
nomic, Social and Environmental de
velopment process in societies like Al
bania and Kosova.
(Author is advisor for Territory
and Property Issues to the
Prime Minister of Albania)
Gjakova (Origin: IPH)
Urban development
21
european magazine
IMPORTANCE
OR NEGLECT
OF SPATIAL
AND URBAN
PLANNING IN
KOSOVO
Ark. Hidajete Zhuri
Achievements of European Union in the
area of spatial planning are an excellent
guide for development of urban settings
in our areas. If our aim is to really be in
tegrated into Europe, then we need a
quality system of spatial and urban
planning.
Member states of European Union have
no unique approach towards spatial
planning, but there are some common
principles that are followed by everybody
and which are summarized in the docu
ment “European Spatial Development
Perspective” (ESDP). These principles
are as follows: social and economic co
hesion; preservation and management of
natural and cultural heritage, as well as
balanced competition of the European
territory.
Despite the fact that it is not compulsory,
ESDP is a document signed by ministers re
sponsible for regional planning of European
Union member states, which tells about the
influence of this document in spatial
planning policies in regions of Europe and
in member states, thus creating precon
ditions for sustainable and balanced de
velopment of European territory.
Therefore, planner should understand the
essence of expression “sustainable de
velopment”, which is reflected in under
standing of system of values, way of liv
ing, rapport towards natural sources and
living environment, and, in general, rap
port towards space and way of living in it.
Now, from European spatial planning let
us focus our attention on the other lev
el – urban planning in Kosovo. Empha
size should be put on some values be
cause their nonrecognition or neglect
causes the process of urban development
Kosovo parliament, approval of the strategic development documents
to result with nonfunctional urban
spaces that lack quality.
The current situation in Kosovo may be
characterized as being chaotic, namely
about the high time that the few re
maining spaces and resources are pre
serves, whereas the degraded ones are
rehabilitated.
In the first years of international ad
ministration in Kosovo, it could not be ex
pected that urban planning would be giv
en priority since focus was on more ur
gent issues. The wish of individuals to
build, no irrespective of the damage
caused to the environment and the pub
lic property, was not hindered by the then
administration. On one hand, the surplus
of individual energy to compensate de
ficiencies of the past and inability of in
stitutions to channel that energy, on the
other hand, in an environment with in
complete legal framework and devel
oping institutions, undoubtedly was re
flected in unplanned and uncontrolled ur
ban developments. Institutional and le
gal framework was created to the func
tion of spatial planning and manage
ment. Within the Ministry of Environment
and Spatial Planning was established the
Department for Spatial Planning (in
2002), the Institute for Spatial Planning
(in 2003), and the Law on Spatial Plan
ning, the Law on Construction and ad
ministrative instructions augmenting
these laws were drafted, and also oth
er laws and institutions.
Spatial and urban planning
documents
Despite great difficulties, law imple
mentation is necessary. Urban prob
lems, such as heavy traffic, urban trans
port, illegal construction, unemploy
ment and many others are also ad
dressed through spatial and urban plans.
Although late, several spatial and urban
plans of the central and the local level
have been approved. Following many ef
forts and prolongations, the Assembly of
Kosovo has this year approved the Spa
tial Plan of Kosovo as a multisectional
strategic plan, which determines long
term aims of spatial planning for the ter
ritory of Kosovo for a fifteen year period.
Whereas, when it comes to local level,
spatial and urban plans have also been
approved by the municipalities of Peja,
Gjakova, Gjilan, etc. It is worth men
tioning that despite being established
only two years before, the municipality
of Junik also has such plans. However,
there are still municipalities that dialed
to draft their spatial plans. Although their
issuance is compulsory within a certain
due term, the law fails to foresee puni
tive measures for delays or the failure to
draft them.
Several regulation urban plans, which ac
cording to the definition should have
been detailed plans for inhabited surfaces
or other areas where construction is to
take place, were drafted for certain ar
eas of Kosovo cities and were present
ed in public debates. The Municipal As
sembly of Prishtina approved several of
them, such as “Vellusha”, “Qyteza Pej
ton”, “Dardania”, “Lakërishte” etc.
But, do these plans correspond to real
ity? Can they be implemented at the
same level they are drafted? Were they
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subject to supervision during the draft
ing process? There are also other ques
tions that seek answers.
The entire process and responsibilities un
til the regulation urban plans have been
approved are described in the Law on
Spatial Planning. But, the content, as well
as the manner of presentation of draft
ed plans in most cases are not in com
pliance with determined legal conditions,
even, on many occasions, with the cur
rent situation of the surface to be regu
lated. Why? Maybe the low budget des
ignated for their drafting may be one of
causes that the quality is poor. Never
theless, irrespective of quality, those
plans are approved and, as such, remain
in drawers, inapplicable.
Aiming to achieve the product within a
very short period of time, no matter what
it may be, there are whole steps bypassed
or formally passed despite them being im
portant for the planning chain. Avoiding
comprehensive planning, as well as
noninvolvement or formal involvement
of citizens in the process of identification
of problems and addressing of their
needs, resulted with unreasonable and
unsustainable solutions. Also, the dia
logue between representatives of central
and local authorities, experts of urban de
velopment field, as well as citizens,
does not result to be productive given
that involved parties are not clearly
identified with their interests and do not
protect them sufficiently with necessary
arguments. This lack of culture of dia
logue, as well as the low level of trans
parence and accountability, makes plans
inapplicable and nobody is held re
sponsible for such anomalies.
Drafting of applicable plans is a real chal
lenge because the planning process re
quires a multidimensional approach and
responsibility of all actors. A good man
aged process requires from the local lev
el possession of an elaborated commu
nication strategy with citizens, by con
sulting them also about concrete solu
tions, and by organizing wide informa
tion through print and electronic media.
The public debates with citizens, experts
and other factors should be moderated
in a professional manner in order to en
sure that participants provide their con
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Urban development
tribution, by expressing real interests of
groups they represent.
Whereas, drafters of plans should respect
legal requirements for the content and
graphic presentation of the plan, inclu
sion of community in early stages of the
plan drafting, until the consensus, co
operation with local and central level ac
tors, as well as transparency criteria are
reached.
The central level (MESP) should organ
ize discussions with key actors in relation
to possible legal obstructions during
the drafting process of urban regulation
plans, their addressing, inspection su
pervision during the process of plan
drafting, etc.
Control of developments
The joint Committee of MESPMPALG on
the review of lawfulness of acts issued
by municipal assemblies in the area of ur
ban and rural planning has been oper
ational for a year and a half now. The
chain of information and compulsory re
porting in different levels should be at the
service of constant following and
progress of every initiative for develop
ments of urban planning in municipali
ties. But, there are difficulties in secur
ing information on all developments
since not all municipalities report on the
work they do. Thus, for example, the
Committee received acts from some
municipalities, but non whatsoever from
the Municipality of Prishtina, although it
is widely known that the Municipal As
sembly has issued several decisions per
taining to this field. This shows that ur
ban planning is an area where more work
should be done in respect of law en
forcement.
Institutional negligence or...?
In spite of engagement on building the
institutional and legal basis for spatial
and urban planning, the problem cov
ering this area is not dealt with by de
velopment documents of Kosovo issued
in the last years, thus failing to recognize
its importance for the future of the
country. Also the Constitution of the Re
public of Kosovo does not refer to spa
tial planning, differently from the Con
stitutional Framework for Provisional
SelfGovernance which used toe deter
mine responsibility in this area. The Pro
gram of the Government of the Repub
lic of Kosovo 20112014, is based on four
main pillars, such as: 1) Sustainable
economic development; 2) Good gover
nance and strengthening of rule of law;
3) Development of human capital; as well
4) Social welfare. The first pillar of this
program includes aims of the Govern
ment for publicprivate partnerships, in
cluding meeting of requirements for
public services by municipal authorities
in urban transportation, public parking
lots, sport, recreation activities and cul
ture, as well as garbage collection. But,
although a spatial or urban plan should
precede establishment of such partner
ships, the Government Program fails to
address spatial planning in none of four
pillars. Development Strategic Plan of the
Ministry of Environment and Spatial
Planning 20112014, approved by the
Government in July 2011, among eight
strategic objectives lists strengthening of
spatial planning as the third one. But,
new organizational structure of the
MESP, which is executor of this plan, fore
sees merging of Department of Spatial
Planning and Department of Construction
and Habitation, which has an impact on
reduction of the capacity of the Ministry
to manage an important aspect of its
functioning, which, ironically, is part of
the name of the Ministry.
The known saying “failing in planning
means planning failure”, although de
veloped by business community in the
seventies, is in any case valid for spatial
and urban planning too. This is proven by
the up to now experience in Kosovo,
where absence of such plans resulted in
urban chaos in cities, environment pol
lution, degradation of agricultural land
and forests, limitation of opportunities to
build quality roads, and many other
negative effects that impact the quality
of life of the citizen and the potential of
the country for sustainable economic and
social development.
(Author works in the Department of Spa
tial Planning, the Ministry of Environment
and Spatial Planning)
Urban development
23
european magazine
DEVELOPMENT
OF PUBLIC
SPACE IN
KOSOVO
THROUGH
HISTORY
Ark. Ilir Gjinolli
Public space in general is understood as
space where we can freely and on equal
basis gather together within the legal
framework. Public space is characterized
with its opening. In principle, every its
members can participate in everything
that happens there, depending on his or
her choice. Public space is not open only
to powerful people. It belongs to every
body equally – all of them are its own
ers.
Public space is governed by the law not
by individuals or entities.
In recent years, the value of public
space reached highest levels of politics.
The interest of the top of politics reflects
an increasing perception for public space
as public service. There is also evidence
that public space may bring profit – be
it economic, social or environmental.
In general, creation of public space is at
tributed to the need for:
• Public spaces as an area to conduct
economic activities – trade and serv
ices.
• Public space as culture and public
events space
• Public space as leisure space
• Public space as representative space.
1. DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC SPACE
IN KOSOVO THROUGH HISTORY
1.1 ORIGIN – Building of urban struc
ture was undoubtedly conditioned by cre
ation of public space, respectively divi
sion of private space from the one ded
icated to public. In most cities of Koso
vo it is possible to distinguish historical
layering of forms of public space char
acteristic for different periods of histor
Public space in Peja
ical development they have gone
through.
Given that all cities of Kosovo, in the form
and location as we find them today, have
been established in the period of Ot
toman Empire, the genesis of public space
may be attributed to fundamental needs
of citizens for economic activities, such
as trade and craftsmanship on one hand
and other needs, such as religion, other
public services – administration, educa
tion, recreation activities and economic
ones – such as markets, Bezistan pas
sages and inns, which were built by pub
lic income through waqf, altogether
called ‘kyllije’(in Turkish külliye” whole).
One kyllije was composed of a mosque,
around which were built the madrasah,
hospital, library, ham am, inn, bezistan
and basic forms of public space were
formed çarshiacommercial/handicraft
road and bazaarcity market.
1.2 POSTOTTOMAN PERIOD – be
tween two wars, brings to Kosovo a tran
sition that was not caused solely by war
and occupation of Kosovo by Serbia, but
also by the change of economic and so
cial system of the Ottoman Empire since
economic, social and cultural ties with the
former Empire – Republic of Turkey were
not severed. This period marks the cre
ation of first public spaces for culture and
public events.
1.3 THE PERIOD AFTER THE SECOND
WORLD WAR –the period of socialism in
former Yugoslavia, modernization age
saw the appearance of three ways of in
tervention in space – new parts of the city
were developed in the form of territory
annexation, existing urban structure
was transformed or reconstructed and the
old urban part was revitalized as in the
case of Çarshia e Gjakovës.
In this period, public space is expanded
also with public space for recreation and
representative activities of the city, with
the purpose of glorifying the socialist
state dedicated not to the individual but
to the ‘society’.
New buildings mainly brought forms of
public space of modern city, which were
concentrated more on physical and visual
dimension, light and insulation, without
taking into account the perceptual and
social dimension and the need for in
teraction between people – friendship,
communication and involvement in ac
tivities, which take part in public space.
We are able to see these phenomena in
planned residential neighborhoods in Pr
ishtina and other cities. What in most cas
es is considered as a result is the absence
of people and consequently mainte
nance.
2. CURRENT PROBLEMS OF CITIES
IN RELATION TO PUBLIC SPACE –
Transition after the war in 1999 brought
the third stage of modernization – lib
eralization in urban development. Usu
ally liberalization brings few changes or
ganized in urban historical structure. Lo
cal governance authorities failed to suc
cessfully manage liberal city development
in Kosovo cities. This was mainly caused
as consequence of difficulties in imple
menting applicable laws and influence of
certain groups of interest, which did not
allow control over construction.
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Urban development
2.1 MISTAKES OF THE PAST
All Kosovo cities are faced with mistakes
of the past, caused by wars, change of
economic and social system, economic,
social and cultural downgrade. These
changes were manifested through un
controllable construction – with or with
out a plan, but without a vision, thus
building the new one over the old one.
Nonunderstanding of importance of
preservation of built architectonic and ur
ban heritage caused massive loss of his
torical urban part, including public space
– especially çarshia, as essential space
for social interaction of people.
Unkempt, often with ugly constructions,
attacked by usurpers and traffic motor ve
hicles, public space is often regarded as
‘someone else’s problem’ (Douglas
Adams).
2.2 SPECULATIONS ON LAND
OWNERSHIP
Public space has also been damaged due
to lack of clear legal framework for the
return/compensations of properties that
were taken during different periods of
governance in Kosovo. In most cases,
such properties, which used to be pub
lic spaces, were speculatively returned to
owners and buildings were constructed
there, which shrank even more the pub
lic space of the city.
