european magazine

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 vis vis spatial urban 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 inter neighborhood 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 vis vis requirements of the European Union are: Inclusiveness and urban developments; Public private 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 vis vis 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 multi dimensional.

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 Kiku. Kosovo Foundation for Open Society Address: Ulpiana, Imzot Nik Prela, Villa No. 13, 10000 Prishtina; Phone no.: +381 38 542 157; e mail address: info@kfos.org

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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 Kui 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 Vckler 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 Buinca Page 40 A VISION FOR KOSOVA Prparim 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

Urban developments

IN THIS ISSUE

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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
Both examples come from Peja and have to do with positive effects that par

Concentration of activities phenomenon that seeks attention

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 nave 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 private public partnership could be transferred to this area. Current trends show that customers 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 center zone due to frequent visits.

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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.

planned, systematic and well structured, 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 vis 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

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 pre feasibility. 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.

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 win win concept. This communication should be

PPP public private partnership, for more functional and attractive city

(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 social historic 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 social economic 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 cial economic developments, as well as 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 suburban urban (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 suburban urban 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
Photo: Besim Gollopeni, Prishtin, 2010

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
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 de integrations, 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

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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 de integrations, 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 nations 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 Fush Krujas population have increased 10 fold, 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 6 7 out of 10 objects built after 1990 in Albania have been constructed in an informal/illegal manner.

The mysteries that prevent Al banias 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 nations territory. The poor have admirable abilities re garding the accumulation of assets. It suffices to look at the permit less 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 200000 300000 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 extra legal 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 populations 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 nations 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 well being. 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 extra legal wealth has been a key element in mak ing the United States the markets most important economy and the worlds 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 extra legal norms and regulations of property that pertained to societys 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 extra legal 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 extra legal 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

velopment of a strategy that provides legal regulations in this area. The mystery of the laws 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 well being. 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 well being. 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.

Demolished illegal buildings

(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 one way 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 long term 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 urb architectonic 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

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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 pilot projects. Two projects were conducted, the one in Peja with the NGO s 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 lot project in Gjilan, park Arbria.

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Participatory planning in Kosovo

Park Arbria
The process for park Arbria 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 Arbria known in Gjilan as for mer cattle market was wasteland, every bodys and nobodys 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

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 Arbria 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 Arbria. 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 Public Private Partnership (PPP). Involvement of banks through their community fund to crate spaces and children playgrounds will also be present. Lastly, UN Habitat 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 Arbria, 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 twenty first 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 spatial urban plan ning/development is politics and vice a 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!
Prishtina 1965

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

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 voluntary social 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)

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Kosovo, by using the Law on Spatial Planning, lack of other legal acts supporting the law, ambiguity and lack of clarity of spatial municipal urban 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 spatial municipal urban 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 renewal overbuilding 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

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

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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?

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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 spatial urban 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 spatial urban 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

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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)

Are there correct divisions of statis 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.

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/L 106, 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.

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

vision of territory of Kosovo in an exact number of regions, in the beginning the 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 NUTS 3 and is composed of several mu nicipalities. Another level of information sharing in statistical regions is the one ex pressed by acronym NUTS 2, which again may be local, but is a little wider and is composed of two (2) or more regions of the NUTS 3 level. Usually, the level de termined by NUTS 1 and NUTS 0 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 NUTS 2 (or in cases when NUTS 2 is also reserved for the central level, then the lo cal level ends with NUTS 3). 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 NUTS 0, which contain sever al greater spaces or states (such as lands in Germany) that are determined as sta tistical regions by the acronym NUTS 1.

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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 aspiring candidate country several years before Slovenia, which was already member of the European Union. Why shouldnt 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 trans border, 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 NUTS 2 and NUTS 3. 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

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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 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

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 NUTS 3 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.

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, Sknderaj, Zvean, Leposaviq and Zubin Potok, 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, agro industrial and touristic represent the southeastern and southwestern parts of Kosovo, composed of the following munici palities: 1) Ferizaj, Shtrpce, Kaanik, Gjilan, Viti, Novobrdo and Kamenica, in the center with the cities of Ferizaj and Gjilan; 2) Gjakova, Dean, Rahovec and Malishevo with Gjakova city in the center. Kosovo gardens (Orange spaces) cul tural touristic, service and commercial, agro industrial 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.

