Imagining future spaces in architecture, city and landscape

TAW is a cultural event organized biannually by POLIS University aimed at promoting international knowledge linked to architecture practice and research activities, starting from the Albanian context and reaching out to the international scene, positioning Tirana and, more in general Albania, in the European and World map. The previous editions successfully accomplished the mission of exposing Albania to the international Architecture panorama.
The turn of the 21st century has been marked by dramatic changes in the political, social and environmental panorama, which are deeply affecting the way we live today: terrorism, migration and global warming are certainly the most pressing issues, and they are putting at risk our very life on this planet. This is why in the future architecture, city, and landscape should approach such emergencies fostering interaction and productive exchanges between different disciplines and cultures. Co-habitation can be achieved through tactics, which offer the possibility to generate new creative spaces within the fields of architecture, city and landscape. The challenge of the fourth edition of Tirana Architecture Week is to address the issue of co-habitation, exploring contemporary tactics to define future spaces in architecture, city and landscape. 

TAW 2018 Highlights

As in previous years, TAW 2018 will continue with events such as lectures, workshops, debates, exhibitions and more led by prominent artists and architects from Albania and the rest of Europe, like Nuno Gonçalvers Fontarra, Stephan Truby, Sotir Dhamo, William Veerbeelk, Reiner De Graaf and Franco Purini.
The first act of TAW 2018 is the international competition Gentle Invasions about adapting touristic facilities along the Albanian Riviera, which was launched in spring and ended in July 2018, while the winners will be announced during the first days of Tirana Architecture Week 2018.
Another highlight this year is the screening of the multi awarded documentary by Angel Borrego Cubero The Competition (taking place on 20 Sep at 21.30 at Tulla Nouvelle terrace), which documents the tense developments that characterize architectural contests - Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry, Dominique Perrault, Zaha Hadid and Norman Foster are selected to participate in the design of the future National Museum of Art of Andorra, a first in the Pyrenees small country. The screening will be accompanied by a lecture and introduction by the director Borrego Cubero.
The International Scientific Conference is taking place at Polis University between 20 and 23 September. The conference aims to explore contemporary research activities and design tactics that deal with the topic of co-habitation from different perspectives and within different fields of interest, directly or indirectly related to three contexts of architecture, city, and landscape and eight topics related to the concept of co-habitation (climate change, ecosystems, energy transitions, memory, migration, mobility, technology, tourism). Speakers include Stephan Truby, Sotir Dhamo, Camillo Boano, Maria Goula, Thomas Dillinger, Jason Hilgefort and many more in over 20 scientific parallel sessions. Full programme of TAW 2018.

Future Architecture alumni at TAW 2018

Future Architecture participants are featured prominently at this year's Tirana Architecture Week. Three workshops under the guidance of the creatives selected from the platform will take place from 24 to 28 September at Polis University, while three selected participants will give lectures and join the informal setting of Pechakucha Night Tirana Vol 05.

WORKSHOPS

All workshops will take place at Polis University from 24 to 28 September. Take part in one of the workshops.

HIDDEN POTENTIALS led by Charles Rauchs (TAB)
The aim of the workshop is to get to know and use urban interventions as a tool for understanding and changing the use of space, to discover hidden potentials and to re-evaluate and question established everyday rules and values. In the 4 days’ workshop we are going to choose one or more socially and architecturally interesting places, observe and analyse them in order to approach them with a programmatic and spatial context based on 1:1 simple urban intervention. Participants are invited to create a site-specific work which sheds light on the area and sets a new focus. More.

AIR REVERT led by Francisco Adão da Fonseca (SKREI)
The workshop will explore the challenge of not only how to build sustainably but also how to revert the unsustainable choices of the past. More.

TAXONOMY - Architecture as an act of curation led by Lera Samovich (fala atelier)
Architecture is an integration of making and thought. We are trying to establish our own discourse by questioning those who came before. The workshop looks at how we learn from projects, how we ‘read' and ‘translate’ their architecture, about disposition and deformation of the element. Projects are seen as a device to produce architecture, to design buildings by copying and to engage with the context of Tirana. This work with references is built around the idea of the taxonomy - the classification. Students will produce a comprehensive catalogue of important buildings to use it later as a tool to design their own projects. More.

LECTURES

JASON HILGEFORT (Institute for Autonomous Urbanism)
23 Sep at 10.30, Reja - Closing Ceremony of the International Conference
Jason Hilgefort is an urbanist|architect who studied at the University of British Columbia, University of Cincinnati, and is currently a PHD candidate at RMIT. His work experience includes working with Peter Calthorpe, Rahul Mehrotra, Maxwan A+U, and ZUS. He founded Land+Civilization Compositions, a Rotterdam|Hong Kong based design studio. He was a subcurator in the Shenzhen/Hong Kong Urbanism/Architecture Biennale. He is the Academic Director the Aformal Academy for urbanism|landscape|public art in Shenzhen. He was also a regular writer, contributing to assorted publications over the years including Volume, uncube, SITE and more. He recently founded the Institute for Autonomous Urbanism. More.

GAMELI LADZEKPO (RESOLVE)
26 Sep at 11.00, Polis University
RESOLVE is an interdisciplinary design collective that looks towards the synthesis of architecture, engineering, technology and art to address multi-scalar social challenges. Since forming in South London in 2016, they have built a diverse Portfolio. Projects include the Rebel Space, for The London Design Festival, and most recently, the winning commision for the Brixton Bridge Competition. Their projects aim to deliver tangible outcomes in the communities at the heart of their designs. Collaboration and co-production is a critical part of their ethos.  Community Focused Design, encompasses both physical and systemic interventions. Utilising public engagement and outreach activity to create open, accessible, inclusive experiences.  The Collective is led by Gameli Ladzekpo, Akil-Scafe-Smith and Seth Scafe-Smith. More.

MAKSYM ROKHMANIIKO (DOMA)
28 Sep at 20.30, Tulla Nouvelle terrace
Maksym Rokhmaniiko is an architect whose research and design work explores new forms of urban living enabled by emerging technologies. In parallel to his work at Leverage, Maksym is a founding partner and director of the architecture studio Anarcitects.
Let’s face it: the housing market is broken. All around the world, too many urban dwellers are resigning themselves to a lifetime of rent. It is time to change this unsustainable mode of urban living. DOMA is a shared ownership platform for affordable housing. Its principle is simple: to break down the value of urban property into thousands of blockchain-based digital tokens that can be traded autonomously. This logic, in turn, will enable access to the housing market and its benefits to people that are currently priced out of it. Operating as a non-profit cooperative, DOMA continuously purchases housing stock in the most dynamic urban areas and makes it available to the platform’s users. It provides equity shares in return for monthly payments, progressively turning its users into homeowners. DOMA slips between the built environment and its community of users to create the housing architecture that the contemporary city needs. More.

PECHAKUCHA NIGHT TIRANA VOL 05
25 Sep at 21.00, Destil Hotel
The leaders of the workshops Lea Samovich (fala atelier), Francisco Adão da Fonseca (SKREI), Charles Rauchs (TAB) will join a forum for the vibrant and lively exchange of ideas in the 20X20 format. More.