The Mitigation of Traffic in Tirana through the Formal Reconceptualization of the City Case study of Kashar area, Tirana.

The Mitigation of Traffic in Tirana through the Formal Reconceptualization of the City Case study of Kashar area, Tirana.

Abstract
Tirana, a city devouring itself, spinning outward in circles an urban condition of congestion, collision, and expansion. At its core, the historic centre exists as a complex convergence of multiple realities: a geometric centre, a congestion centre, and a city centre all together forming a gravitational force that attracts the flow of traffic and human energy, suffocating under the weight of its own allure. Major and secondary roads radiate towards these overlapping centres like arteries in a cardiac arrest, pulsing life toward the centre but choking on its dependency. This research uncovers a counter-geometry to address these challenging urban conditions through drawing out a series of already latent circles, inscribed in Tirana’s peripheral veins, waiting to be closed. When drawn, these circles propose an alternative: a constellation of centres that are each disconnected but interdependent, forming a polycentric network. In this way, traffic flows are similar to the flow of water, redirected and absorbed, as the city expands in rings instead of lines. The project shifts focus to look more closely at the scale of one such circle, the northwest edge of Tirana where the city fractures into congestion near "Casa Italia," to answer the question: how to design a new centre? This centre partially speculative, partially inevitable does not replace the historic core but competes with it, redistributing flows and recalibrating form. Anchored by infrastructure, it intercepts suburban axes and folds into a nexus of accessibility, equilibrium, and spatial justice. Geometry collapses into form. The circle’s centre, once abstract, becomes real an urban node balancing the flow of cars, people, and potential. What emerges is a master plan, not as a blueprint but as a system a flexible form that anticipates the city’s next 50, 100, 150 years. A network of circles. A choreography of centres. Tirana no longer bends toward the singularity of its origin but radiates outward, forming an archipelago of possibilities its traffic mitigated, its form sustained, its expansion inevitable, but now logical.