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2. Prishtina region with composing mu nicipalities: Prishtina, Obiliqi, F. Kosova, Podujevo, Drenas, Shtimje, Lypjan, Graanica and Novobrdo, to which Prishtina is the main regional center; 3. Mitrovica region with composing mu nicipalities: Mitrovica, Vushtrri, Skn deraj, Zvean, 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, Dean, 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, Shtrpce, Kaanik, 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!
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

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, NGO s 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 NUTS 3 regions (while the level of regions NUTS 2 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 NUTS 0, whereas again level NUTS 2 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 area municipality);

Conclusion
Such strengthening of Kosovo in re gions NUTS 3 (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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Urban development

QUEST FOR URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Flamur Kui
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 Kosovas 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

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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

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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 self provision 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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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). Albanias 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 sez faire 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)

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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 non recognition or neglect causes the process of urban development
Kosovo parliament, approval of the strategic development documents

to result with non functional 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 multi sectional 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, Lakrishte 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 non involvement 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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stitutional Framework for Provisional Self Governance which used toe deter mine responsibility in this area. The Pro gram of the Government of the Repub lic of Kosovo 2011 2014, 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 public private 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 2011 2014, 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.

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 MESP MPALG 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

(Author works in the Department of Spa tial Planning, the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning)

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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.
Public space in Peja

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

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 klliye 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 arshia commercial/handicraft road and bazaar city market. 1.2 POST OTTOMAN 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 arshia e Gjakovs. 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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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. Non understanding of importance of preservation of built architectonic and ur ban heritage caused massive loss of his torical urban part, including public space especially arshia, 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 elses problem (Douglas Adams).

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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.

Public space in Peja

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.

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

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

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 Nn 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 Pejas 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 UN Habi 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 self funding.

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, non transparent 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 non trans 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, UN Habitat, 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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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.

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

(Author works in the Faculty of Archi tecture/Department of Urbanism/Uni versity of Prishtina, also heads projection company Urban +)

Mother Teresa boulevard

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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 inter border 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 Rome Constan 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 inter bor der cooperation. In the last two decades, the biggest EU allocated funds were dedicated to strengthening of inter border 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 inter border 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 Alps Adriatic 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, inter border 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 Pre Association), a compo nent of which is inter border 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 inter border projects they will be able to absorb funds allo cated by the EU for different strategic tar gets. Only thanks to multidimensional component of inter border 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, Kora 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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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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harmonizing perspectives for balanced development of Bjeshkt 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 urban rural 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.

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 inter border 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 inter border 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 inter border 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

(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 Vckler
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 post war 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 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 so called 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: Single family 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: Single family houses lo cated inside the city, where the building owners own the land and are usually part of the neighborhood community; the owner generally doesnt 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

Fig 1. Illegal construction in Prishtina

Collaborators have been Hackenbroich Architekten (Berlin) and Co PLAN (Tirana). The project has been supported by ERSTE Foundation and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (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

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. 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 urban architectural 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 (buildings static) and Earthquake (buildings dynamic) .

Fig. 3. Minimum Standards for legalization

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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 Prishtinas 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 2010 2013 adopted by the Municipality in 2010.

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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 well execut 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 well established 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.

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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 non governmental 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.
Analyses of urban growth (source IPH)

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.

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

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 2010 2020+ approved by the Assembly of Kosovo on 16.06.2011

Urban growth in Prishtina (source IPH)

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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 so called 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 continuethe 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)

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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 sub contracting 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 2007 2008 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. 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. 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 UN HABITAT, CHWB and the Institute for 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! 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. 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

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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

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 sub contracting. This also contributes in the optimal use not only of internal resources but also

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of professional expertise of donors and partners involved in the process. 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

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development. Thus, thanks to instructions contained in the MDL, Junik is carrying out different projects that generate jobs, income and continuous tourist cul tural projects and activities. It suffices that you spend a weekend there and you will realize...

s enabling the process to gain more le gitimacy in the eyes of all stakeholders. 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

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)

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KOSOVA WITH DISTURBED URBAN-ARCHITECTONICS

Architect Nexharije Buinca
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 urban architecture 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), non functioning of the establishment for urbanism and projecting, as well as public enterprises and many other fac tors..