2.3 UNCONTROLLABLE LIBERAL
CONSTRUCTION
The uncontrollable liberal development
of the city caused very low standard con
structions. In regard with quality of con
struction and construction index – when
it comes to constructed surface and un
occupied surface, the latter remains
very small. It serves only for installment
of underground infrastructure and cre
ation of travelling corridors mainly ded
icated to motor vehicles traffic, where
as during its planning people usually re
main ‘invisible’.
2.4 OCCUPIED PUBLIC SPACES
In transition periods in cities, the phe
nomenon of occupation of public space
is common. In absence of rule of law,
public space is occupied for personal or
Public space in Peja
group gains by constructing temporary
or ‘permanent’ buildings. Such a phe
nomenon took place in Kosovo too. But
drastic occupation of public space is con
ducted by cars, which occupy public space
to move and park, thus turning social
space into space for traffic. Increased
number of cars after the war in Kosovo
caused great problems to municipal au
thorities because they failed to provide
successful solutions to pedestrians’ mov
ing, vehicle traffic and parking.
2.5 REGAINING OF PUBLIC SPACE
Following changes in economic and so
cial system, cities have inherited de
graded spaces and also spaces whose
function has ceased. Regaining of pub
lic space is mainly directed toward
spaces occupied by cars.
In general, in relation to usurpation of
public space, what has slowly started to
become practice in Kosovo cities is return
to and taking care of usurped public
space abused by municipal govern
ments. Although they have just started,
municipal governments consider that re
gaining of public space for the use by
public and for the public is necessary. This
has also to do with political gain, because
every improvement in the public sector
affects the awareness of citizens and their
expectations from the government they
have voted for.
There are such developments which can
be considered as successful examples
from the point of view of encouraging in
terest for public space.
• PRISHTINA – Turning of boulevard
“Nënë Tereza” in Prishtina into a free
from motor traffic boulevard – an un
finished project that could be consid
ered as one of the greatest successes
of the municipal governance in relation
to public space. This transformation
brought many benefits – in social as
pect, citizens have gained space where
they can walk freely, communicate, rest,
do shopping and also take part in all
events that are organized during hol
idays, fairs or other celebrations. In as
pect of environment, traffic – smoke
pollution and noise are almost elimi
nated.
In economic aspect, not only that it in
creased revenues of businesses locat
ed in the boulevard but it also con
tributed to multifold increase of value
of apartments and business premises.
• PEJA – Turning of Peja’s walking area
into an area for pedestrians and free
ing of the boulevard from car parking.
Although disputed by business com
munity of that part of the city, this
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Mother Teresa boulevard
transformation proved to be very use
ful in all aspects – social, environmental
and economic, especially given that all
shops saw an increase of income. In
this project supported by the “UNHabi
tati”, participation process – especially
consultations with business community
that had biggest doubts about the suc
cess of the project should be com
mended.
• GJILAN – A project about regulation
of Mirusha river bed is ongoing in Gji
lan. The project is composed of three
elements – the environment element
– city sewage and creation of a green
belt throughout territory of the city, the
social element – the 4 kilometers riv
er bank will be turned into recreation
area – for walking, jogging, cycling and
resting, as well as the economic ele
ment, where owners will be allowed to
open small business to support activ
ities around the river. In spite of lack
of support by the central government,
the local government is committed to
implement this project by selffunding.
2.6 DESIGN
While the desire and ideas to advance
public space in Kosovo cities are already
present as part of governing policies, the
quality of design is still at a very low lev
el. With exception of few cases, most of
interventions are ad hoc, with superficial
design and without being based on
modern principles of urban design and
landscape design. Poor quality origi
nates from lack of professional urban
planners and very limited experience in
urban design. In most cases it is formal,
nontransparent and affected by rigid
public procurement procedures. Com
petitions of urban design, which are or
ganized to this end, are usually with short
deadlines, unclear tasks and nontrans
parent selection process conducted by in
competent evaluators.
Prishtina Municipality has announced
competition for “Boulevard of Inde
pendence” four times. In the last com
petition selected proposal won in a
competition with one more proposal. This
shows that current manner of organiz
ing public competitions is not attractive
for architects and urban planners. An
other shortcoming should be added to
this. Prishtina, as capital of a new Eu
ropean country, should organize inter
national competitions when it comes to
important public projects. Such events
are a good opportunity to promote the
city but also the state. We have to con
clude that projects funded by serious
donors such as USAID, EC, UNHabitat,
do not represent successful practice
that could serve as example in relation
to the process or urban design of pub
lic space.
3. PUBLIC SPACE MANAGEMENT
M.Carmona, in its book on dimension of
public space management concludes
that “...all public spaces, irrespective how
comprehensive and democratic they
may be, need some forms of manage
ment, which enable effective realization
of their role. The idea of public space and
management of public space is neces
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sarily interrelated to public sector, name
ly local governance”. According to him,
there are four management elements that
should be considered by local govern
ments:
a) Regulation of use of space formally
or by sanctioning practices. This implies
a regulation framework on how to use
public space, solution of conflicts be
tween different functions and determi
nation of which behavior is allowed in
public space and which not. The manner
of understanding and supporting rules
is of vital importance for public space.
This segment has not been regulated yet
in our local governments. There are no
municipal regulations which determine
the manner of public space use and what
functions can be carried out in what
place, the time of use and benefits, be
them public or private. For example, mu
nicipalities often allow or disallow use
of public space for public related eco
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nomic activities, but they could never
stop parking on sidewalks that should
be considered usurpation of public
space.
b) Maintenance of physical compo
nents in public space. This implies the
public space that is unused, clean and
safe, maintenance of urban layout,
lighting, green spaces and all equipment
of urban inventory. With rare exceptions,
generally our public spaces are not
maintained well and are often subject to
vandal actions.
c) New investments in public space and
forms of investment, which enable
space to always be attractive and re
newed with new interventions. Cur
rently, there is no successful tried prac
tice of allocation of financial resources
– be it from the budget of municipalities
or supported by other sources – public
private partnerships or contribution of
international agencies that support ur
Mother Teresa boulevard
ban development in public domain.
Municipalities should find the formula for
investment funding in renewing public
space through the use of all instruments
allowed by the process of municipal
budget projections, including public
partnership forms and concessions with
private investors.
d) Coordination of interventions in
public space – During past ten years, we
often saw direct or indirect uncoordi
nated interventions of persons and or
ganizations. This coordination should be
applied in all levels and layers of gov
ernance – within municipal depart
ments, municipality and central gov
ernment, as well as development agen
cies and civil society.
(Author works in the Faculty of Archi
tecture/Department of Urbanism/Uni
versity of Prishtina, also heads projection
company Urban +)
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ADVANTAGES OF
INTER-BORDER
COOPERATION
TOWARDS
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF
WESTERN BALKANS
Ark. Ilirjana A. Mejzini
In every country of the world, capitals are
the instigating development force, where
infrastructure is more advanced, more
productive population is in greater con
centration, where schools, cinemas, the
atres may be chosen … “a place where
everything happens”. Lucky for cities lo
cated in its vicinity because they are any
how influenced by reciprocity with the
capital, but is life as attractive to more
suburban communities and dwelling
places?! In most developed countries of
Europe this doubt started to be dealt with
by in the seventies. City communities lo
cated further from the capital started to
search for possibilities of meeting their
needs through interborder coopera
tion, through which elimination of bor
der barriers was gradually achieved,
thus resulting in interregional develop
ments and full freedom of movement in
every corner of the EU.
If we superficially look back to the back
ground of Western Balkans nations,
who in the world would need such co
operation experiences to break segre
gation taboos, which always caused
difficulties not only to freedom of move
ment but also to enjoyment of basic hu
man rights to live and work. Although lo
cated in the triangle RomeConstan
tinople and Athens, which symbolized the
center of European civilization, the West
ern Balkans is still identified by the
nickname “black spot” of the old conti
nent. There are numerous reasons behind
this, but thanks to novelties for access to
knowledge, they are becoming easier un
derstandable. First, for centuries it was
a meeting place of empires, social iden
Sharri mountains
tity of communities suffered changes and
impositions, even within a city. The more
centuries allowed combinations (varia
tions) between components of lan
guages, language dialects and religious
sects, the more differences that divided
citizens and ancient dwelling places
were born, up to the point when such dis
tinctions caused the First World War in the
heart of the Western Balkans. It was the
land of the Western Balkans the one
where the entire world, after five decades
of “Balkan peace”, came together to put
an end to devastating cannons of one
ethnicity directed against the other one
for almost a decade. Besides the com
munities, the heritage of world treasure,
such as the ancient city of Dubrovnik, Dio
cletian Palace or the Mostar Bridge,
which linked empires for centuries, suf
fered too. Unfortunately, consequences
of Balkan border divisions are still not let
ting the region at peace. The only hope
is the European Union, which by open
ing doors for integration, will encourage
divided communities to reach benefits the
EU countries gained through interbor
der cooperation.
In the last two decades, the biggest EU
allocated funds were dedicated to
strengthening of interborder areas and
these funds were managed jointly by two
or more countries in order to fulfill joint
development projects. Typical experi
ence of such cooperation proved to be
very efficient in the region of Oresund,
which covered territories of Denmark and
Scandinavian Peninsula, especially after
building of the gigantic bridge connect
ing Copenhagen and Malmo. Despite be
ing located very far from its capital
Stockholm, Malmo, through its cooper
ation with Copenhagen, was developed
in many urban and spatial aspects. It is
worth mentioning the phenomenon of
daily travel of a great number of inhab
itants of both sides of the bridge, who
used to work in the metropolis of Copen
hagen, but chose to live in modern
dwelling compounds in Malmo. Both
Danes and Swedes benefitted from urban
interborder cooperation, thus managing
to ensure for themselves comfort and
quality by living in the quiet city of Mal
mo and using more ample opportunities
of advanced employment that a capital
like Copenhagen can offer. Another ex
ample are cities of the AlpsAdriatic re
gion, (Trieste in Italy, Graz in Austria,
Khoper in Slovenia and Rijeka in Croat
ia), up to 200 km far from one another,
which were enabled to enjoy reciprocal
support of their development perspectives
through joint interurban projects, by
combining local resources of each loca
tion in favor of the entire region.
Thinking about current barricades on
Mitrovica and “other hot spots” or in
terethnic and interreligious “Jerusalems”
in every part of the Balkans, interborder
cooperation sounds like utopia. Devel
opment of science and technology is in
fluencing many aspects of life by mak
ing communication easier towards glob
alization as an unstoppable process.
With admission of Croatia in the Euro
pean Union, “the black spot” is getting
nearer Europe, to which it will cause in
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ability to reach spatial cohesion and bal
anced development. It is time to effi
ciently use EU initiatives for potential in
tegration countries, known as IPA (In
strument of PreAssociation), a compo
nent of which is interborder cooperation.
An assessment of multidisciplinary pos
sibilities for cooperation in identifying mu
tual stagnations should be carried out,
by providing space for action to initiatives
for economic development, which will di
rectly influence the increase of material
basis. Optimal economic security will re
sult in social welfare, which would cre
ate “milder” climate for communities to
enjoy good neighboring relations and tol
erance in the unstoppable process of
globalization. Feudal divisions will be re
placed by the synergy of social diversi
ty in solving mutual challenges and in ef
ficiently using common local resources,
in order to achieve continuous regional
development and prosperity.
The community, as the main benefactor,
should be aware of opportunities, that
through common interborder projects
they will be able to absorb funds allo
cated by the EU for different strategic tar
gets. Only thanks to multidimensional
component of interborder cooperation,
there is hope of including handling and
regulation of numerous chaotic devel
opments, both in urban and rural
dwelling places. In many border areas of
the Western Balkans, there is still lack of
basic infrastructure for movement of peo
ple, despite their being faced with sub
urban inferiority, since they are too far
from the capital. To illustrate this, we can
elaborate on the example of territorial in
tegrity around the lakes of Ohrid and
Prespa with cities such as Ohrid, Mana
stir, Florina, Kozan, Korça and Pogradec,
separated by lines that divide lakes in
three countries. They would be able to re
place periphery and distance from dy
namics of capitals by increasing freedom
of movement among themselves, through
common development strategies that
would be based on optimal use of most
unique resources, such as:
two lakes with the national park in the
middle;
areas for winter tourism;
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Urban development
Visual similarity of urban configuration among cities of the Western Balkans
he climate for more profitable agri
cultural, livestock and forest prod
ucts; and
urbanized cities from most ancient
times of mankind, with plenty monu
ments, that seal every historical era of
the Western Balkans.
Connection of entire continental region
with important sea ports would be en
abled by perfect infrastructure of Greece,
as an old member of the EU, namely high
way Florina – Janina – Igumenica. Effi
cient use of infrastructure has an influ
ence on preservation of environment, es
pecially in this case, since there would be
no need to double the road from the
Macedonian part in direction of a short
er exit to Mediterranean.
One of challenges that require complex
and urgent approach is urban manage
ment of cities of the Western Balkans,
which, after many years of transition
phase, suffered an increase of the num
ber of population and uncontrolled ex
pansions. Some cities have suffered so
much degradation that in most of them
it is necessary to use a professional se
rious approach to preserve the urban
“spirit” and their functioning for normal
life of communities. In this case one
should mention capital investments with
zero rules for construction, multiplication
of wires in urban network of energy in
frastructure or illegal connections to
water system network, as well as un
controlled waste disposal too close to the
center.
Common feature of Balkan cities is also
insufficient addressing of cultural her
itage. Above all, one of main challenges
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29
Degradations of urban heritage
remain cemeteries and stopping of their
expansion as a consequence of concen
tration of population in many cities of the
Western Balkans. So many surfaces,
both in the land around cities and also
in villages, are being turned into ceme
teries, so that it is necessary to see an ur
gent and professional intervention of ur
ban planners. By combining professional
capacities of social diversity of the West
ern Balkans, there is hope of identifying
methods and manners to avoid short
comings and at the same time efficient
ly use advantages towards sustainable ur
ban regulation of our cities.
