Laura Pedata

Sheffield Hallam University | SHU · Department of Built Environment

Gjirokastra. Between the "UNESCO City" status and the phenomenon of "Shrinking Cities". Gjirokastra is one of the most beloved cities in Albania and beyond in the region. The city with extraordinary historical values, and with unique traditions and landscape, is rightly included in the UNESCO list. Gjirokastra has always been, and continues to b...

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. So far we have come to acknowledge that we...

Right after the local elections of 2015 in Albania, I (Besnik Aliaj) was invited in a meeting and training event with the newly elected municipal councilors and administrators of the Region of Gjirokastra, Albania, organized by the German foundation Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. During the meeting I was drawn by the remarks of Mr. Mihal Mano, the recen...

I belong to the generation of Albanians born and raised in Albania during the years of self-isolation and extreme centralized economy. Kosova has been always a very popular theme among us, not only because of what we heard in the media, in schools, or what we read in books of history and ideology, but it was highly attractive for the fact that it w...

Tourism often acquires a negative meaning, due to the numerous bad practices spread worldwide. Tourism is in fact commonly rated as one of the main causes of land exploitation, landscape consumption and local identity loss. This is also the case of Adriatic-Ionian region where the coastline is seriously damaged by touristic structures built in the...

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. So far we have come to acknowledge that we...

POLIS University publishes the “Forum A+P” – Interdisciplinary Journal of Architecture and Scientific Environment”, the only scientific and cultural magazine in the Albanian –speaking countries on the fields of architecture and territory planning. This magazine is recognized by the Ministry of Education and Science, the Academic Degrees Evaluation...

The very rapid population growth, the urbanization and the need for investments over the years have affected almost the entire city of Tirana and the surrounding municipalities. To deal with these developments, a new general local plan was approved recently. The General Local Plan proposes an “Orbital Forest” of 2 million trees as a green belt able...

The essay investigates coastline development along the southern area of the Albanian Riviera, introducing the concepts of “landscape fragments” and “landscape within a landscape” as design methodologies. By speculatively reversing the order of landscape perception from land to water, the coastline becomes a flexible device capable of responding to...

Biodiversity conservation is a vital element in keeping alive natural processes. Tirana, being the capital of Albania has developed in a very short period of time, characterized by neglected ecosystems. The idea of the project is to create a different park in topology infrastructure, nature, and technology. The Paskuqan area has lots of elements tu...

The objective of this unit is the creation of a new research dedicated to the Observatory of the Mediterranean Basin (OMB), a possible niche in the market and within the focus of the Department of Applied Research at POLIS University. Starting from the Balkan regions, the interest will be extended to all the cities that overlook the Mediterranean....

POLIS University publishes the “Forum A+P” – Interdisciplinary Journal of Architecture and Scientific Environment”, the only scientific and cultural magazine in the Albanian –speaking countries on the fields of architecture and territory planning. This magazine is recognized by the Ministry of Education and Science, the Academic Degrees Evaluation...

Background: Between 1945-1990, Albania experienced one of the harshest authoritarian regimes of the Cold War period, and was considered the “Northern Korea” of Eastern Europe. The country prohibited any form of organized religion, private initiative, and freedom of movement. No foreigners could enter the country, practically. Indeed it was consider...