The Fading Public Realm: From Expansive Open Spaces to Morphological Compression in Durres’ Rapid Urban Growth.

Abstract

Durres, located in Albania's western lowlands, has always been the main destination for internal immigration. From the early years after the Second World War, especially after the 90s, thousands of families from rural areas moved to the cities, transforming them into some of the fastest-growing areas in Albania. This wave of migration simulated rapid, mostly uncontrolled urbanization that changed the cityscape at its roots.
This study aims to analyze how open public spaces are increasingly being compressed as a result of rapid growth since the 90s. As we compare the historic map of the city of Durres, dating from 1928, with the more recent ones (2020-2025), one can notice a dramatic decrease in the percentage of open public space for inhabitants (Figure 1). This has created a strong sense of overload in the historical centre.
In 1928, Durres still had large public spaces: large squares and commercial streets that invited people to conduct their activities while serving as social spaces. These elements gave the city its identity and made it function as a city. But after the 90s, things changed rapidly; the boom of the buildings, tourist pressure, speculative real estate development, and the uncontrolled urban expansion reduced the open space ratio. And the result was a fragmented urban landscape, overloaded and increasingly less friendly to residents.
While using morphological analysis and GIS tools, this research calculates the quantitative transformations and identifies the most affected areas. This morphological compression has not eroded only the social and cultural role of the squares as public spaces – it has weakened the city’s resilience to the climate challenge and demographic growth.

Keywords: Rapid Urbanization, Public Space, Urban Fragmentation, Urban Resilience, Spatial Compression.