HIDDEN POTENTIALS

Concepted & Lead by:

Charlie Rauchs, Philippe Jans

[TAB] Austria

Assistance by:

Ermal Hoxha, Besjana Qaja

[Universiteti POLIS] Tirana / Albania

Participants:

Nicola, Klea, Rudiks, Ardiana, Zelma, Laura, Fatmir, Anamaria, Fllad, Egio, Eni, Mareda, Edona, Kevi, Alessia, Sara, Melisa, Adelaida, Iris, Klaudia, Gizem, Fatbardha, Endrit, Viktori, Oligerta, Mikela, Ina, Kejsi, Aurora, Bertila, Doriana, Ensixhei, Sedino, Kostandino, Gerald, Riada, Anissa, Miknela, Artjola, Ilda, Edona, Erli, Rebeka, Xhesjan, Besnik, Danja, Roland, Rixhers, Teuta, Enkeleda, Flavjo, Rexhina, Xhorxha, Sindi, Stivi, Aristea, Bleona, Simena, Estela, Eljesa, Enkeleida, Enald, Oliver, Sara, Melissa, Buljana, Anxhela, Lindja, Raxhino, Rei, Sindi, Teuta, Iliada Xhesika, Leticia, Iris Tielma, Deborah, Margen, Greis, Koral

ABSTRACT

The aim of the workshop is to get to know and use urban interventions as a tool to understand and change the use of space. Discover „Hidden Potentials”. Re-evaluate and question established everyday rules and values. How do we use the city in all its facets? The streams of everyday life in a city are guided through its architecture. Everybody has his way through a city. By following dictated rules, we unconsciously create routines. The focus lies in highlighting and breaking these routines through simple urban interventions. These interventions, actions or performances should make people interact differently than usual. Find the hidden potential in architectural environ- ments we might not see at first sight but can increase the quality of the chosen space.

OBJECTIVE

Create a site-specific work, which sheds light on the area and sets a new focus. Choose one or more socially and architecturally interesting places (abandoned places, misu- sed spaces, architectural areas we might overlook at first sight, etc.), observe and analyse them in order to approach the programmatic and spatial context based on a simple 1:1 per- formative urban intervention. Test, observe, document and analyse the intervention from three significant points of view. Summarize the reactions and abstract them graphically as a plan of action. Analyze different situations as before-and-after

METHODOLOGY

Plan of action – reflections / sketches / pictures / drawings urban intervention 1:1 - video documentation.Analysis of the chosen area (before/after): diagrams/ maps 200 Word Text explaining the conceptual idea of the project

CONCLUSIONS

The workshop was great success and fun. 86 students from Polis University took part in the 5 days’ workshop. All the 18 projects were very different highlighting issues or potentials of the city. The student learnt to work with easy and simple tools in public space and to use those tools to get in contact with the everyday users.

LIQENI ARTIFICIAL - THE CLOUD

In the city center of Tirana there is an artificial lake called Liqeni. The most attractive leisure and green spot in the city. Unfortunately, there is no functioning infrastructure around it. The students are convinced that it has way more potential. Transparent cloud installation at the lake, illustrating the vague, fuzzy and unclear situation of the lake, maybe even of the city. It’s a very conceptual intervention leaving the interpretation open to the user. Clouds - (Mikela, Ina, Kejsi)

TRAFFIC - HOLES IN THE STREETS

Another issue in Tirana are the unclosed manholes in the streets, if you don’t see them in time you can easily get stuck in them with your car, or even fall inside them while crossing the street.

TRAFFIC - CROSSWALKS FOR PEDESTRIANS / ZEBRA CROSSING

Car drivers in Tirana can generally be considered as very aggressive. In many streets there are no zebra crossing for pedestrians even though they would be needed. Sometimes, even when there are some, the car drivers don’t have the patience to respect the people crossing and push them until they hurry up. It’s time for change.

Upper pic / Holes in the streets - (Fatbardha, Endrit, Viktori, Oligerta) Lower pic / Zebra crossing games - (Klaudia, Gizem)

POLLUTION - WATER

Tirana is surrounded by mountains, so you might think that the tab Water should be clean and drinkable. But it is not? Why do people from Tirana have to pay for the drinking water out of the plastic bottles? where is the clean water?

A big yellow straw on a water pipe to illustrate the issue and to make people aware of the situation. Surrounded by mountains full of fresh drinking water but it doesn’t reach Tiranas citizens.

Upper pic / Holes in the streets - (Fatbardha, Endrit, Viktori, Oligerta) Lower pic / Zebra crossing games - (Klaudia, Gizem)