Reconnecting with nature
Interrupted Lanscape
Possible development scenarios for the informal settlement of Keneta, Dürres
The project envisions Durrës, Albania, reconnecting with nature by blending urban growth with productive, sustainable landscapes. Focusing on the area between the city and countryside, it transforms the Këneta and surrounding territories into dynamic hubs that integrate agriculture, infrastructure, and community spaces. The project preserves local identities and informal architecture, fostering an urban environment that thrives in harmony with nature, enhancing environmental well-being.
Albania
Local
Dürres, Albania
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
Early concept
No
No
As a representative of an organisation
The project in Durrës, Albania, aims to create a sustainable and inclusive urban environment by addressing ecological, social, and economic challenges. Focusing on marginalized communities, particularly in informal settlements in the Këneta district, the project fosters equitable access to housing, public services, and green infrastructure, while reconnecting urban and rural landscapes. This urban regeneration model balances ecological restoration and social inclusion. The project seeks to revitalize degraded ecosystems, such as the Këneta wetlands, while promoting circular economies and community-driven processes. A key component is the provision of affordable housing through "Progressive Residences," modular homes that allow families to expand their living spaces, alongside the establishment of a Community Land Trust to ensure long-term affordability. Green mobility is also prioritized by transforming Rruga Aleksander Goga into a green mobility corridor, integrating pedestrian, cycling, and public transport networks to reconnect marginalized areas. Ecological restoration is achieved through phytoremediation and agroecological practices that restore biodiversity, improve soil health, and enhance climate resilience. Residents will engage in co-designing their environment through the Civic Hub, legalizing informal settlements and providing decentralized utilities like solar panels and composting toilets.
The project also preserves cultural continuity, blending traditional Albanian architecture with modern design elements in public spaces like the Urban Condenser. These spaces reflect local identity while fostering social interaction. Through this participatory approach, the project empowers residents to become active stewards of their environment. By integrating ecological, social, and economic dimensions, it provides a vision for a resilient, inclusive city that reconnects with nature, aligning with broader European goals of sustainable urban regeneration.
The project also preserves cultural continuity, blending traditional Albanian architecture with modern design elements in public spaces like the Urban Condenser. These spaces reflect local identity while fostering social interaction. Through this participatory approach, the project empowers residents to become active stewards of their environment. By integrating ecological, social, and economic dimensions, it provides a vision for a resilient, inclusive city that reconnects with nature, aligning with broader European goals of sustainable urban regeneration.
Adaptive green Infrastructure
Phytoremediation
Enhancing biodiversity
Ecological Regeneration
Productive Landscape
The Interrupted Landscape project in Durrës, Albania, envisions the city’s future over the next 50 years through sustainability, focusing on circular material housing, green mobility infrastructure, and adaptive reuse. Using local, low-impact materials like rammed earth and reclaimed timber, it reduces embodied carbon and improves thermal efficiency, addressing housing scarcity caused by post-dictatorship land privatization. Unregulated coastal development left many with unaffordable homes, forcing residents into self-built housing without utilities until 2015. The project proposes renewable energy (solar panels, biogas from agricultural waste) and rainwater harvesting to reduce grid reliance and foster self-sufficiency.
Central to the plan is transforming Alexander Goga Street into a green mobility corridor, repurposing obsolete infrastructure for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport. This adaptive infrastructure reconnects fragmented areas, promoting circularity and community services. In the Keneta district, agroecological zones merge food production with urban renewal, creating a symbiotic relationship between residents and their environment. The project also addresses historical environmental damage, such as wetland loss and harbor pollution, by restoring ecosystems through techniques like phytoremediation to rehabilitate saline soils and revive wetlands. By integrating social and environmental solutions, Interrupted Landscape builds climate resilience, transforming post-industrial areas into self-sustaining habitats. It embodies the New European Bauhaus (NEB) vision, where beauty lies in ecological regeneration and community well-being, offering a blueprint for sustainable urban futures.
