REFORM

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Excursions Of Scale: Urban Proposals for a Country the Size of a City. KOSOVO: A PLAN FOR A COUNTRY OF MINIMAL REVENUE War in Kosovo left the country poorest in Europe, major assets include agricultural land and nature reserves are underdeveloped and the urban concept attempts to address the scenario. Lack of communication is Kosovo’s striking weakness; poor public infrastructure caused depopulation from majority of areas into main cities resulting in illegal constructions on untitled land, hindering plans for development and cause stagnant economy. Primary concept is promoting territorial cooperation between economically stronger areas with the weaker by decentralisation into city-states, an integration concerned with developing potential economy sectors. Decentralisation promises regional autonomy, beneficial in simultaneous development throughout Kosovo. Industrial centre for agriculture is introduced to serve as generator and leasehold land tenure initiates investments into public infrastructure, which can be executed more efficiently under decentralised system. 8 new city-states are given identities; differentiation in economic roles and activities promotes complementary relationship between cities and avoids competition of similarities. Introduction of identity requires special buildings to act as catalysts, built on specific location to readily assume significance of a civic building.





Tasks involved in this project: 1. Propose an urban concept for whole of Kosovo, which recently had their independence in 2008. There is ample urban issues need solving after war, taking into account the fact that the country are having the least GDP per capita within Eastern Europe, already the poorest region of europe. War crippled every infrastructure, devoid of any working system: government/ land ownership/source of income 2. Continuation to an urban proposal for each states. There are eight of them, which is after 30 separate/distinct municipalities organised into only 8 states under proposed decentralisation of city-states. All 8 given distinct functions to promote dissimilar competition. 3. Narrows down into one of the city-states, Ferizaj and propose urban planning for that particular city, organizing the whole urban system, how the macro concept fits within micro scale. 4. Focuses on a specific development within city planning to prove the entire Kosovo urban concept could work. 5. Scale 1:20 of detailing, since ferizaj is a media city, focus would be how the whole complex interacts to bring in employment/ as catalyst of civic significance to reverberate through entire site. Injection of character to the state, thus how treatment of envelope and system within could perform as prototype, a concept that can be re-employ throughout all states. The condition of cities at present lacks defining image, thus a series of building expressed with specific appearance (shown is prototype example)--is placed along the primary city street to provide a strong frontage as any civic buildings would. This thematic complex confronts the surrounding urban to propagate more buildings of similar language, indirectly propelling Kosovars’ existing culture of replicating perceived ‘contemporary’ beauty notwithstanding its misappropriate-ness i.e.: 4 storey house emulate high rise appearance. For every city-states, these buildings will become the first seeds of development which will grow according to prescribed themes. Operating according to their themes, i.e.: media city, cultural city, education city, heritage city, industrial city, financial/ political city, they generate a specific employment industry and income.

























This work revolves around the swallowed corridor or ‘continuous mixing chamber’, in a way it tries to emulate the traditional historical axis usually lined with monuments as seen in older capital cities; however different here that it is instead consumed by the monuments (media headquarters) when it sliced them into two portions as if positioning general users of the building as spectators and/or participants of the ‘parade’. This corridor traced its path from neighbouring Ferizaj mobility centre, a transportation hub which will become integral part of every city-states. Given that the whole development plans to provide employment for the locals, as well as become point of congregation, the corridor performs the role of communicator between programs, connecting workers from transportation hub to their workplaces, which finally ends at media corporation. All categories of users are presented with intermixing of programs and activities, time flexible. The sequence of entering the next program is abrupt, transforming the complex into an active vertical playground. Each component within the media headquarters, i.e.: institutional, educational, commercial, is equipped with their own public open space to further elaborate the sense of community that the newly independent country lacks. The city mosque is located directly next to media corporation, it is a possibility that it can contribute to the new scheme of activities inserted or per haps assimilate into becoming an indispensable part of ‘the sequence’.



















































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