Another phenomenon for interborder
handling is the coastal length of 16 km
of the gorge of the city of Neum, where
the community of Herzegovina region is
faced with many consecutive customs
points and three currencies because
borders were established only consider
ing three religious fractions and three na
tions with the same language, but with
three dialects. Let us not mention the dis
tance of this community from capitals,
having in mind the configuration of Di
naric Mountains to arrive to Zagreb, Sara
jevo or Podgorica. By applying initiatives
of interborder cooperation, community
of many cities (Dubrovnik, Neum, Mostar,
Trebinje, Hercegnovi and Kotor) would
overcome mentioned difficulties, with
rare sea cost resources, towards safe in
clusive regional prosperity.
In relation to Kosovo, as a very small con
tinental country, with fragile borders,
there are thin hopes for development on
its own, without proper cooperation
with neighbors in relation to efficient
management of common interborder re
sources, as well as in solving mutual chal
lenges in favor of entire region. From ac
tivities of international organizations
active in Kosovo, we can single out the
informal attempt, known as “Balkan
Peace Park Coalition”, which aimed and
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harmonizing perspectives for balanced
development of Bjeshkët e Nemuna,
between Kosovo, Albania and Mon
tenegro. This attempt should be given
due seriousness by the three countries,
since mountainous resources offer co
operation in many areas, such as: forest,
livestock and touristic industry, as well
as climate capacities for renewable en
ergy. Both rural dwelling areas located
nearer mountains and urban areas would
gain through regional urbanrural part
nership for inclusive development of
the region. Efficient European experience
for spatial development based on moun
tainous resources may be adopted from
joint management of the Alps, where all
countries located in these mountains
have, through joint convention harmo
nized, perspectives to build a regional
ecosystem towards sustainable devel
opment in a wider regional sense. Let us
believe in realization of these perspec
tives also in the Western Balkans, for
peace and regional prosperity, which
would contribute to territorial cohesion
and development sustainability of entire
Europe in global context.
(Author works in the Department of Spa
tial Planning in the Ministry of Environ
ment and Spatial Planning)
An image of the old city
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THE CITY IN
TRANSITION:
ARCHIS
INTERVENTIONS
IN PRISHTINA
Florina Jerliu,
Kai Vöckler
Prishtina is an example of a city in transi
tion. It represents the difficulties of the
transformation process from socialist to a
market driven economy which can be iden
tified in cities all over the Balkans, as well
as reinvention of itself after a long period
of oppression, and the war of 1999.
Development demands in the postwar Pr
ishtina intensified when the rural popu
lation began streaming into the city. With
in a brief period of time, Prishtina doubled
its population, resulting in the speedy re
building of the city. Majority of postwar Pr
ishtina citizens engaged in creation of new
spaces for housing purpose, and some for
their family businesses. Some engaged in
building of more enhanced residences
hence seeking to improve their life style.
Simultaneously, the international com
munity which in majority concentrated in
Prishtina demanded certain capacity of of
fice and accommodation space, hence,
those living in rather attractive parts of the
city enlarged their houses accordingly.
Many built for themselves, wherever they
could and whatever they dreamed of
building. Consequently, unauthorized con
structions began to seriously affect the ur
ban structure of Prishtina and gave rise to
social, infrastructural, and safety problems.
More than 70% of the urban fabric has
been transformed due to the lack of law
enforcement, and the absence of manda
tory planning and building standards.
Public awareness on the fundamental
problems caused by illegal construction as
well as profound crisis of confidence in the
public dimension of urban life could be
identified as to being among major con
cerns in Prishtina.
At this point, the local, nonprofit and in
dependent NGO ‘Archis Interventions Pr
ishtina’ a member of the Archis Network
which was founded in 2006, engaged in
bring professional expertise into this
process, and information exchange to
develop a sustainable solution strategy re
lated to the regulation of informal build
ing activities in postwar social and polit
ical context.1
Fig 1. Illegal construction in Prishtina
The complexity of the urban situation in Pr
ishtina was explored and analyzed in a
study through which prototypes of illegal
buildings were identified. We generated the
socalled “Urban Pathology Map of Pr
ishtina” with the aim at drawing the at
tention to the general public, as well as the
local and international discourse, about the
pattern of unplanned urban development
in the postwar context.
An inventory of consequences arising
from the problems of uncontrolled con
struction was developed, and on the ba
sis of the analysis of prototypical (‘patho
logical’) areas, four prototypes of uncon
trolled construction were identified:
Prototype 1: Singlefamily houses
which are built in the outskirts of the town,
where the building owners own the land
and permission is generally not applied for
nor granted.
Prototype 2: Singlefamily houses lo
cated inside the city, where the building
owners own the land and are usually part
of the neighborhood community; the
owner generally doesn’t seek the permis
sion and builds with maximal use of
space, without consideration to the plan
limitations.
Prototype 3: Buildings which also
have maximal use of space, both in site oc
cupancy and height, and are built for com
mercial purpose, hence, not for their own
need (flats, offices etc) In this case, the de
veloper are usually not part of the neigh
borhood community and builds without
seeking permission and without consid
eration to the plan limitations.
Prototype 4: The fourth prototype – the
1
Collaborators have been Hackenbroich Architekten (Berlin)
and CoPLAN (Tirana). The project has been supported by
ERSTE Foundation and FriedrichEbertStiftung (FES).
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Insert from the “Manual” showing legal
ization criteria related to Minimal distances
– fire protection for the prototype one
(houses)
The Timeline showing the phases of
the process of legalization
Fig. 2 Study on Prishtina: prototypes of illegal buildings
(illegal buildings constructed after 1999 are indicated with red color)
urban parasites groups the roof exten
sions, annexes, cuts into buildings and
houses on roofs, which are mainly built by
individual developers for the extension of
family flats. The space developed in this
way is public and permission is generally
not applied for nor granted.
Parallel to this, we worked out an overall
strategic concept, which allowed for a com
bination of various strategies: aside from
the urbanarchitectural strategy, this af
fected communications, the support from
the Archis network, the inclusion of dif
ferent interest groups in a model project,
and the support of local institutions and
organizations. The strategy concept was ac
knowledged by the local administration in
2007 and became part of the Prishtina City
Program for years to follow. Such ac
knowledgment made it possible for us to
further develop our concept, and some of
it has already been realized.
In 2009, we produced a Manual on the Le
galization of Structures Built without Build
ing Permits. The manual sets up basic min
imal standards that would make it possi
ble to legalize existing structures, and
contained a concept for carrying out this
highly complex process. Technical part con
tains basic guidelines with regard to security
standards, social aspects and infrastructural
needs. The three issues/aspects were con
sidered for three different prototypes:
buildings with max 450 m2 (which by law
is the maximum area for a family house),
buildings exceeding 450 m2, and annex
es to legal buildings. Minimum standards
of security are developed with regards to
Escape routes, Minimum distances Fire
protection, Structure (building’s static)
and Earthquake (building’s dynamic) .
In July 2009 the Municipality of Prishtina
used the fundamentals of this concept to
pass a resolution to start the legalization
process. First phase of the legalization
process, implying the registration of in
formal building, was finished in end 2010.
During this period, informative meetings
with citizens were organized and their opin
ion was obtained and considered by the
recently established Sector for Legalization
of the Municipality of Prishtina. About 7000
applications for legalization were submitted
by the citizens of Prishtina and are due to
be processed in the second phase of the
process.
Complementary to the concept strategy on
legalization, Archis Interventions engaged
in discussions on the future perspective of
Prishtina by promoting realistic strategy
which takes the current situation into account
but also establishes the principles of viable
future development. This study entitled
Fig. 3. Minimum Standards for legalization
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Urban development
“Prishtina – Dynamic City” developed pos
sible key themes and their spatial relevance
as a proposal for discussion of the future of
the city and its society. Analysis insert that
Prishtina’s potential as the capital of Koso
vo, is its youth the knowledge and edu
cation as the key factors for future devel
opment. This study complements the “Gov
ernance Program for Prishtina 20102013”
adopted by the Municipality in 2010.
Integration of strategic areas
reflecting spatial development
directions
“Prishtina – Dynamic City” also provides
guidance for revision of urban plans so to
meet the needs of the city in the current
context of the successful implementation
of legalization in particular, and to pursue
realistic development goals that can be
achieved over the long term. According
ly, these visions must be coupled with key
projects that are possible to carry out. This
method, which is commonly accepted in
contemporary planning, needs to be
adapted to the specific social and politi
cal context. Here, too, Archis Interventions
in Prishtina intends to play an important
role in establishing a different method of
planning. However, this is not easy to
achieve!... Although aware that the process
of legalization is a very complex one and
that its success depends on wellexecut
ed steps within given timeframes as
agreed and subsequently stipulated in the
regulation for legalization, municipal of
ficials can still hardly be moved from their
‘slow mode’ attitude and fragmental ap
proach to the urban planning and man
Fig. 4. Process of legalization in Prishtina
agement problems, which they have
shaped over the last decade.
In order to bring examples and share ex
periences with wellestablished architec
tural and planning institutions and per
sonalities from Europe, we initiated pub
lic events with the aim at initiating an ur
banistic discourse which is greatly lacking
in Prishtina. An event that is worth of men
tioning is the “NAI Debates on Tour: Un
built Prishtina” organized by NAI (Nether
lands Architecture Institute) and Archis In
terventions in February 2010. The debate
aimed to contribute to the discussion of le
galization and resident participation in ur
ban planning and transformation process
es. Although generally speaking, the Mu
nicipality of Prishtina has demonstrated
readiness to be part of public events that
call for the community of architects and
planners for interaction and common un
derstanding and resolution of problems,
Fig. 5. Analysis of spatial integration of symbolic spaces in Prishtina
there remains a lot to be done in terms of
pursuing such initiatives and maintaining
the urbanistic debate, as part of urban de
velopment processes.
A crucial task today is to review existing
regulatory plans having into account the
integration of buildings which are due to
be legalized, and to produce a vision that
corresponds with the development ca
pacities of the city, and with the context
of current legal framework in force. In or
der to initiate this debate, Archis Inter
ventions Prishtina organized in October
2011 a workshop where illegal buildings
that have been inspected so far were
mapped in order to identify the level of vi
olation of existing regulatory plans and pro
vide concepts for their revision and pos
sible tools of mediation with neighbors
who did not build in wild.
In a wider scene we are at the point where
we are working on more actions that might
have an effect on the public, as well as on
a possible model project, which would
make it possible to apply a new process for
coordinating some sort of agreement be
tween the various interest groups and the
realization of our ideas. What many rep
resentatives of international and local
organizations thought was impossible in
2005 is now coming to fruition: the situ
ation will be improved for the general good
of society. To do all of this, however, we
needed architects and planners, who
wanted a change and who worked on be
half on their city: they can be regarded as
‘agents of change’.
Urban development
35
european magazine
HERITAGE
AND
PLANNING
Luan Nushi
Kosovo Spatial Plan1 is the main docu
ment of spatial planning, created in co
operation with all important sectors of
Kosovo Government. In its drafting also
took part prominent professionals of this
field, different scientific institutions, the
University, different nongovernmental or
ganizations, representatives of civil so
ciety, officials of local level and different
international organizations, whose as
sistance and support was undoubtedly
very important.
Among identified and tackled issues is
cultural and natural heritage. Based on
results and content of the document, we
have the impression that cultural heritage
has not been addressed the way we
would like it to. The data available to us
are insufficient and do not portray the
real situation of space layout, there is lack
of valorization and the state of objects,
monuments and areas that for the
time being are only names of a “suspi
cious” list.
The situation and cause
According to a research conducted dur
ing drafting of the Spatial Plan, which
dealt with urban development through
years, the surface of urban areas has in
creased approximately for three times.
Analyses of urban growth (source IPH)
The analysis was conducted for seven big
urban centers, which in fact represent
places which experienced bigger move
ment of population in recent years. Of
course this had an influence on increase
of number of inhabitants in urban areas,
which have directly impacted the increase
of surface of the area too. The chart pro
vided below shows spatial increase of
some big urban centers of Kosovo in the
period 1980 – 1999.
These movements had their biggest im
pact in the city of Prishtina, which ac
cording to assessments and things hap
pening in urban aspect – “was not pre
pared” for this. The big influx of arrivals
and requests to secure a place to stay in
on one hand and on the other hand the
unwillingness of municipal authorities to
provide legal construction space, are the
main factors that had and continue to
have an impact on urban irregularity of
Prishtina.
The illustration below shows the case of
Prishtina and its increase with years, re
lation between old area and the rest of
urban area. It clearly shows the trend of
development until now and ongoing ten
dency.
It is beyond any doubt that in all this “dis
Urban growth in Prishtina (source IPH)
order” the biggest pressure has been and
is being made in the center, in the area
that possesses the biggest number of ob
jects categorized as values of cultural her
itage. Many objects that had this value
do not exist anymore, in most cases they
were replaced by objects of “modern ar
chitecture” which in fact seriously im
pacts losing of identity that an old part
of the city should have.
This trend is continuing nowadays too and
we will soon face the situation when we
will feel sorry for actions or lack of action,
part of which are all of us. First of all, the
responsibility lies with central authorities,
which should insist on strengthening le
gal infrastructure and determining clear
ly the position of all institutions respon
sible for preservation of cultural heritage.