Aesthetically, the project reimagines Durrës as a "productive landscape," merging functionality with cultural identity. It builds on existing structures, particularly informal settlements, which are reframed not as unsightly necessities but as insights into the spatial needs of residents. Architectural interventions blend traditional Albanian vernacular—such as courtyard typologies and textured masonry—with modernist minimalism, using clean lines and modularity to harmonize old and new. Public spaces like the Urban Condenser, a community hub integrating markets and workshops, and the Coastal Promenade, reactivating derelict port areas, emphasize sensory richness through native plantings, tactile materials, and shaded gathering zones. These spaces reflect the Albanian way of life, where streets serve as public spaces, echoing Ottoman-era urbanism while incorporating modern civic centers. The design also repurposes socialist-era infrastructure into civic landmarks, such as transforming a disused factory into a branch of the University of Tirana’s agricultural and biodiversity department. Streetscapes are redefined as "slow corridors," where pedestrian pathways intertwine with urban farms, creating layered experiences of movement and stillness. By framing daily activities—like farming and commuting—as rituals of belonging, the project fosters collective stewardship and deep-rooted attachment to place. This approach demonstrates how design can balance aesthetic appeal with cultural continuity, transforming Durrës into a model of sustainable, community-centered urbanism.
Inclusion is central to the project, realized through affordable housing models, participatory governance, and universal accessibility. The "Progressive Residences" allow families to expand their homes incrementally using prefabricated modules, keeping costs low while adapting to evolving needs. A community land trust ensures permanent affordability, countering speculation and displacement. The Civic Hub serves as a decentralized platform for co-design, enabling residents to shape policies on resource allocation and public-space programming. Accessibility is prioritized through slope-free pathways, tactile paving, and multi-generational facilities, such as childcare centers integrated with senior housing.The project empowers informal settlers in Keneta by legalizing self-built structures and upgrading them with decentralized utilities like composting toilets and microgrids. By treating inclusivity as both a social and spatial practice, it bridges ethnic and economic divides through shared landscapes, transforming marginalized zones into vibrant, equitable communities. This "soft urbanism" model balances individual autonomy with collective care, offering a blueprint for cities facing rapid urbanization and inequality.The project rethinks mainstream urbanism, which often risks gentrification and exclusion, by proposing an adaptive, flexible masterplan. It demonstrates how high-quality design can serve those typically left out of planning processes, reconnecting Durrës’ productive landscapes, coastal biodiversity, and natural assets within a regional framework stretching to Tirana. Currently overlooked by the government due to their exclusion from tourist routes, these areas can become a vibrant hub where production, landscape, and academia collaborate for sustainable progress. This approach not only revitalizes Durrës but also sets a precedent for inclusive, resilient urban development.
The Interrupted Landscape project prioritizes bottom-up engagement, empowering citizens and civil society as co-creators. If implemented, residents of Keneta’s informal settlements could lead the legalization and retrofitting of self-built homes, collaborating with architects to install decentralized utilities like composting toilets and solar panels, tailored to their needs. The Civic Hub acts as a decentralized platform where locals co-design policies on resource allocation, public-space programming, and housing expansion through "Progressive Residences." Workshops with informal settlers, supported by NGOs like Co-PLAN, could identify accessibility features (tactile paving, multi-generational facilities) and community priorities. Phytoremediation strategies to rehabilitate saline soils could involve farmers, blending traditional knowledge with technical expertise in co-developed agroecological zones. This approach transforms passive beneficiaries into active stewards, reducing unsafe urban sprawl while fostering a sense of ownership and shaping their vision of the city. Public spaces are designed based on resident feedback, ensuring cultural relevance and long-term maintenance. For larger investments, such as reimagining Alexander Goga Street, municipal support is crucial. The project underscores the need for soft mobility solutions, proposing small-scale pilot projects like tactical urbanism experiments—drawing bike lanes or introducing a shuttle bus connecting the city center to Porto Romano. By breaking the project into smaller, actionable steps, it builds momentum for broader change, demonstrating how incremental interventions can inspire transformative urban development. This approach balances community-driven initiatives with strategic municipal collaboration, creating a model for inclusive, sustainable urbanism.
The Interrupted Landscape project will emphasize multi-level stakeholder engagement to align local, national, and European efforts for sustainable urban development. Locally, the Bashkia Durrës (municipality) will play a central role in providing land-tenure frameworks and facilitating community participation, ensuring grassroots needs are addressed. Residents of informal settlements, particularly in the Këneta district, will be actively involved in co-design processes, such as legalizing and retrofitting self-built homes with decentralized utilities like solar panels and composting toilets. Regionally, the project will align with the Tirana-Durrës Economic Corridor, integrating green mobility networks and rehabilitating disused infrastructure, such as old factories, with input from Polis University of Tirana. Nationally, it will complement Albania 2030 policies, offering scalable models for affordable housing and ecological restoration that could be replicated in other cities. European partners, such as the Swiss Cooperation Office, would provide technical assistance for circular material practices, while EU programs could support climate-resilient infrastructure like rainwater harvesting and biogas systems.
