Urban Construction Through Destruction

Abstract
The metropolis possesses a powerful attractive force, enabling a nostalgic reflection on what it has become in relation to what it once was (Calvino, 2007). In this perspective, this paper addresses a fundamental issue of the built environment: the relationship between construction and destruction. Urban transformation does not occur solely through processes of building, but equally through acts of demolition. Cities never cease adapting to new forms of life; they grow or shrink responding to social, political, and economic forces.
This article argues that architects and urban planners tend to emphasize how cities are constructed, while devoting considerably less attention to what is erased in the process of urban development. The question lies in how and to what extent. The experience of urban evolution reveals extreme positions regarding the continuity or elimination of physical and social contexts, ranging from large-scale nineteenth-century transformations and modernist anti-city approaches to postmodern contextualism.
The paper examines the concept of “urbicide”, used by various authors, as a framework for understanding violence against architecture and the urban fabric. It argues that the rhetoric of total erasure or absolute preservation is overly simplistic and risks isolating urban contexts from the broader city and its social life. Instead, the paper advocates a view of the city as a system in evolution, shaped by transformative processes grounded in an ontology of becoming.
Tirana is analyzed as a representative case of development driven by demolition. The ongoing erasure of social and architectural contexts linked to the city’s origins—such as the Old Bazaar, religious monuments, and other key architectural landmarks—demonstrates various active and passive forms of urbicide. While politically framed as a strategy of renewal or starting anew, this paper emphasizes the need to further explore more nuanced and complex approaches beyond such extremes.

Keywords: transformation, erasure, context, urbicide, Tirana