Municipal authorities are responsible
too although they have not shown readi
ness to respond to requests, which in most
cases were related to the center and the
old part of the city. Several urban regu
lation plans have been drafted, which
failed to properly address the issue of cul
tural heritage and objects. There is no clear
division (in this case administrative) of the
1
Kosovo Spatial Plan 20102020+ approved by the Assembly
of Kosovo on 16.06.2011
european magazine
36
Urban development
Photo ...our actions and lack of action... – the object in the photo “doomed” to be destroyed!
old city part, which would be a precon
dition for drafting an adequate plan for
this area. Bigger responsibility lies with
professionals too, who consciously or be
ing unaware of are violating construction
rules in favor of modern architecture. Cit
izens are also responsible, since being
found in a difficult economic situation on
one hand, and on the other hand being
subject to pressure exercised by entre
preneurs; they are easily giving up his
torical past of their families.
In parallel to this disorder, another im
portant cause is “cultural discrimination”
that is taking place with announcement
of the list of socalled “special protected
areas”. In fact, presented list is composite
part of cultural heritage of Kosovo and the
fact that they are regulated by special law
creates the idea that other areas that are
not part of the list are less valuable. This
situation is having direct impact on cre
ation of the idea that we can treat them
without any criteria and certain procedure.
... and common denominator of all this
is that– our cultural heritage is dis
appearing and is doing so rapidly!
Therefore, considering all this and being
aware of importance of heritage and its
effect, I suggest an overall recommen
dations list that should in any case be sup
plemented by others too.
Recommendations
Clear determination of areas with
cultural heritage– all municipalities, in
cooperation with relevant authorities
and professionals of the filed, should
clearly define the area and its boundary.
Drafting of conservation plans
(pertaining to level of Urban Reg
ulation Plan) – all municipalities, in co
operation with relevant authorities and
professionals of the field, are responsible
to carry out the plan. The plan should be
based on terms of references deter
mined beforehand by responsible au
thorities.
Drafting of management plan–
among others, the plan should clearly des
ignate responsible authorities that are to
manage the area, the budget and dead
lines to accomplish foreseen work.
Handling of determined areas in all
planning levels – the form and level of
handling will depend on the level of the
plan. The more detailed the plan is, the
more details are needed to handle the ob
ject, monument or the area of cultural and
natural heritage;
Urban spatial planning, as an in
strument to control developments
in areas with cultural and histori
cal values– these documents should
serve as tools which relevant authorities
use to carry out the control over objects,
monuments or areas with cultural and
natural heritage;
Taking of inventory should be car
ried out (the database) – central au
thorities are requested to as soon as pos
sible complete taking of inventory, create
a realistic database that will serve for ad
equate spatial expression of cultural
heritage;
Valorization of situation should
take place– there are no information
on current physical situation of many ob
jects, monuments and areas of cultural
heritage. It is an urgent need to do this
in order to determine necessary measures
for their preservation and repair.
Let the recording of other areas
continue–the method applied in case of
the list of objects from the Ahtisari Pro
posal should be continued with objects,
monuments and other areas of cultural
heritage. Currently, there is a lack of an
overall map which would provide all ob
jects, monuments and areas of cultural
heritage;
Functional inclusion should take
place – all objects, monuments and ar
eas of cultural heritage should be func
tional part of spatial planning docu
ments;
Institutional support of monu
ments’ owners– it is very important
that all responsible structures of cultur
al heritage area find suitable form that will
enable institutional support of owners of
objects, monuments and areas of cultural
heritage. The support should be financial
and sufficient to meet requirements and
according to standards of advanced
countries;
Active participation of citizens– cit
izens, especially owners of objects, mon
uments and areas with cultural heritage,
should take part actively in all meetings
and discussions that are taking place
about cultural heritage;
Without surrounding walls– the
phenomenon of surrounding objects,
monuments and areas with cultural her
itage with high walls should stop. They
should be functional part of developments
taking place around, serve to tourism de
velopment and economic development in
general;
(Author is Director of the Institute for Spa
tial Planning, AMMK / MESP)
Urban development
37
european magazine
JUNIK, AN
ALTERNATIVE
APPROACH OF
SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT, BASED
ON CULTURAL
HERITAGE AND
SELF-PLANNING
Mirian Bllaci
When it comes to difficulties related to
spatial planning at the local level, issues
of economic, cultural and natural re
sources and lack of professional capac
ities are often raised. The letter is con
sidered to be the main reason why
representative bodies of the local level
entrust the management and drafting of
spatial plans to the market. But, this
method of subcontracting has not
proven to be effective, quite the contrary!
Drafting companies responsible to draft
plans, in an unavoidable manner ad
minister planning policies, by de facto ex
ercising, maybe in an antidemocratic
manner, one of key powers of the local
government (the citizen is unable to
“punish” the private drafter of spa
tial/urban plans by votes).
But, in order not to dwell on the endless
debate about greater effectiveness of the
public or private sector and with the pur
pose of us becoming more optimistic in
relation to a vast number of queries in
the area of spatial planning, we have a
positive example in Junik. This munici
pality is different from other munici
palities in Kosovo due to the approach
they have adopted in order to cope with
planning problems, at least for two
reasons.
First, because the cultural and natural
heritage was the main vector used to
strengthen the process of development
planning in Junik. It all started in 2001,
where, in a post war context, meeting
of the simplest vital needs was more ur
gent than cultural heritage – when
through a fund donated by the European
Commission and the Swedish Agency for
International Development (SIDA),
Swedish foundation Cultural Heritage
Without Borders (CHWB) they restored
the Kulla known as Oda e Junikut. This
marked the beginning of a great com
mitment of the CHWB (which still con
tinues), which in 20072008 produces
the Conservation and Development Plan
and the Integrated Visioning Document
for Junik. These two documents are
cornerstones for Junik because they
place the biggest potential of the mu
nicipality, cultural and natural heritage,
in the center of the municipality devel
opment.
Spatial Planning (ISP).
This achievement seems even more dif
ficult to be accomplished if we mention
the fact that Junik administers a territory
of 77, 77 km2 while being unable to car
ry out investments due to low opera
tional budget. Let us not mention lim
ited capacities to mastermind a com
plicated process such as strategic plan
ning. It is worth mentioning the exam
ple that the Directorate of Planning and
Urbanism in Junik functions with one ar
chitect only, a civil engineer and two
cadastre officials!
This vision would be clearly confirmed
also during the drafting process of de
velopment urban plan and the urban reg
ulatory plan of the center of Junik (at this
time Junik was still a pilot municipality,
as a result of decentralization process in
Kosovo). All this engagement, com
bined with full declaration of Junik a mu
nicipality in 2008 and with projects,
whose common denominator is cultur
al and natural heritage, resulted with the
approval of the Municipal Develop
ment Plan (MDL) in July 2011.
Considering these conditions realization
of strategic planning process with own
forces was a difficult decision to be tak
en. On one hand, it is justified by law re
quirements and the will to propose
suitable planning solutions and policies.
On the other hand, this alternative ap
proach was a result of the wish to
have control over the planning process
of a sustainable development, thanks to
which the implementation policy would
be better and have a more direct influ
ence on the quality of life of Junik in
habitants.
After unprecedented focus on cultural
and natural heritage, this is the second
biggest achievement of the approach of
Junik, thanks to which the municipali
ty became the first in Kosovo to realize
“at home” the most important docu
ment of strategic planning, with the as
sistance of the Program for Municipal
Spatial Planning Support (PMSPS) of the
UNHABITAT, CHWB and the Institute for
The used methodology is based on the
learning by doing principle. This approach
is characterized by the fact that its ap
plication enables strengthening of ca
pacities and persons involved in the
process be it in organizational aspect or
in the institutional and cooperation as
pect. These advantages make up for
those that might be called weaknesses
of this method such as: time factor, ac
european magazine
curate evaluation of human resources
and domestic capacities, as well as fi
nancial inability that continues to be a
difficult challenge to be won by the mu
nicipal level.
First, in relation to professional capac
ity, apart from quality increase of the in
38
Urban development
ventory of necessary information to
draft the document, the “domestic”
approach has an impact on improvement
of organizational and managerial ca
pabilities of the staff involved in the proj
ect. By being the main actor in manag
ing the planning process, the municipality
plays a role in increasing the sense of re
sponsibility and consequently ownership
over the process and its results among
the municipal staff and policymakers. This
of course results in application of com
prehensive methods and community
participation in the meetings organized
within the planning process.
Secondly, this approach slightly im
proves the internal organizational cul
ture, which results with a noticeable in
crease of quantity and quality of ex
change and coordination between di
rectorates, as well as a satisfactory
participation of the board of directors in
all important stages of the process.
This positive impact is very valuable for
recently established municipalities such
as Junik, where there is a lack of expe
rience in development planning and
there is insufficient knowledge and cur
rent instruments of overseeing devel
opment. The financial argument also
goes in favor of ”domestic” planning be
cause expenses are five times lower com
pared to the method of subcontracting.
This also contributes in the optimal use
not only of internal resources but also
Urban development
39
of professional expertise of donors and
partners involved in the process.
s enabling the process to gain more le
gitimacy in the eyes of all stakeholders.
Thirdly, the method of Junik produced
good results also in relation to institu
tional strengthening, by making easier
the integration of planning issues in the
political agenda, which is a fundamen
tal element for the strategic planning
process. This is proved by the fact that
even after political changes in the mu
nicipality, the new leadership initially sup
ported and then approved the said ap
proach. This contributed strongly also in
the understanding and proper interpre
tation of legislation for planning and
strengthening the partnership between
the municipality and the Ministry of
Environment and Spatial Planning, as a
result of which the ISP provided the proj
ect with an additional professional ex
pertise. Consultations included other
central institutions, neighboring munic
ipalities, as well as businesses and NGO
Lastly, lessons learned from Junik should
also be considered as long term invest
ment, which with the passing of time
contributes to increase of professional
capacities and organizational skills of
municipalities. This is a necessity in a con
text when increasingly municipalities
should deal with shrinking of financial
capabilities, continuous withdrawal of in
ternational agencies and donors and re
duction of the main role of the state in
local development. In this respect the ap
proach of Junik based on cultural her
itage and planning by its own forces is
not simply an achievement of the Juni
ki community and parties involved in the
planning process, but also a good ex
ample for Kosovo and the region on how
with few funds but with great commit
ment and sense to serve citizens one can
lay strong foundations for sustainable
european magazine
development. Thus, thanks to instructions
contained in the MDL, Junik is carrying
out different projects that generate
jobs, income and continuous touristcul
tural projects and activities. It suffices
that you spend a weekend there and you
will realize...
Note
For more detailed information on the ap
proach of Junik and the CHWB activity
in this municipality, you may consult the
publication “7 Integrated Conservation
projects in Junik Municipality” available
in the following address:
http://www.chwbkosovo.org/file.php?file
=Report_18_2011.pdf
(Author is urban planning expert and
works in the organization Cultural Her
itage Without Borders/Sweden/Office
in Kosovo)
european magazine
40
Urban development
KOSOVA –
WITH
“DISTURBED”
URBAN-ARCHITECTONICS
Architect Nexharije
Buçinca
Dardania, housing area in Prishtina
Accumulation of difficulties in up to
now developments as well as the fact that
an increasing number of people knocks
on “the doors of the cities” on daily ba
sis and request help regarding their res
idential needs, is an alarm bell to decision
makers and professionals that patience
is running thin and rapid, effective and ef
ficient solutions are needed.
So, who does Kosova belong to?
Kosovar urbanarchitecture is becoming
suicidal! A situation created as a result
of many factors: decision makers’ apa
thy, fragile institutions, legislation, lack
of professional staff that posses neces
sary experience and knowledge, lack of
standards, lack of census of population
until this year, lack of participatory and
dignified engagement of community,
absence of establishment of executive in
habitation agency within the Ministry for
Spatial Planning and lack of sector for in
habitation in the Municipal Assembly
(foreseen by the Law on inhabitation),
nonfunctioning of the establishment for
urbanism and projecting, as well as
public enterprises and many other fac
tors..
Who decides about the tumbling
down of space, professionals or.....?
“We have not inherited the land from our
parents
We have borrowed it from our chil
dren”
AmericanIndian Proverb
A great number of entities decide about
the use and utilization of space. These en
tities have various interests in using and
utilizing it, as well as various economic
powers. They are not aware or do not
want to be aware that composite part of
our life is surrounding area that is
formed with the construction of buildings
and which contributes to economic
shaping up and environmental devel
opments in general.
One of seven biggest problems of mod
ern world is lack of space. It is limited,
notrenewed and divided among many
users. Therefore as such it requires a very
professional approach.
Due to the basis of poor urban theory in
Kosova, developed in the lowest level of
scientific thinking, the modern needs for
proper planning are scarcely met, which
is reflected in “no comment” urbanar
chitectonic views in residential areas and
everywhere around.
Research and application of new scien
tific methods in this specific thinking ac
tivity is imposed on as undriven because
accelerated changes have overcome the
methods according to which dwellings
used to be oriented.
Unrealistic regulatory plans – a
problem on top of problems
In the post war period an unrealistic plan
ning method is present. There is an aim
towards planning of intentional situa
tions, without verifying the reality of its
realization.
On the contrary, realistic planning implies
adjustments to social, spatial, econom
ic and ecological developments of all sub
communities, for all periods planned in
continuance.
In order to achieve this, awareness rais
ing of policymakers and professionals is
needed because we should have in
mind the fact that any spatial and eco
nomic noncompliance of mutual de
velopments causes small movements
which leave space with long term de
formations of the planning concept.
In Prishtina and in most of the cities af
ter the war were carried out development
and spatial plans and numerous regula
tory plans. What was their influence on the
change for the better of the image of Koso
va? How were they drafted, what stan
dards were taken into account (knowing
that the latter are absent), who and
when produced those standards? (Because
they expire too!). I wonder whether they
were revised and how were they re
vised? Are they implementable? Certainly
there are answers to these questions but
answers are not sufficient to see results
in space. And finally, how were these plans
managed and were they managed? Plan
ning is the fundamental strategic mean for
good management. These two concepts
are inseparable; we cannot speak about
management without planning and with
out management planning is nothing
else than a treasure of good intentions,
completely detached from reality. Re
sponsible institutions of Kosova lagged be
hind in this respect!