This multi-stakeholder approach will ensure that ecological restoration, such as the phytoremediation of the Këneta wetlands and the fitodepurative systems in Porto Romano, is embedded within a broader framework of social inclusion, economic sustainability, and urban regeneration. By fostering collaboration across scales, the project will transform local challenges into opportunities for resilient, inclusive development, setting a precedent for other cities in the Balkans and beyond.
This multi-stakeholder approach will ensure that ecological restoration, such as the phytoremediation of the Këneta wetlands and the fitodepurative systems in Porto Romano, is embedded within a broader framework of social inclusion, economic sustainability, and urban regeneration. By fostering collaboration across scales, the project will transform local challenges into opportunities for resilient, inclusive development, setting a precedent for other cities in the Balkans and beyond.
The project adopts a multi-level approach, integrating ecological restoration with social, economic, and urban development goals. A key focus is the ecological revival of the Këneta wetlands and Porto Romano, using phytoremediation to rehabilitate saline soils and phytodepurative systems to address industrial pollution. These nature-based solutions restore biodiversity, improve water quality, and enhance flood resilience, reconnecting the city with its natural landscapes. However, the project goes beyond ecology. It combines these efforts with affordable housing models, green mobility networks, and community empowerment to create a holistic vision for Durrës. The restoration of the Këneta and Porto Romano is intertwined with the transformation of Rruga Aleksander Goga into a green corridor, the legalization of informal settlements, and the introduction of decentralized utilities like solar panels and rainwater harvesting. This multi-layered strategy ensures the interaction of urban planning, environmental science, sociology, and architecture through iterative, cross-sector workflows. Architects and engineers co-designed rammed-earth housing modules with input from material scientists to optimize thermal performance and embodied carbon. Agroecologists partnered with local farmers to map soil remediation strategies, integrating native vegetation into urban green corridors. Sociologists facilitated participatory workshops, ensuring marginalized groups—like informal settlers and ethnic minorities—shaped the Civic Hub’s governance protocols. Artists and historians reinterpreted socialist-era infrastructure (e.g., repurposed factories as cultural centers) to strengthen place-based identity. This fusion enables systemic innovation: a replicable model where ecological, social, and aesthetic values are mutually reinforcing.
The Interrupted Landscape project focuses on the ecological restoration of the Këneta wetlands and Porto Romano, prioritizing the protection of existing landscapes and biodiversity while integrating innovative, nature-based solutions. At its core, the project employs phytoremediation techniques to rehabilitate degraded soils, particularly saline areas in the Këneta, using native plants to purify the land and restore its ecological balance. This approach not only revives the wetlands but also enhances biodiversity, creating habitats for local flora and fauna. In Porto Romano, the project aims to remediate pollution from industrial activities by introducing phytodepurative systems— that filter contaminants and improve water quality. These interventions are designed to protect and restore the natural ecosystems while reconnecting the city with its coastal environment. By preserving the unique landscapes of the Këneta and Porto Romano, the project safeguards their ecological functions, such as flood mitigation and carbon sequestration, while fostering a harmonious relationship between urban development and nature.The project innovates by integrating informal settlement upgrades into systemic urban regeneration, diverging from conventional approaches that often segregate informal areas or prioritize demolition. While mainstream actions focus on isolated greenfield developments or superficial retrofits, this initiative rethinks self-built neighborhoods as assets through incremental legalization (e.g., converting informal structures into energy-efficient homes with decentralized utilities) and community-driven agroecological corridors that remediate saline soils via phytoremediation. Unlike top-down models, it introduces a "soft urbanism" framework, by treating informal settlements not as crises but as partners in climate resilience, the project pioneers a replicable hybrid of social equity and ecological repair absent in mainstream urban policy.
The Interrupted Landscape project employs a multi-scale approach to integrate ecological restoration, infrastructure improvement, and housing solutions within a vision of productive landscape development. At the territorial scale, the project focuses on restoring degraded ecosystems, such as the Këneta wetlands and Porto Romano, through phytoremediation and fitodepurative systems. These nature-based solutions rehabilitate saline soils, purify water, and enhance biodiversity, reconnecting the city with its natural landscapes while addressing historical environmental scars.
