This module is part of the course of Urban regeneration and community projects, which is focused on planning and designing the renaissance of cities in the era of urban decline. The challenge of urban transformations is not that of simply restoring and rebuilding the physical fabric of cities and this heritage, but providing a new local economic base to replace the one that has been lost, involving communities and different actors in the development project and decision making, in the view of a sustainable transformation, based on a trans-disciplinary and participatory approach.
This shared commitment needs contributions and collaboration from different disciplines like urban design, urban planning, sociology, anthropology, political science, civil engineering, art studies, economics, finance and management.
Therefore, the course will provide the students with the appropriate knowledge that includes all of the above disciplines, building a methodology and giving adequate instruments to intervene in decayed areas of the city, in particular in former industrial abandoned areas.
Following this, student will be able to collect and interpret information from different disciplines and take inputs from different actors and experts through field work. These analyses will be elaborated and presented and discussed in a world café section.
Based on this, in separate focus group sections, they will discuss the scenarios of transformation, arguing the decisions made and finely proposing a scenario. This scenario will be further developed by them through independent work.
Finally, once, different scenarios are built, an education game section will take place in order to evaluate the best scenario. The aim of this education game is to allow the student to face the complexity of urban planning in view of sustainable development dealing with trans-disciplinary and participatory approach.
In the education game section different stakeholders and actors are invited (real and simulated; ex. Professors of different disciplines, people from community, from municipality) to decide the best scenario of transformation of urban voids (vacant land and abandoned former industrial buildings) in Tirana. They are asked to compare and evaluate the scenarios arguing their evaluation. Students simultaneously will take notes on the evaluation using a multi-criteria matrix of evaluation, which will at the end show the best scenario. Through this section they will understand the dynamics of decision making, the importance of trans-disciplinarily and participation and the key role of urban planners as mediators between different stakeholders.