Inability of still fragile institutions to com
pletely manage planned development,
raised the need to urgently carry out the
overall revising of the planning concept,
including the intentional one.
Urban development
Development of human knowledge on
targets of modern developments, which
are basis of intentional space concept,
contributes to this too.
Since in the last two decades evaluation
measures have changed world wide in re
lation to needs of technical developments
and influences on environment, global
warming, Kyoto Protocol, etc. which for
the first time showed an objective limi
tation to technical developments, even
towards the use of material goods and
their impact on nature.
Although Kosova has not enforced these
limitations yet, the methodology on the
use of space provides for great limita
tions, which will impact how planning
looks in future. Standards of green con
struction, LEED (Leadership Energy Effi
cient Design) certifications and other lim
itations will be unavoidable obligations
in this millennium. The millennium in
which „CO2 will be a currency“ in Koso
va too (quantity of carbon dioxide emis
sion paid as a fee).
Therefore, a synthesis of joint well pre
pared actions is necessary in order for
Kosovo to move from “city planning” to
a “planning city”.
Habitation
“The structure of human dwelling places
relies on a threelegged chair, one in pol
itics, the other one in economy and the
third one in transport .... the most visi
ble and active one is transport. It is a sim
ple rule: how we get there, determines
the way we live”.
Alex Marshall
The beginning of this century found Koso
va and its population in a period of his
torical changes, in two aspect, political and
social one. After the war great inrush from
the village to the city, as well as citycity
caught the country unprepared for the
changes. Although some cities had already
adopted urban plans, their realization was
difficult. This led to chaotic situation
both in inhabitation and technical and so
cial infrastructure, and also environment.
Developments in inhabitation are re
flection of synthesis of problems inher
ited and created after the war. They are
41
very obvious, are found everywhere we
move and will have an impact in gener
ations to come. They have been caused
by everybody, be them active or passive!
The challenge is for this synthesis to en
dure changes that lead Kosova towards
a future in Europe.
Inhabitation is a decisive issue for social
stability, health and qualitative devel
opment of human wellbeing. So, being
the biggest space user, it has an influence
in the course of the overall development
of society, economic and environmental
development.
Inhabitation is a social right of the citi
zen. The right to inhabitation is increas
ingly present within global policies and
in the fight for human rights, and is also
sanctioned by international conventions.
Although most of the human life is
lived in buildings and its material sur
rounding, although majority of human
needs are carried out there, the hetero
geneous field of inhabitation in Kosova
has not been researched and does not oc
cupy the place it deserves. Urban erup
tion, technical developments and scien
tific revolution have biggest impact on
life and inhabitations, especially on ur
banism. This is where we can see results
of human progress and human actions
in general. Therefore, inhabitation plan
ning has a key role in ensuring and pro
viding a sustainable future.
european magazine
that it is an important issue that involves
irreparable damages to community, en
vironment and economy.
The medium term development strategy
of Prishtina 20082011, vision for the fu
ture of Pristhina: ”Prishtina capital of
Kosova with a metropolitan role, known
for economic development with modern
urbanism......” has not strategic plan for
urban developments. On the contrary, this
is part of “a narrative” of the current sit
uation.
The third aim of this strategy, sustainable
spatial and urban development does not
even foresee as objective development
of inhabitation. Instead, the second ob
jective foresees drafting of regulatory
plans for remaining neighborhoods, con
fusing drafting of plans qith the activi
ty to realize the objective of inhabitation.
There was an effort to compensate this
“omission” by the fourth objective,
which foresees “development of public
private partnership in urban construc
tions” (but nothing decisive for inhabi
tation)! And this is how “the problem of
inhabitation is settled” in this strategy.
Yes, in both municipal and central levels
the issue of inhabitation was left to be
solved individually, INTENTIONALLY OR
BEING UNAWARE OF!
In order to realize development inhabi
tation and community policies and prac
tices it is necessary to have a clear
strategic plan, which foresees:
Are the institutions concerned about
“developments of inhabitation in a • Strengthening of inhabitation market
disturbed place”?
that supports economy and consumers
The program of the Government of the
Republic of Kosova, 2008 – 2011,
strangely does not foresee the inhabi
tation strategy, despite it being basis for
all other developments, “for a Kosova
country of its citizens, developed in
compliance with democratic principles,
with a sustainable economy, multiethnic
environment…” quoted from the pro
gram. Probably inhabitation was mis
understood as being an individual issue,
therefore government officials “do not
want to worry about it”. Probably they
thought that ”it should still be an indi
vidual solution”. But it was not envisaged
protection;
• Meeting of requests for favorable flats
(economically affordable);
• Use of inhabitation as a platform for
improvement of life quality;
• Building of comprehensive and sus
tainable communities without dis
crimination.
Therefore, let this be a starting point for
positive intentions of decision makers.
(Author is expert for inhabitation issues,
works in the Establishment for Inhabi
tation in Prishtina and is member of the
Board of the Association for Spatial
Planning of Kosova)
european magazine
42
Urban development
A VISION
FOR
KOSOVA
Përparim Rama
Square walking public space between Parliament and European Commission in Brussels
Emergence of the new developments in
Prishtina city centre and its surroundings
provide a great opportunity to help this
city compete in the global markets. These
new developments can be used not only
to enrich developers, but with careful
planning conditions they can be trans
formed into catalysts for Prishtina’s and
Kosova’s regeneration as a whole.
Local Challenge – Global Oppor
tunity Around half a million of the two
million Albanian Kosovars left the coun
try during the troubled time of the 90s.
Many, perhaps most of these may never
return permanently, but increasingly in the
knowledge based industries and ad
vanced services sector we see a vibrant
expatriate societies enriching and revi
talizing their home country. New devel
opments in Prishtina, and associated
programmes, can play an important role
in attracting this community and enabling
them to contribute to Kosovo’s transfor
mation.
One of the most wellknown examples of
this phenomenon is the expatriate com
munities of Silicon Valley. More than a
third of the workforce in the high tech sec
tor is Chinese, South East Asian and In
dian immigrants or first generation US cit
izens. And this community is now re
turning, not full time, but on a regular ba
sis to establish new businesses and es
tablish partnerships with firms in their
country of origin. It’s not just multinational
corporations that are leading the way, but
entrepreneurs who see the commercial
benefit of outsourcing part of their val
ue chain or partnering with local firms
who are often family or university friends.
Similar conditions exist to exploit the
Kosovar diaspora as a powerful engine for
its future regeneration.
Kosova has a number of assets that are
of crucial importance to this regeneration:
Fast linkages to other cities across the
Balkans and more broadly across Europe
through a world class airport with around
a million passengers a year and links to
London, Vienna, Istanbul, Budapest,
Zurich, Tirana, Frankfurt, Copenhagen,
Stockholm and many destinations in to
tal
A welleducated youthful population,
the youngest in Europe. Average age of
24.
Around half a million expatriates who
each year enrich the local community with
around $1 billion USD and with a pow
erful loyalty and affection for their home
country
Significant international financial support
for Kosovo as the new independent
country
Our Vision for Prishtina: a preem
inent logistics hub and centre for
innovation The proposed new devel
opments can reenergize the central dis
trict, complementing the low rise older
buildings with a new and iconic devel
opments; which will act as a beacon not
just across Kosova but the other Balkan
states. And this beacon would put Pr
ishtina at the heart of the Balkans as a
hub of innovation for both national and
international business, and the preem
inent logistics hub.
These developments can combine head
quarters space for large and established
Kosovar enterprises such as the Telecom
munications, Utilities and Banking sectors,
local national offices for multinational
firms who are increasingly attracted to the
Balkans, serving both these major Koso
var firms, as well as other Balkan States.
And all of this is enabled by the excellent
logistics. Such firms will need to be sup
ported by smaller businesses and the new
developments would house these.
Industry Clusters: weaving busi
ness, academia, public sector and
finance together The University
should be encouraged to relocate to the
district and move their business and
high tech graduate and undergraduate
courses, as well as research centers for se
lected sectors e.g. digital media, elearn
ing. We would envisage partnership
projects between university, research, the
private and public sector that exploits the
international funding and stimulates the
emergence of new businesses. These
businesses could benefit from an incu
bator that provides the infrastructure,
know how, and finance to support these
businesses, be they the spin outs from uni
versities, or spin offs from perhaps some
of the existing national firms.
Outreach An outreach program from
these iconic new developments would ex
tend to the international Kosovar dias
pora, giving them the potential to rein
vest in their home country and support the
local entrepreneurs emerging from the
business schools and technology and de
sign institutions.
Advanced Amenities – an Agora for
Urban development
Innovation New developments would
also need to provide not only the hotels
to support the international business
community that would first support the
development of local firms and serve the
needs of the existing national champion
firms, but also provide shortstay apart
ments and officehotels with flexible
space for businesses that need short term
accommodation. It is crucial to be able to
both attract as well as retain the local
firms and so high levels of amenities in
terms of cultural, retail and leisure facil
ities will be needed. These amenities can
cater for the rapidly growing new pro
fessional classes within Kosova, the re
turning expatriates, the international
business community and also provide the
basis for new forms of cultural and eco
tourism (rather than back packers). The
University might also share facilities
with a new international conference
venue to ensure a high occupancy of the
facilities and this venue would be both
part of the positioning of Prishtina as a
Balkan Agora of Innovation,
Blending Business with Art makes
for good Business Surrounding the
main developments, the city might zone
space as an arts district, with subsidies
and modest refurbishment of existing and
older facilities so they can be used by
artists and designers. This approach en
ables the creation of some “baggy space”
43
european magazine
Attractive urban design of pattern in the city of Brussels
that encourages more avantgarde and
cultural activities rather than just the cor
porate branded activities that are so typ
ical in many newly regenerated cities. The
international community needs more
than just great hotels and nice restaurants.
From our research and experience in oth
er cities, for this community to stay and
take root, it needs to find something more
personal than quality brands and craft
markets
From the projects we have undertaken in
central city districts, in the more deprived
Park of sculptures in Koln
areas of London, the city of Prishtina, and
studies in many more cityregions we can
see the opportunity to use these new
property developments as the catalyst for
a massive regeneration that will attract
international investors seeking better
returns than they will achieve in neigh
boring countries including the recent
EU accession countries. This will play a cru
cial role in community building and in cre
ating our concept for the wellconnect
ed citizen.
Community Building: the Well Con
nected Citizen These projects should
also be approached from a global con
nectivity, community building, social
platform and social currency perspective.
Setting up a global social/economic plat
form for Kosovo Albanians living abroad
could be a valuable way of gathering in
formation and building consensus/trust
among a population which is spread over
many continents and a large geograph
ical area. Such a connectivity program
may also highlight government policy is
sues in relation to dealing with an im
migrant population, as well as generat
ing economic and social value with those
who remain as expatriates, but still
closely connected to their country of ori
gin. Recently established Ministry for Di
aspora should engage and explore proac
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44
Urban development
Erasmus University Park in Rotterdam
tively such opportunities.
We have to understand and acknowledge
the importance of having a social/business
platform to connect with ones past, a plat
form for staying in contact (being pres
ent and available despite distance), a plat
form where to go for help and support as
well as “identifying” new business op
portunities, where to mentor and support
others, somewhere to vent ones political
views as well as a place or space for con
necting and reconnecting with ones own
identity and the future of ones country.
There comes a point when many mem
bers of the expatriate community will seek
to go back and reconnect with their roots
but in a way which makes sense within
their new context, recognizing how the
environment within which they grew
up has changed as well as the changes
that have taken place in their own lives.
It is crucial that this is driven from the
community and grass roots, but it can be
enabled and encouraged through ap
propriate infrastructure, services and
programs
The value of a connected citizen
with multiple touch points and
meeting points A connected glob
al/glocal/local citizen is a valuable citizen
in many ways, enriching the nation cul
turally, socially and economically. The evo
lution/revolution of data can help create
foresights and therefore creating the
capacity for meaningful dialogue be
tween individuals, firms, organisations and
public agencies will be vital. A global con
nectivity program could be one project in
an overall the program and it can have
significant social and economic value. For
instance, a social currency could be at
tached to any connectivity program
which generates flows. Hence, it could al
low local people to redirect their spend
ing into the regeneration of their home
country in a way which makes sense to
them and not us. Hence, a social curren
cy which is not a “tax burden policy” but
which could still help to improve the so
cial, cultural and economic life of people
in general if money is spent as a micro
lending scheme to support the growth of
SME’s and an SME supply chain which ex
tends abroad.
CONCLUSION New developments
provide the opportunity to create both
physical as well as virtual meeting points.
Meeting points are important for knowl
edge share and hence business devel
opment. Business and social relationships
are made person to person. Providing the
amenities and programmes that support
these both in a physical environment, as
well as through digitally connected com
munities will be a crucial element in the
successful realization of this vision. This
grand opportunity for interweaving sev
eral social, educational and business as
pects into a coherent whole should be uti
lized, setting the scene for a sustainable
future for The Capital City of Prishtina, its
citizens and Kosova as a whole.
Urban development
45
european magazine
THE GIS ROLE
IN URBAN
PLANNING
AND
MANAGEMENT
Rizah Murseli
Map of Kosovo as per Spatial Plan f Kosovo (Source ISP)
What is GIS?
solidate the system;
GIS, translated into Albanian language
means Sistemi Informativ Gjeografik
(SIGJ) (Geographic Information Sys
tem) and there are many definitions re
lated to it. One of these definitions is as
follows: Geographic Information System
is a computer system on collection, ac
cumulation, verification, integration,
manipulation, analyzing and presenta
tion of data related to the (geograph
ic) relation on the earth surface.