At the urban scale, the project improves green and social infrastructure by transforming Rruga Aleksander Goga into a green mobility corridor. This adaptive reuse of obsolete infrastructure prioritizes pedestrian and cyclist networks, public transport, and community services, fostering connectivity and reducing reliance on cars. Public spaces, like the Urban Condenser and Coastal Promenade, are designed to reflect local cultural identity while integrating native plantings and shaded gathering zones.
At the neighborhood scale, the project addresses housing scarcity by retrofitting informal settlements in the Këneta district. Modular, low-cost housing solutions, such as "Progressive Residences," allow families to expand their homes incrementally using prefabricated modules. These interventions are complemented by decentralized utilities like solar panels and rainwater harvesting, ensuring affordability and sustainability. By blending traditional Albanian architectural elements with modernist design, the project creates a harmonious relationship between old and new, preserving cultural identity while improving living conditions.
This multi-scale approach ensures that ecological restoration, infrastructure upgrades, and housing solutions are interconnected, fostering a resilient, inclusive, and productive urban landscape.
At the urban scale, the project improves green and social infrastructure by transforming Rruga Aleksander Goga into a green mobility corridor. This adaptive reuse of obsolete infrastructure prioritizes pedestrian and cyclist networks, public transport, and community services, fostering connectivity and reducing reliance on cars. Public spaces, like the Urban Condenser and Coastal Promenade, are designed to reflect local cultural identity while integrating native plantings and shaded gathering zones.
At the neighborhood scale, the project addresses housing scarcity by retrofitting informal settlements in the Këneta district. Modular, low-cost housing solutions, such as "Progressive Residences," allow families to expand their homes incrementally using prefabricated modules. These interventions are complemented by decentralized utilities like solar panels and rainwater harvesting, ensuring affordability and sustainability. By blending traditional Albanian architectural elements with modernist design, the project creates a harmonious relationship between old and new, preserving cultural identity while improving living conditions.
This multi-scale approach ensures that ecological restoration, infrastructure upgrades, and housing solutions are interconnected, fostering a resilient, inclusive, and productive urban landscape.
The project offers several replicable elements that can be adapted to other contexts, benefiting diverse groups and addressing similar urban challenges.
- Modular Housing Solutions: The "Progressive Residences" model, which allows families to incrementally expand their homes using prefabricated modules, can be replicated in cities facing housing shortages. This approach ensures affordability and adaptability, making it suitable for informal settlements or rapidly urbanizing areas.
- Decentralized Utilities: Technologies like solar microgrids, biogas systems, and rainwater harvesting are scalable and transferable. These solutions reduce reliance on external grids and can be implemented in remote or underserved communities to improve energy and water access.
- Green Mobility Corridors: Transforming obsolete infrastructure into green mobility networks, as demonstrated with Rruga Aleksander Goga, is a replicable strategy for cities with underutilized or degraded infrastructure. This approach promotes soft mobility, reduces carbon emissions, and enhances urban connectivity.
- Ecological Restoration Techniques: Phytoremediation and fitodepurative systems for rehabilitating degraded landscapes, such as wetlands or polluted industrial sites, can be applied in other regions facing similar environmental challenges. These nature-based solutions are cost-effective and environmentally sustainable.
- Agroecological Zones: Integrating urban food production with ecological renewal, as seen in the Keneta district, can be replicated in cities seeking to enhance food security, biodiversity, and community resilience.
By combining these elements, the project provides a holistic framework for sustainable urban development that can be tailored to different contexts, offering a blueprint for cities grappling with housing crises, environmental degradation, and social inequality.
- Modular Housing Solutions: The "Progressive Residences" model, which allows families to incrementally expand their homes using prefabricated modules, can be replicated in cities facing housing shortages. This approach ensures affordability and adaptability, making it suitable for informal settlements or rapidly urbanizing areas.
- Decentralized Utilities: Technologies like solar microgrids, biogas systems, and rainwater harvesting are scalable and transferable. These solutions reduce reliance on external grids and can be implemented in remote or underserved communities to improve energy and water access.
- Green Mobility Corridors: Transforming obsolete infrastructure into green mobility networks, as demonstrated with Rruga Aleksander Goga, is a replicable strategy for cities with underutilized or degraded infrastructure. This approach promotes soft mobility, reduces carbon emissions, and enhances urban connectivity.
- Ecological Restoration Techniques: Phytoremediation and fitodepurative systems for rehabilitating degraded landscapes, such as wetlands or polluted industrial sites, can be applied in other regions facing similar environmental challenges. These nature-based solutions are cost-effective and environmentally sustainable.