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, not renewed 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 urban ar 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 un driven because accelerated changes have overcome the methods according to which dwellings used to be oriented.

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 American Indian Proverb A great number of entities decide about

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 non compliance 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.

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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.

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that it is an important issue that involves irreparable damages to community, en vironment and economy. The medium term development strategy of Prishtina 2008 2011, 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:

Habitation
The structure of human dwelling places relies on a three legged 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 city city 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

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.

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)

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A VISION FOR KOSOVA

Prparim 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 Prishtinas and Kosovas 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 Kosovos transfor mation. One of the most well known 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. Its 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 well educated 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 pre em inent logistics hub and centre for innovation The proposed new devel opments can re energize 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 pre em 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, e learn 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 re in 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

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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 short stay apart ments and office hotels 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

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Attractive urban design of pattern in the city of Brussels

that encourages more avant garde 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 city regions 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 well connect 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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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 re connect 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 re direct their spend ing into the re generation 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 SMEs 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.

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THE GIS ROLE IN URBAN PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

Rizah Murseli
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 geo ref 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:
Map of Kosovo as per Spatial Plan f Kosovo (Source ISP)

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 physical geo graphical, social and technological complex interrelated to an anchoring

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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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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 2005 2015+, whereas the following municipalities are among the first ones to have used this system: Suhareka, Peja, Istog, Shtime, Kaanik 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.

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 well informed 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 Mathematics Natural 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

(Author is Geographer & GIS specialist)

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URBAN DEVELOPMENT VERSUS REAL ESTATE MANAGEMENT IN KOSOVO

Visar Hoxha
Two major transitions have taken place in Kosovos 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. Kosovos 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 planners 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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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 ners will to regulate the space in Koso vo, which is reflected through the po litical pressure on planners 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)

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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.
Consultants in planning

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 post war period there were uncontrollable urban develop

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/L 106 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 Self Governance 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 non application 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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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

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.

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 non application 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

(Author is senior legal official, Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning)

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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 urban architectonic development in the city of Prishtina, pen etration and influence of European West 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
Today Kosovo Museum

ning of XX century, is of utmost importance. The city of Prishtina, as the center of the Vilayet of Kosovo (within 1878 1912), 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

1 neighborhood/mahala of 44 houses; 2 Mosque of Mehmed Beg; 6 Mosque of Alajdin; 7 Mosque of Junuz Kadi; 10 Mosque Hatunije; 11 Mosque Ramadan Cakusa; Mosque Jarar Caribas

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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 Loka, (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

Zbornik radova, knjiga XIV, Etnografski Institut, Bg. 1951, Page 27 28.

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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

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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.

ishtina and the urban area during the pe riod of 1878 1912, 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 buildings 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;

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 1569 1570, 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

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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 arshia (the space between arshi mosque 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;

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neers, with the purpose of improving the strategy and conditions of Ottoman Em pire military, according to European models;

Assembly building in Beyoglu 1861 1876, ark. Barborini

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.

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

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 (mcidiye Kislasi) 1849 1853, ark. W.J. Smith

Administrative building of Shkodra Vilayet from 1878iuntil 1912, Shkodra

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structures was located in the central part of the city, in the part of arsha e Vjetr 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: 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.

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

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 revitalizationthe 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 1878 1912 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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Kosovo museum. Basement Plan

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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 1878 1912, between the old mosque in Prishtina, arshi 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 Sahat kulla 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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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

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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 faade 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 semi circle.

The Museum Building is the most im portant historical architectonic 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 military administrative 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 IDENTITY IN KOSOVO

Arch. Ylber Vokshi Ylli
Nothing better than an urban entirety, compound or architectonic object, may document or tell age long 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 fountain heads, 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 arshia 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 twenty first 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 cultural his torical objects that were under the state protection have systematically disap peared in the last twelve years. The fact that again since the post war period we will treat these cultural historical 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

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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 co owners (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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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 ty first 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 twenty first 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 nations 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 ndrkombtare lidhur me zhvillime urbane n 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