GIS organizes geographic data in series
of thematic layers and tables by using
DB platforms such as excel, access and
strong platforms such as: SQL, ORACLE
etc. This platforms that preserve data in
GIS are called GeoDB (Geodatbase). Giv
en that these data in GIS are georef
erenced, then they have their realistic
location in the world (in the planet) and
may overlap among themselves. GIS en
ables integration and analyzing of all
thematic layers and as a result presents
the realistic image of a space in the
model of the existing condition or even
in the model of planned condition.
Through designed models we can also
calculate different impacts of every
designed or developed scenario.
In order for GIS to become functional,
it has to use five of its essential com
ponents, such as:
Software – are the necessary tools for
the GIS to operate;
Operators (people) are those that man
age and design the system; and
Methods are those that make the sys
tem give results.
Essential components of that make
GIS operational
GIS enables us to see, understand, in
terpret and visualize the data in differ
ent ways, where we may discover dif
ferent spatial interrelations, models
and trends in the form of maps, the
globe, reports and diagrams. GIS also
enables us to answer questions and
solve problems by consulting the data,
in a quick and easy manner and by en
Data – are information that should be
analyzed and presented;
Hardware are components that con
Scheme of integration of thematic informations in GIS
abling their quick dissemination. The GIC
technology may be easily integrated in
every framework of information systems
or databases.
Nowadays, geography accompanied by
the GIS is helping us understand better
our planet, our country, our city or
even our neighborhood and apply ge
ographical knowledge in multitude of
human activities. The result is surfacing
of a new approach in geography or a
new way of thinking in relation to so
lution of problems that integrated ge
ographic information in the manner how
we understand and manage our space.
This approach allows us to gain geo
graphical knowledge by measuring our
place of residence through organization
of these data and by analyzing and mod
eling different processes, as well as re
lations between these processes or de
velopments. This new approach also al
lows us to apply this knowledge in the
manner how we design, plan and
change our planet, our country, our town
or even our neighborhood.
It is important to understand that urban
development is an environment, social,
economic and technological develop
ment. Planning and management of de
velopments in modern times is a world
wide challenge. Global spreading of
technology and economic activities
continue to directly influence cities
and residential areas of different sizes.
Cities should be seen as physicalgeo
graphical, social and technological
complex interrelated to an anchoring
european magazine
network of local and global dimension.
Nevertheless, not all cities share the
same advantages in the sense of posi
tive developments. In the time of glob
al transformations there is a fierce
competition between cities to attract
companies (successful enterprises), job
creation and opening of investment op
portunities. Cities connected to inter
national transport and communication
network, their image may circulate
very easy and they may win in many as
pects, whereas cities that are out of
communication network are developed
facing a risk of mobile division on
classes, where the only manner of liv
ing is based on economic power. Such
a competition of cities leads developers,
policymakers and planners to think
about a special identity of the their city
in urban global context.
These development trends imply that ur
ban society needs plans, visions and in
structions to intervene in this complex
context. With the purpose of positive
ly enhancing urban developments in so
cial, economic, environmental and tech
nological aspects, as well as reduction
of negative effect of these aspects we
have to carry out better analyses, real
istic visions and sound multidisciplinary
solutions. In this dimension the GIS is
the most suitable system to carry out
necessary analyses of urban complexi
ty that enables creation of realistic vi
sions and finding of multidisciplinary so
lutions.
Achievements assisted by technology
development enabled the development
of advanced technologies, such as GIS,
advancement of the system of decision
making support by strongly backing the
process of urban planning and man
agement.
Systems of planning and management
support are successful instruments for
the process of planning in community
and in the process of public participa
tion because they focus on realistic
needs and knowledge of users rather
than focusing on great expertise of the
GIS use. Support planning systems can
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Urban development
measure and compare the perform
ance of different scenarios of develop
ment by planners, as well as enable cit
izens to choose indicators of the use of
land, transportation, natural resources
and employment. The ultimate pur
pose is to bring all potential players to
work together in a joint vision for their
community. Support planning system
based on the GIS enables planners and
citizens to create and test alternative
scenarios of development quickly and ef
fectively in order to realize their possi
ble impact in their future models of land
use, population and employment trends,
by allowing public officials to take de
cisions based on a wellinformed plan
ning.
Scheme of integration of thematic informations in GIS
In our country, Kosovo, the GIS was used
for the first time, as far as spatial plan
ning needs are concerned, during draft
ing of the spatial plan of Kosovo, start
ing from 2004, when the staff under
went specialization. Whereas the GIS
use at the academic or university level
took place and continues to be devel
oped by a specialized staff of the Fac
ulty of MathematicsNatural Sciences,
respectively in the Department of Ge
ography. The GIS has also started to be
applied as a subject in some other fac
ulties of Prishtina University.
However, the GIS strengthening for
the needs of spatial and urban planning
continues to be promoted by the Insti
tute for Spatial Planning and as a result
of this promotion many municipalities
and private companies that deal with
planning issues have started to use GIS.
It is important to mention that coming
over of foreign consultants was vital in
strengthening the GIS in Kosovo, both
in the central and the local level.
Strengthening of GIS use in Kosovo for
the spatial needs has started pioneer
ing with the Institute for Spatial Plan
ning during the drafting of the Kosovo
Spatial Planning 20052015+, whereas
the following municipalities are among
the first ones to have used this system:
Suhareka, Peja, Istog, Shtime, Kaçanik
etc, which used the GIS during drafting
of municipal and urban development
plans.
Recently, GIS is being used as a very
powerful tool also in drafting of Regu
latory Urban Plans (RUP), especially in
presenting the current situations, where
as it is hardly used or is not used at all
in the stage of planning in this planning
category. This happens due to different
reasons, but among the most known is
the lack of skillful specialists that can
manipulate the GIS for the needs of the
RUP and due to not understanding
well possibilities of this system and ad
vantages provided but the GIS compared
to other traditional systems, such as CAD
system and other graphic design pro
grams, such as Corel or Adobe.
In general, we can conclude that the lev
el of GIS use in Kosovo for spatial and
urban planning needs is basic. To date
no model that would be used in ad
dressing an urban issue was used or de
signed. With the exception of develop
ments of advanced concepts and mod
els in consulting project of the EULUP,
where a host of models were designed
mainly for the needs of spatial plan and
needs of municipal development plans.
Whereas, in relation to other issued of
more detailed level, we have no de
signed model and consequently the
GIS use is at a very low level of the use
of possibilities this very advanced sys
tem provides.
(Author is Geographer & GIS specialist)
Urban development
47
european magazine
URBAN
DEVELOPMENT
VERSUS REAL
ESTATE
MANAGEMENT
IN KOSOVO
Visar Hoxha
Two major transitions have taken place
in Kosovo’s economy which has had the
impact on the urban development in
Kosovo over the years. First, it was the
movement from a rural to an urban base
and the other was the transformation
from central planning to a market ori
ented economy. Kosovo’s economy de
pends on its ability to develop com
petitive and market oriented industrial
and service sectors throughout the
country. These are primarily urban
based activities, which reflect the way
how the real estate management would
evolve in Kosovo.
Economic opportunities in urban areas
propelled growth in the urban popula
tion, which was reflected also in the sig
nificant rural to urban migration. Koso
vo is at a crucial point in its progress to
reduce unemployment and poverty.
Adequate infrastructure is essential to
reduce the poverty rate in Kosovo and
improve the quality of life and expedite
sustainable economic development.
Sound development is also dependant
on managing urbanization and urban
development effectively. The basic in
frastructure in Kosovo is basic and se
rious environmental degradation prob
lems take place by ineffective waste
management. Unplanned growth is
rapidly occurring at the peripheral parts
of cities in Kosovo, often without hav
ing ensured access to adequate infra
structure before. Fitting infrastructure
into unplanned developments is much
more expensive for local authorities than
constructing the whole new infrastruc
Role of Real Estate Management
ture as part of the planned development.
Kosovo needs an integrated urban de
velopment strategy that would more ef
fectively promote economic growth,
which can be achieved through a more
effective management of the urban
ization process in Kosovo.
In Kosovo, a lack of strategic view by the
local authorities for the development of
the cities can be noted. Cities in Koso
vo have entered the new millennium
without effective urban management or
infrastructure to fulfill the role cities
should play in a market driven econo
my.
In the modern world the urban devel
opment and real estate management is
planned in details. The individual hous
ing tries to serve the functionality, ab
sorption of light, and convenience. The
urban development should also strike a
balance between the goals of the pri
vate sector and public sector in the mar
ket economy (Harvey 1973). In Kosovo,
the forces of real estate development
driven by enormous profits influenced
the unplanned urban development in
stead the planned urban development
influencing their regulation of space.
In modern democracies the planned ur
ban development strives to meet the
wishes and needs of people within a
legally defined context, which enables
other elements of housing such as
transport, energy, employment, and
provision of other services for the pub
lic benefit. In Kosovo, it seems that no
balance has been struck between the
provision of adequate services and
achievement of economic goals.
In the case of planned urban develop
ment, the use of land is subject to var
ious competing uses that are regulated
by the mechanism of demand and sup
ply. In Kosovo, the real estate market is
operating in a laissez faire form where
the use of land is mainly driven by the
enormous profits of real estate devel
opers without any care that uncontrolled
urban development will have a devas
tating effect for the future genera
tions.
In this regard, Prishtina is not only the
city with the most highly dense popu
lation but it is also an area in which real
estate development has been very ac
tive for the last several years and which
has had a tremendous effect on the ur
ban planning. Planners, real estate
agents, and real estate developers of
Kosovo recognize that irrespective of
openness to social exchanges and so
cial symbolism the social construction
shows no relationship with planner’s
perception to regulate space. In Koso
vo, it can be noted that there is a sig
nificant level of power struggle between
political elites to pursue their spatial in
terests, and this level of struggle be
tween politics, history, and place mak
ing is manifested in the form of devel
opment of cities in Kosovo.
Urban planning is defined as a “concern
of the government for utilization of re
sources and it is a segment of public ad
ministration” (Solesbury 1974). The
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48
Urban development
Use of properties/buildings with teh Conservation Plan of Prizren
need for planned urban development
should coexist with other needs for free
dom of movement or biometric pass
ports. Urban planning should be the pri
ority of public administration for strik
ing the right balance between the in
dividual good and collective benefit. The
preservation of historic buildings, which
exhibits the identity of people is con
sidered a public good. In Kosovo, the
preservation of historic buildings has be
come prey to the struggle between
different political and business elites.
It is not a surprise that the political pres
sure has an enormous effect on plan
ner’s will to regulate the space in Koso
vo, which is reflected through the po
litical pressure on planner’s decision. This
pressure originates mainly from the
real estate development sector and
their drive to produce enormous prof
its, which is channeled through their po
litical representatives at the municipal
or central level.
The main challenge is building the nec
essary capacities in local governments
and in changing the attitude of local
government officials that deal with
city development and planned real es
tate development from their current
largely passive role, to a more proactive
one.
(Author is director, Real Estate Man
agement Program, European School of
Law and Governance)
Urban development
49
european magazine
LEGISLATION
IN URBAN
DEVELOPMENTS
IN KOSOVO
Vjosa Vela
Introduction
Legislation is the main mechanism
through which a modern state drafts laws
and regulations deriving from laws that
establishes basis by which society is gov
erned and continuously reflect norms and
values of a certain society. This implies
a basic knowledge that laws and legis
lation are not only technical documents,
but an important part of social and po
litical development of every society. Ef
ficient, equal and sustainable urban de
velopment depends largely on existence
and engagement in implementing laws.
Kosovo is not faced only with the chal
lenges of approving law, but also creation
of mechanisms to implement them.
Some legal aspects of urban
development in Kosovo
Urban planning was always a debatable
political issue. Nobody deals precisely
with the manner of designing a city,
which should not be developed eco
nomically only, but also enable a good
quality of life for its inhabitants.
Kosovo, like all the countries that
emerged from war, suffered migration
and high level of increase of urban pop
ulation, which caused pressure to central
and local governments. Political and
administrative structures were not ready
for proper management and treatment
of the increase of urban population. Cities
and villages were unable to address so
cial and environmental challenges, in
frastructure needs, lack of available
construction land and absence of plan
ning policies.
Although in the postwar period there
were uncontrollable urban develop
Consultants in planning
ments, one cannot claim there was no
legislation for urban regulation of cities
and villages. Soon after war, UNMIK is
sued Regulation no.1999/24, of 12 De
cember 1999, on the applicable law in
Kosovo, which let into force legislation
in Kosovo from 22 March 1989 on
wards, in parts when they are not dis
criminatory, until new laws were issued
and passed by the Assembly of Kosovo.
Thus, in 2003 was issued the Law on Spa
tial Planning no. 2003/14, which regu
lates spatial planning throughout terri
tory of Kosovo, amended later with the
Law no. 03/L106 Amending Law no.
2003/14 on Spatial Planning. Then, the
Assembly of Kosovo issued the Law on
Construction no. 2004/15. These two laws
and administrative instructions that de
rived from these laws covered the leg
islation regarding planning and con
struction in the territory of Kosovo.
