STORYBOARD & TEXT-COLLAGE





PROJECT OUTLINE

The site we have chosen to work on, is an EX-INDUSTRIAL area. It is located between the railway and the RIVER and also between the first and second bridge in the west. The aim of the project is to convert this area into a NEW CENTER, to contribute on giving birth to a POLYCENTRIC city, Tirana. We chose this area for its location between the center of Tirana, and Kamza. This direction is the same to the Metropolitan AXIS which is now developing and expanding toward West. Our dilemmas on the beginning were that, what precisely would happen to the ex-industrial site? What would happen to the houses near by the river?

Our strategy was to make a new analysis from the project. We divided the area in LINES (itinerary), POINTS (nodes), and SURFACE (areas). By this analysis we got the concept of the STRIPES. Our stripe will be organized as an EVENT CITY, meaning that the stripe will have several urban events spread along it. In this context the river will be an event itself, not a BORDER anymore.

Considering the dilemmas we had at first, we think we can change the CAUSE into SOLUTION itself. The ex-industrial area that has been the main problem for that site was the input. So we think that we can use only one industrial element to represent the stripes and the way that project is going to be developed. This is not only a designing element but also very significant for the HISTORY of the area. This element will be the SPACE DESIGNER and in other URBAN MOMENT will be a volume designed in SPACE. Using the STEEL as a very strong symbol might seem a very radical strategy. But our aim was to compose a scenario between UTOPIA and REALITY. Our strategy and project are merged together to transform the ex-industrial into a contemporaneous steel PLAY in the urban context.

Our scenario includes several events that are expanded all over the site. Entering the site in front of your eyes the old CHIMNEY in BRICK rises up make people feel so tiny about their measures. The main event happens in the MUSEUM building. Going out the museum toward the cinema you face a massive wall that hides the cinema building. This trick makes people curious of what is behind this huge WALL. Following the steel structure that comes out spontaneously, you are walking along the river. NO EVENT AT ALL. Keep walking and you arrive unconsciously at the small PIAZZA’S, surrounded by small shops, caffes. Behind them there is a HIGHER SILHOUETTE of the commercial &business offices. The SCALE is a key element of our project. The moving scale makes people experience many FEELINGS. Going further, LES FOLLIES (massive art works) germinate of ground. The space empty of events is just a relaxing area, where people feel free and CREATE their own events. Two lines pass tangentially to you, the tram way and the river. The river event is the GREEN BRIDGE PROMENADE. This is the element that changes river’s function from boundary in the part of the whole area. Some of the bridges hold some events. What you can see beyond is the PARK where events are spread all over the GREEN.