- Agroecological Zones: Integrating urban food production with ecological renewal, as seen in the Keneta district, can be replicated in cities seeking to enhance food security, biodiversity, and community resilience.
By combining these elements, the project provides a holistic framework for sustainable urban development that can be tailored to different contexts, offering a blueprint for cities grappling with housing crises, environmental degradation, and social inequality.
The Interrupted Landscape project tackles four pressing global challenges with innovative, locally-rooted solutions that can inspire cities worldwide. First, it addresses urban informality and speculative development, a crisis particularly acute in Balkan cities and post-communist dictatorships. After the fall of communism, rapid urbanization saw people migrating from the countryside to cities like Durrës, only to find no affordable housing. This led to the rise of informal settlements, where residents built homes without legal recognition or access to basic services. By introducing progressive incrementation housing in Durrës’ Këneta district, the project ensures long-term affordability and prevents displacement, offering a scalable fix for cities battling similar post-dictatorship urban challenges.
Second, it combats coastal climate vulnerability, from salinization to flooding, worsened by rising temperatures. The project integrates agroecological corridors with salt-tolerant crops like Salicornia, blending disaster resilience with food security—a model perfect for delta and coastal cities on the frontlines of climate change.
Third, it addresses post-industrial decay, a global issue with 30% of industrial sites lying vacant. By transforming derelict buildings along Alexander Goga Street into a green mobility spine with bike paths, renewable microgrids, and public services, the project breathes new life into abandoned spaces, aligning with the EU Green Deal’s vision of circularity.
Through these bold, hyperlocal interventions, the Interrupted Landscape project delivers scalable solutions to global challenges—housing inequality, climate resilience, and economic renewal—proving that sustainable urban development is not just possible, but replicable.
Second, it combats coastal climate vulnerability, from salinization to flooding, worsened by rising temperatures. The project integrates agroecological corridors with salt-tolerant crops like Salicornia, blending disaster resilience with food security—a model perfect for delta and coastal cities on the frontlines of climate change.
Third, it addresses post-industrial decay, a global issue with 30% of industrial sites lying vacant. By transforming derelict buildings along Alexander Goga Street into a green mobility spine with bike paths, renewable microgrids, and public services, the project breathes new life into abandoned spaces, aligning with the EU Green Deal’s vision of circularity.
Through these bold, hyperlocal interventions, the Interrupted Landscape project delivers scalable solutions to global challenges—housing inequality, climate resilience, and economic renewal—proving that sustainable urban development is not just possible, but replicable.
The Implementation Roadmap for the project is designed to build on the extensive research and analysis we’ve already conducted while taking concrete steps to bring the project to the next level. As a small team, we have established valuable contacts and network, but we now need funding to continue our work, refine our ideas, and move closer to implementation. Over the next year, we plan to deepen our research and engagement by traveling to Durrës at least four times, provided we secure the necessary support, such as through the New European Bauhaus (NEB) initiative. These visits will allow us to conduct on-site surveys, organize workshops with local communities, and collaborate more closely with key stakeholders, including the Bashkia Durrës (municipality), NGOs like Co-PLAN, and academic partners such as the University of Tirana and Politecnico di Bari. These collaborations will be crucial for accessing detailed soil analysis and pollution data, particularly for the Këneta wetlands and Porto Romano, which will inform our ecological restoration strategies, such as phytoremediation and fitodepurative systems. Our goal is to refine the project into smaller, actionable components that can serve as prototypes, making it easier to present to municipalities and stakeholders. These prototypes will allow us to test and iterate our ideas, ensuring they are both practical and scalable.
Securing funding will also enable us to strengthen our stakeholder engagement efforts, organizing workshops and presentations to make the project more visible and gather feedback from the community. By aligning our work with local priorities and national policies like Albania 2030, we aim to position the Interrupted Landscape as a replicable model for sustainable urban development, not just in Durrës but in other cities facing similar challenges.
In short, the next year will be about transforming our early-concept project into a tangible, prototype-driven initiative.
Securing funding will also enable us to strengthen our stakeholder engagement efforts, organizing workshops and presentations to make the project more visible and gather feedback from the community. By aligning our work with local priorities and national policies like Albania 2030, we aim to position the Interrupted Landscape as a replicable model for sustainable urban development, not just in Durrës but in other cities facing similar challenges.
In short, the next year will be about transforming our early-concept project into a tangible, prototype-driven initiative.