Although according to the Law on Spa
tial Planning no. 2003/14, municipalities
were obliged to within 18 months draft
spatial and urban plans about their ter
ritory, they failed to do so. With the
amendment of the Law on Spatial Plan
ning, municipalities were given and ad
ditional deadline of 12 months to draft
spatial and urban plans and again all mu
nicipalities failed to draft their plans with
in this deadline. This may be be one of
the reasons behind uncontrolled urban
developments in Kosovo. But, in order to
prevent these uncontrolled develop
ments from happening, Article 24 of the
Law on Spatial Planning respectively Ar
ticle 16 of the amended Law provides,
quote: “In special case, when the Mu
nicipal Development Plan and/or the Ur
ban Development have not been passed
yet and when further delays in respect of
drafting of the Urban Development Plan
may lead to uncontrollable develop
ments contrary to community interests,
the Municipal Assembly may approve
provisional conditions for spatial regu
lation by motivated decision and ex
pressed consent of the Ministry”. This
means that legislators thought about ur
ban development even in cases when
plans had not been drafted yet. Article 22
of the Law on Spatial Planning is in re
lation to this and it reads:”22.3. until the
approval of the Municipal Development
Plan, no housing buildings may be con
structed on land contrary to the desig
nation of fertile agricultural land” and
paragraph 22.4. ”The Municipal As
sembly shall by decision designate qual
itative agricultural land where no build
ings can be constructed in compliance
with paragraph 22.3 of the present ar
ticle”, which means that legislators
thought about preservation of agricultural
land even in absence of plans.
What happens in practice?
Given that according to the Law on Local
SelfGovernance municipalities have pow
ers for spatial and urban planning of mu
nicipalities, in some cases there is a
change of designation of the first category
agricultural and its transformation into
construction land. This happens because
of the nonapplication of the Law on agri
cultural land and the applicable law on
construction land, pending an issuance of
the law on construction land by the As
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50
Urban development
Regulation on dealing with illegal con
structions and through drafting of regu
lation plans and other criteria is trying to
solve this problem. Seen from the legal as
pect, municipality cannot draft regulations
without having a law to base the regu
lation on, but on the other hand it cannot
wait for years until a law is passed and al
low other uncontrolled urban develop
ments. This issue is a challenge for both
central and local government and for ex
isting legislation, which should be solved
as soon as possible.
Legislation in planning
sembly of Kosovo, which, after construc
tion land is designated by plan, would reg
ulate it and give interested parties for use
according to criteria established by the law.
The issue of provisional conditions for reg
ulation of space is another problem
linked to the nonapplication of legal pro
visions by municipalities in cases when
there are no plans.
Provisional conditions for space regulation
in fact are conditions based on which
should be drafted a temporary regulato
ry plan that would be incorporated in the
Municipal Development Plan and Urban
Development Plan. In some cases these
conditions were treated as conditions of
location for an individual residential
building. With the amendment of the Law
on Spatial Planning a novelty was intro
duced because these conditions should be
approved by the Municipal Assembly by
a motivated decision and previous consent
of the MESP.
To date, the MESP failed to bring any pro
visional regulation plan for consent.
But, let us return to taking of the decision
for drafting of the plans. Almost no mu
nicipality drafted the decision to draft the
plan in compliance with Article 16 of the
Law on Spatial Planning. The MESP has
drafted a manual to serve as sample on
what should the decision on drafting the
plan contain and was delivered to all mu
nicipalities, but some municipalities do not
again determine in the decision boundaries
and the territory covered by the plan, al
though it is necessary to inform munici
pal assembly members and the wider pub
lic on the space to be covered by the plan.
Also, no decision describes conditions and
the manner of implementation of the plan,
as foreseen by the law.
Another issue is public consulting and de
bate, so participation in drafting of a plan,
which is considered to be important by
Agenda 21. These issues have been reg
ulated by Administrative Instruction no.
54/2005, in relation to public debate on
spatial and urban plans. There are nu
merous shortcomings in the report if
public debates and the Municipality De
velopment Plan for gaining consent that
is brought to the Ministry. There cannot be
seen the involvement of different social ac
tors or the community which is affected
by the plan, there is no report on which
remarks were taken into consideration and
which were not, and the reasons why they
were not taken into consideration. It
happens often that land owners have not
been informed at all about plans related
to their land, therefore the plan cannot be
implemented and causes dissatisfaction
among the community affected by it.
A special problem of rapid urban devel
opment is Prishtina. There are no correct
data on the exact figure of illegal con
structions, but there are assumptions it is
20 000. The Government, respectively
MESP has been in the process of drafting
the Law on dealing with illegal con
structions for many years now, but it did
not manage to approve an acceptable
draft of this law due to many challenges
this law could bring. According to the most
recent information, this law has been draft
ed and is expected to be approved de
finitively in 2012. The Municipality of Pr
ishtina, being faced with new illegal
constructions on daily basis, approved the
Recommendations
In the function of developing and imple
menting legislation for sustainable urban
development in Kosovo:
First, there should exist politic will to reg
ulate urban developments in Kosovo, so
there should function rule of law, where
as legislators should do their job.
Experience had shown that inclusion of the
whole spectrum of interested parties is not
only the basic precondition for successful
participatory decision making but it is also
important to promote social equality and
justice in urban governance.
The need to draft additional laws and reg
ulations or the amendment of the exist
ing ones if they do not function, both by
the central and the local government, with
the purpose of efficient implementation
of legislation.
Permanent administrative supervision
and provision of assistance to munici
palities by the central level, as well as in
specting supervision by fining those that
fail to implement legislation.
Increase of inspectorate capacities.
With the purpose of preventing uncon
trolled urban developments, the law
should stipulate the establishment of
construction police so that it is active for
a period of time until uncontrolled urban
developments stop.
The need to draft suitable regulations at
the local level for management and use
of land and built environment.
The efficiency of administration in issuing
urban and construction permits within the
legal term.
(Author is senior legal official, Ministry of
Environment and Spatial Planning)
Urban development
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european magazine
ARCHITECTURE OF
PUBLIC BUILDINGS
INFLUENCE
OF WESTERN-EUROPEAN ARCHITECTURE
ARCHITECTURE
OF PRISHTINA
1878 – 1912
IDA. Vlora Navakazi, Mrsc
Prishtina has long tradition and continual
development in different stages of its de
velopment. Research and analysis of objects
has identified the era of urbanarchitectonic
development in the city of Prishtina, pen
etration and influence of EuropeanWest
ern architecture in the old cell of the city
for the needs of public services, monu
mentalities and governing authority, and
less for architectonic and artistic values.
Scientific documentation of architecture and
urban development of the city of Prishtina,
by the end of XIX century until the begin
TodayKosovo Museum
ning of XX century, is of utmost importance.
The city of Prishtina, as the center of the
Vilayet of Kosovo (within 18781912),
gained a considerable number of important
buildings for the purpose of better ad
ministration by the Ottoman Government.
Analysis and description of organization
al structures of buildings and their classi
fication, have verified the social develop
ment, as well as new construction tech
niques, influenced by European architecture.
Protection and preservation of architectonic
structures built in the city of Prishtina dur
ing this period, which have not been de
stroyed completely, represent a heritage of
special value, not only for the city of Pr
ishtina, but for Kosovo too;
During the research process, overall ana
lyzing of historic, geographic and anthrop
graphic literature and Prishtina mono
graphs took place, as well as different writ
ings of various travel writers as important
sources for the development of the city of
Prishtina at the end of the XIX century and
1neighborhood/mahala of 44 houses; 2 Mosque of Mehmed Beg; 6 Mosque of Alajdin; 7Mosque of Junuz Kadi; 10 Mosque Hatunije; 11Mosque Ramadan Cakusa; Mosque Jarar Caribas
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Urban development
Spatial expansion of the city
in the end of XIX century and
the beginning of XX century1
Recording took place at the end
of XIX century. The city was ex
pended in all sides in a radial
manner from the old city nucle
us. At the beginning of XX cen
tury, the city was expended be
hind the Pirinazi mosque, where
as in the lower part of the city,
across the road known by peo
ple as Divan Joll, (boulevard) the
city was included only in the half
of this road. Expansion also
happened during XIX century
in neighborhoods such as: part
of neighborhood Lokaç, (the
right part of the current “Moth
er Teresa” street (2009), going
towards the Southern part of the
city, as well as in the place
called Ramadanije neighbor
hood (current Tophane neigh
borhood, 2009)
Scheme of City Core Centre from the end of
XIX century; beginning of XIX century until
the year 1945; after the year 1945;
aerial foto of Prishtina 2004
1
Zbornik radova, knjiga XIV, Etnografski Institut, Bg. 1951,
Page 2728.
Urban development
the beginning of the XX century. There are
no archive documents of the researched pe
riod in Prishtina archive. There are some doc
uments in the Archive of Kosovo that do not
pertain to the area of urbanism and ar
chitecture, while the biggest number of doc
uments is in the state archive of Turkey (in
Istanbul), the region or even further.
Identification and categorization of build
ings in the field took place through activ
ities in the field; categorization of build
ings in the city of Prishtina at the end of
XIX century and the beginning of XX cen
tury. This method was supplemented by the
method of comparison, comparing them
with similar buildings of various cities of
the region.
Verbal data, provided by old inhabitants
of Prishtina, who live in Prishtina or in
Turkey, were used.
Through a big number of maps found in
world archives, in books and electronic lit
erature (the internet, where a great num
ber of maps was identified also in Amer
ica and Canada), there was an analyzing
of the historical period of Kosovo, the po
litical situation, change of borders and in
clusion of the city of Prishtina in found
maps.
An important factor of development and
shaping of the cell of the old city of Pr
53
ishtina and the urban area during the pe
riod of 18781912, is the changing of the
number and structure of inhabitants.
Sufficient results for research were achieved
through categorization and analytical as
sessments of buildings, according to des
tination, shape and volume of building’s
plan, disposition in urban cell of the city,
as well as manner of construction tech
niques.
Not many cultural monuments of various
historical stages and periods, particular
ly pertaining to the field of architecture of
public buildings, were preserved. After set
ting up of the center of Kosovo Vilayet in
Prishtina, the city gained important artis
tic, historic and architectonic values,
which verify historic continuation of de
velopment of military governance and ad
ministration for the needs of Ottoman gov
ernance. At the end of XIX century and
the beginning of XX century, a new spir
it of construction is noticeable, such as con
struction of government and administra
tion buildings with new materials and
technology. New architectonic style is dif
ferent from the up to then construction of
oriental style; it is influenced by European
Western architecture, either brought or cre
ated by local masters;
european magazine
Buildings constructed during this period are
more discerned by different architecture
and volume than the up to then con
structions and less by “their architecton
ic or artistic values”.
Development of the city of Prishtina
(XIV to XVIII century)
After the fall of Kosovo territory under the
Ottoman Empire, there is a construction
thrive of architectonic structures, based on
improvement of two basic needs: im
provement of military and religious strat
egy.
Mosques started to be build in every neigh
borhood and according to a register of
15691570, it can be noticed that in
most cases neighborhoods were named
after mesxhits (a mosque without a
minaret) or the mosque.
Development of the city of Prishtina
from 1878 until 1888 – center of
Kosovo Vilayet
From 1878 until 1888, Prishtina was a
center of Kosovo Vilayet, one of biggest
Albanian vilayets under the administra
tion of Ottoman Empire, whereas since
1888 until 1912, the center of this vilayet
was seated in Skopje.
Foto showing Carshi/Bazaar/ 600 shops until the year 1947, when destroyed totaly; Housing of oriental type; detsroyed buildings from the year 1878 until 1912; mosques built in XV century
european magazine
The most important public part from 1878
until 1912, was in the old nucleus of Pr
ishtina city, the central area between the
inhabitation part and Old Çarshia (the
space between Çarshimosque and the
Mosque of Jashar Pasha). The Turkish Gov
ernment built governmental building
“Ucumet Konagi” (the building of the
Kosovo Museum) for the needs of ad
ministration of Kosovo Vilayet. At this time,
entire Kosovo VIlayet was administered
from Prishtina, but also Prishtina Sanx
hak, which was composed of 220 000 in
habitants; Prishtina kazaja with 237 vil
lages, 8027 houses and around 56.286 in
habitants;
54
Urban development
neers, with the purpose of improving the
strategy and conditions of Ottoman Em
pire military, according to European
models;
Assembly building in Beyoglu 18611876, ark. Barborini
During Tanzimat reforms, there is a new
style in construction too, western neo
classical style, which becomes rather
spread in buildings of military barracks
and palaces in the Ottoman Empire,
which was brought from the West by Eu
ropean architects and military engi
Introduction of western concept in
Balkans architecture
For the purpose of better administration
governance and under the influence of
the manner of western administration
and military governance, construction of
buildings for administration and military
leadership started in big centers of vi
layets throughout Rumelia.
Built architectonic structures
Construction of buildings by using com
pletely different technique from the one
of oriental construction used until then,
started to be applied for the needs of mil
itary governance and administration of the
Ottoman Empire.
Urban structure of the city
The urban structure of the city of Prishti
na from 1878 until 1912 is divided in 12
streets/neighborhoods. Most of
streets/neighborhoods have kept the
same name according to mosques built
there during XV century;
Administrative building of Kosovo Vilayet in Prishtina, 1896, Prishtina
Introduction of Western concept in
Ottoman Empire architecture
After millennium long rule, at the end of
XVIII century, the power of Ottoman Em
pire begins to weaken; Sultan Selimi III,
ruler of the Ottoman Empire from 1789 un
til 1807, being dissatisfied with the situ
ation, started to modernize administration
particularly military;
Military barracks (mëcidiye Kislasi)
18491853, ark. W.J. Smith
Administrative building of Shkodra Vilayet from 1878iuntil 1912, Shkodra
Urban development
55
european magazine
structures was located in the central part
of the city, in the part of Çarsha e Vjetër
and near it. These structures possess mon
umental size and different construction
material compared to the then tech
niques. The following buildings were iden
tified:
Administrative building of Manastir Vilayet from 1878 until 1912, Manastir
Valorization of buildings for public
destination in Prishtina
From 1878 until 1912, urban structure of
the city of Prishtina shows construction
of buildings for public destination. The
biggest number of built architectonic
1. Museum of Kosovo
2. Municipal Court building
3. Secondary technical school (in 2010
was transformed into the Archive of
the city of Prishtina)
4. The first Albanian school
5. Building of the Cadastre of MA of Pr
ishtina
6. Building of the Prishtina University
Rectorate
7. Building of the secondary school
“Xhevdet Doda” (destroyed in 2008)
8. Building of the Ministry of Health
In this document, we took the example
of valorization of the most representative
building of that time, the Museum of
Kosovo.
THE MUSEUM OF KOSOVO /
UCUMET KONAGI/
The most monumental building built
during 1878 1912 not only in Prishtina,
but in the entire Kosovo Vilayet, is the
building of the Museum of Kosovo, built
to meet the needs of the Ottoman gov
ernment and called “Ucumet konagi”.
Example of revitalization–the Mu
seum of Kosovo “Ucumet Konagi”
During the analysis of administrative
governmental buildings, during 1878 –
1912 in Prishtina, public building of
the Turkish Government /Ucumet Kona
gi was analyzed. This building is singled
out due to characteristic construction el
ements used during this period and de
serves special attention when setting cri
teria for preservation and revitalization
of buildings built during the period of
18781912 in Prishtina and in Kosovo.
Foto showing; Old part of the city Core Centre; Location of the Old Carshi (destroyed in 1947); Mosques
(built between 14 and 19 century
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Urban development
Kosovo museum. Basement Plan
Urban development
57
european magazine
Kosovo museum; Main facade
Kosovo Museum; Lateral section
Year 1895 “Ucumet Konagi “
During governance of Ottoman Empire
Year 1912. “The building of Kosovo Division”,
during governance of old Yugoslavia (Serbia)
As of 1975 it is being used as “Kosovo Museum”
During the period of former Yugoslavia
City division of Prishtina into three main functions: Public part of the city Carshia; Central square clock tower/sahat kulla destroyed before the year 1900; housing part of Prishtina
The building was constructed in the cen
tral part of Prishtina in the period of
18781912, between the old mosque in
Prishtina, Çarshi Mosque and the
Mosque of Jashar Pasha. The impor
tance of the position of the building of
the current Museum is proven by Sahat
kulla, which was built in the XVII cen
tury, and the public square was formed
around it.
The old Sahatkulla was built according
to examples of Roman towers of middle
age. It was located in the central public
part of the city, at the front part of the
Kosovo Museum building.
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Urban development
On the left: Old clock tower/sahat kulla built on the year 1764 and destroyed on 1900; on the right: Clock tower/Sahat Kulla built on the year 1900
Urban development
59
european magazine
THE FIRST INTERVENTION
In 1912, it was turned into the building
of Kosovo Division of the Serbian gov
ernment. The building endured changes
during intervention of that time; the
façade endured changes: the tympanum
was eliminated and the balcony above
the main entrance was closed com
pletely.
THE SECOND INTERVENTION
With adaptation and reconstruction of
1975, it is transformed into the building
of the Kosovo Museum. Then come
changes in the part of entrance, which
is closed and is not brought back after
the second intervention, the roof is
transformed in the form of a mansard,
while straight windows obtain the shape
of semicircle.
The Museum Building is the most im
portant historicalarchitectonic building
in Prishtina, therefore future interventions
should be dealt with by very cautiously.
The architecture inherited from the sec
ond half of the XIX century and the be
ginning of the XX century in the city of
Prishtina, as representative of civilization
of this period in the Balkans territory un
der domination of Ottoman Empire has
not been analyzed to date; there are
buildings which are not completely de
stroyed yet. The city of Prishtina, as an
important militaryadministrative center
of the Ottoman Empire gained buildings
of public destination with the purpose of
providing better administration. Based
on researched typology, it is noticeable
that analyzed buildings occupy special
place in development of architecture of
new age under domination of Ottoman
Empire, new architectonic and spatial
type was adopted, which was a feature
of European centers.
By analyzing and categorizing these
buildings, registering of a period of social
From 1912 until 1975, Division Building of Serbian military.
From 1975 until 1988, Kosovo Museum.
development, new technological con
struction achievement took place, as well
as gaining of better knowledge on spa
tial organizational structures of buildings
and urban development of the cell of the
city of Prishtina, during the period of 1878
1912, center of Kosovo Vilayet.
(Author is lecturer in the Faculty of Ar
chitecture – Department of Projecting /
Prishtina University and heads project
ing company ProARCH in Prishtina)
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Urban development
URBAN
IDENTITY IN
KOSOVO
Arch. Ylber Vokshi Ylli
Nothing better than an urban entirety,
compound or architectonic object, may
document or tell agelong continuation
of existence of a population in a certain
space entirety. The urban identity, which
has been created through centuries, has
a special importance in time and historic
aspects, which should be cultivated and
preserved by all means with dignity
and high professionalism. It is a phe
nomenon to which we should pay spe
cial attention in the functioning of the
state of Kosovo and undoubtedly it will
muffle dilemmas and doubts which have
been circulating in this area for centuries.
There are documents and undeniable
facts to prove this and they are expressed
in the existence of Albanian population,
as Illyrian successors in these areas.
In this short observation I will not iden
tify the main details or elements of ur
Urban inventory during times creates in space its identity:
"NEWBORN" monument of independence in Prishtina
ban identity, such as central and sec
ondary squares, specific assembly areas,
roads or boulevards for pedestrians,
fountains, urban furnishings (benches,
rubbish bins, public fountainheads,
etc.), monuments, sculptures, pictures or
public mosaics, important architectonic
objects, as well as urban integrity, that
identity a dwelling place or a state. As a
society, we failed to attach the necessary
importance to this phenomenon, and this
backfired on us during the past centuries
of our existence.
In order to determine the urban identity
in Kosovo, there should be done a re
search of all causes in the past historical
periods, which had a direct or indirect im
pact in the development and respect of
this process that determines the existence
of a nation in certain territorial spaces for
Good example of ow it should be conserved and valued Urban identity
“Çarshia e madhe” in Gjakova, reconstructed and renewed
centuries. This is the reason why there
should be conducted special research for
the capital, main cities and other dwelling
place s in Kosovo. We are prone and apt
to destroy the future of urban life for new
generations that will be forced to live in
this area. This is historically unexplainable
fatalism.
Why is the urban identity, which is hard
ly treated throughout Kosovo, important!
We easily bypass and forget our existence
in these areas. Not always have we ap
preciated our past and this is best re
flected with objects institutionally pre
served by every society in order to show
and document its antiquity, whereas
we have destroyed exactly these histor
ical and architectonic values before and
are doing the same thing in the first
eleven years of the twentyfirst century.
Only those that are not aware of the his
torical importance of existence of this na
tion in these areas, closely interrelated
with urban identity of our dwelling
place s, may minimize the importance of
the process. At the first glance this does
not seem important, may culturalhis
torical objects that were under the state
protection have systematically disap
peared in the last twelve years. The fact
that again since the postwar period we
will treat these culturalhistorical mon
uments in contemptuous manner requires
no professional comment. It is intolera
ble, unforgivable, because now we have
the entire state infrastructure that is
obliged to act.
Logical question is where is the urban
identity of Kosovo, with old and new
dwelling place s. Preservation of original
Urban development
identity, its advancement, as well as har
monization with the joint character was
always imperative of every society,
whereas here it is being acted in a van
dal manner by systematically destroying
them and without any accountability. This
manner of actions destroys at the same
the heritage of our cities, which has a rad
ical influence on the identity of the city
since new generations are unaware
where their roots are or where they came
from. In future the biggest challenge will
be meeting of requirements of new in
vestors and, while maintaining high
level of planning practice, generation of
urban spaces in favor of all city inhabi
tants. The main question of the theory
and practice of urbanism should be in
whose interest the space in cities is be
ing planned, where coowners (stake
holders) are all its inhabitants.
The question of urban space identity is
of fundamental importance for the ex
perience of a city in the new global world
that is being created. With the develop
ment of globalization process, urban iden
tity has become an important factor in
the process of spatial planning. Cities are
being faced with threats of losing iden
tity and at the same time with the pos
sibility to change it. This is enabled by
global economy based on market econ
omy and with creation of new opportu
nities for new markets and political in
tegrations.
There are some elementary principles that
should be respected, thus like Kosovar ur
ban projectors, also other participants
during drafting of spatial documents and
officials of both state levels or even those
that expect big challenges in implement
ing these requirements of the time, such as:
Determination of the nucleus of cities –
their old center (down town), as well as
adequate treatment with special archi
tectonic and urban criteria;
Preservation of original identity of some
arrears of our cities as well as their ad
vancement and adjustment according to
new urban requirements;
Advancement and reformulation of all
characteristic elements of a dwelling
place;
Identification of characteristic natural and
built parts of urban and rural areas of our
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european magazine
Fire destruction of hotel UNION in Prishtina
dwelling places;
Prioritizing different architectonic as
sets and urban nucleuses, as inalienable
heritage for centuries;
Registration and promotion of architec
ture and modern urbanism in the twen
tyfirst century, as inseparable parts of ur
ban identity;
This means that it should be given due
consideration to improvement of living
conditions of these people, by starting
again to implement numerous docu
ments of spatial and urban planning.
Strangely enough, our uncontrolled ac
tions in the last decade have no justifi
cation. I wonder who prevented us, but
ourselves!
We should be aware that it is a matter
of losing urban identity, intertwined
with elements of historic heritage, which
is very easily being destroyed by our ac
tions, without taking into considera
tion grave consequences for entire Koso
vo. This issue does not pertain to indi
vidual cases only, but it is related with the
life philosophy of the environment we live
and act in. Historical forgetfulness re
venged to us in the past, and the way we
are acting it will revenge on us in future
too.
The aim is to show that understanding
the phenomenon of urban identity of our
dwelling places can serve as a guidebook
of their future development. Protection
of all natural, historical and architectonic
values should be compulsory, since it is
required so by international laws, norms
and standards which we have to observe,
no matter if we want it or not, if we do
not want to be “isolated” in the coming
years of the twentyfirst century. Some
thing like that was experienced by a part
of the Albanian nations in the past cen
tury with serious consequences that are
visible even nowadays.
This issue does not pertain to certain
groups of interest only, but it is interre
lated to the life philosophy of the envi
ronment we live and act in, if we analyze
our actions of last years, which verify
clearly the architectonic and urban iden
tity documented by the rich historical and
cultural heritage. It is strange that these
actions are not appreciated and treated
at all and do not occupy the place that
should belong to them in the pedestal of
our nation’s culture.
It is time that clear intellectual heads re
act to these actions to the benefit of all
of us and future generations. I am aware
that it is very difficult to explain and lat
er implement main elements of urban
identity in Kosovo. To many this is mis
sion impossible, but with the sacrifice of
real professionals and constant work of
all relevant state institutions this will start
to be realized.
(Author is president of the Council for
Spatial Planning of Kosovo CSPK)
Disa nga konferencat ndërkombëtare lidhur me zhvillime urbane në vitin 2012
Some of International conferences for Urban Development on 2012
Medjunarodne konferencije za Urbani Razvoj tokom 2012
February 2012
- Green Development: Sustainable Buildings and
Infrastructure Vancouver Canada
- Cognitive Research on Human Perception of Built
Environment for Health and Wellbeing Visakhapatnam
India
- Architecture for Leisure in Post-war Europe [1945-1989]
Leuven Belgium
- International Conference on Environmentally Sustainable
Urban Ecosystems (ENSURE 12) Guwahati India
March 2012
- International Conference on Sustainable Architecture and
Urban Design 2012 Penang Malaysia
- 2nd Global Conference: Urban Popcultures Prague Czech
Republic
- GLOBE 2012 Vancouver Canada
- 3rd Global Conference: Urban Fantasies - Magic and the
Supernatural Prague Czech Republic
April 2012
- Agriculture in an urbanizing society - International
Conference on Multifunctional Agriculture and Urban-Rural
Relations Wageningen Netherlands
- City2020+: Engineering Life Quality for the Future Aachen
Germany
- First International Conference on Architecture and Urban
Design (1-ICAUD) Tirana Albania
- ISVS-6 International Seminar on Vernacular Settlements
Famagusta Cyprus
- GreenAge 2012 Istanbul Turkey
May 2012
- 2nd International Congress on Urban and Environmental
Issues and Policies Trabzon Turkey
- 7th International Conference on Urban Regeneration and
Sustainability Ancona Italy
- REAL CORP 2012 - 17th International Conference on Urban
Planning, Regional Development and Information Society
Schwechat (Vienna's Airport City) Austria
June 2012
- EUROGEO 2012: Geography and Global Understanding:
Connecting the Sciences Dublin Ireland
- LONDONICITY 2012: The Second Annual London Studies
Conference - London: City of Transformations? London
United Kingdom
- Sustainable Futures 2012 Kampala Uganda
- World in Denmark 2012 - City PLANTastic Copenhagen
Denmark
July 2012
- World Cities Summit 2012 Singapore
August 2012
- 8th International Conference on Urban Climate – ICUC 8
Dublin Ireland
- September 2012
- 4th International Conference on Harmonisation between
Architecture and Nature Kos Greece
- Planning Africa 2012 Durban South Africa
October 2012
- Space Strategies 2012 San Diego Other
- GreeNets 2012 Gandia Spain
November 2012
- 13th World Conference of ACUUS: Underground Space
Development-Opportunities and Challenges Marina Bay
Sands, Singapore Singapore
- CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM IN THE
MEDITERRANEAN AND THE MIDDLE EAST CAUMME 2012
International Symposium Global Impacts Local Challenges
Istanbul Turkey
- Sustainability By Design: breaking the silos Auckland
New Zealand